[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
RE: Cancer clusters
I think cancer cluster provide a useful function in generating a source of
income for epidemiologists. Or those who have a issue to push on the
public.
-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
3050 Traymore Lane
Bowie, MD 20715-2024
E-mail: jenday1@email.msn.com (H)
-----Original Message-----
From: Gibbs, S Julian [mailto:s.julian.gibbs@vanderbilt.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2002 11:48 AM
To: Radsafe Mail list
Subject: Cancer clusters
The frequency of cancer cases, as all random events, obeys Poisson
statistics. This not only allows, but it predicts, that clusters
will occur. For example, let us say that the mean annual number of
new cancer cases in a village of a certain size is 10. The Poisson
equation then shows that approximately one such village in 500 will
have 20 or more new cases per year. Not at all unreasonable!
It is necessary to determine the probability of existence of a
cancer cluster from random statistics before searching for a
specific cause.
************************************************************************
You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,
send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu Put the text "unsubscribe
radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line.
You can view the Radsafe archives at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/