(a) Breast cancer is a devastating health condition which will affect one out of nine American women during their lifetimes. Every three minutes a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer and every 12 minutes a woman dies of breast cancer. In 1992, 182,000 women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 46,300 will die from the disease. In 1992, nearly 19,000 California women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 7,000 will die from the disease. Periodic mammography screening has reduced breast cancer mortality by almost 50 percent. Nearly 15 percent of early tumors are not detected on mammograms. Thirty percent of all tumors found on mammograms are missed due to poorly performed or misinterpreted tests. The direct and indirect costs concerning a breast cancer diagnosis exact a huge economic toll of eight billion dollars ($8,000,000,000) a year, with the impact on the health system, the loss of worktime, the loss of women employees and lives lost to a disease that bankrupts families emotionally and economically.