Re: Cancer clusters

["ruth_weiner" <ruth_weiner@email.msn.com>]

Re Love Canal:

In 1978 or 1979 (I forget the exact year) an excellent article appeared in
SCIENCE on the question of Love Canal.  This was a "report" (i.e., refereed)
and not a news article.  The authors looked at a dozen different types of
cancer, at 10-year and 20-year exposures, and reported no incidence of any
cancer that was statistically significantly greater than expected in the
population quite a few had less than expected incidence).  Since I was
teaching an "introduction to pollution" course at WWU at the time, I was
very interested and used the article when discussing epidemiology with the
class.

I have not seen any study on Love Canal as detailed as this, nor am I aware
of any study in a refereed journal that refutes the conclusions of this one.
As I used to tell the students: the fact that you don't see excess cancers
is not a reason or excuse to leak pollutants into people's basements, and
there is no question that the chemical industries were at fault, but "Love
Canal" is not shorthand for carcinogenesis.

Ruth Weiner
ruth_weiner@msn.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Norman & Karen Cohen <norco@bellatlantic.net>
To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Monday, August 14, 2000 9:11 AM
Subject: Re: Cancer clusters


>Mr Holloway -
>
>I don't have the answer to your question. Offhand, Love Canal would seem to
be
>one that would fit. I'll run this by the NJ Environemental Federation and
see
>what answer I get. Edith G might know more, living in Toms River. I've just
>followed this issue by newspaper, since most of my activism is focused on
nuke
>weapons, peace and Salem Nukes.
>
>norm
>
>Holloway3@aol.com wrote:
>
>> .  Now to the question that I would like to pose to the
>> activists:
>>
>> Has any cancer cluster in the United States ever been conclusively linked
to
>> an installation or cause of any type?  If so, please provide details.  If
>> not, do you really think that the Toms River "Cancer Cluster" will be the
>> first to have a definite cause?
>>
>> R. Holloway
>> holloway3@aol.com
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Chapin
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>
>
>
>
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