Women who live near hazardous waste sites may face a heightened risk of aggressive breast cancer, raising urgent questions about how environmental exposures deepen existing racial health disparities. Researchers at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center in Miami report that women living in the same census tract as a federally designated Superfund site were about 30% more likely to be diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, including hard-to-treat triple-negative disease. These toxic sites are often clustered in communities already burdened by social adversity and fewer health-promoting resources, conditions that disproportionately affect many Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in the United States.
Using highly granular neighborhood data from South Florida, the team linked proximity to Superfund sites and exposure to fine particulate pollution, known as PM2.5, to higher risks of triple-negative breast cancer, a subtype that is more common and more deadly among women of color. In a separate study of 80 Miami patients, researchers found that women from neighborhoods with fewer resources were more likely to show tumor biomarkers tied to more aggressive cancers, creating a molecular “fingerprint” of environmental and social deprivation inside the tumor itself.
Community members living near one Superfund site first sounded the alarm, telling investigators they feared that “where they lived was making people sick.” Their concerns helped launch a multidisciplinary effort that is now revealing how pollution, neighborhood deprivation, and cancer biology intersect to shape unequal outcomes — and why, for many minority communities, zip code still acts like a carcinogen.
See: “Living near toxic sites linked to aggressive breast cancer” (October 13, 2025)
