How has the GIS been used in Silent Spring Institute’s Cape Cod Breast Cancer and Environment Study?
Pesticides have been widely used on Cape Cod for many decades. For the Cape Cod Breast Cancer and Environment Study, Silent Spring Institute researchers located and compiled Cape pesticide data from 1940 to 1990. Efforts were made to include the geographic area sprayed, the time period during which it was sprayed, the type of pesticide that was used, and the active ingredients of that pesticide. Other data—such the location of former cranberry bogs where pesticides would have been used—were re-created using land-use maps from 1951 to 1990. The GIS was used to show the locations and timeframes of chemical pesticide use for each town on the Cape. This information was used to compile a residential history of the Cape Cod Study participants to estimate their exposure to chemicals during the time they spent living on the Cape.
