Gerald,
Was there any resolution to the work, or is it still on-going?
Gerald Nicholls <Gerald.Nicholls@dep.state.nj.us> wrote:
Patrick Doty wrote:
The CDC appears to endorse the idea that statistically significant clusters
exist. The text below was copied from the website
http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/clusters/about_clusters.htm
I agree that the text quoted does seems to endorse the notion of "cancer clusters." This may be due, in part, to the difficulty we have in explaining such work to the public. In our experience supporting the NJ Department of Health and Senior Services investigation of childhood cancers in Dover Township (Toms River), the language initially used to describe the childhood cancer incidence was "a statistically significantly elevated incidence of childhood cancer" (based on 90 cases observed over a 20 year period when 67 were expected). Concerned residents did not respond well to this language for, I believe, two reasons:
1. It sounded like scientific gobbledygook to them.!
2. It did not acknowledge their long held belief that a cancer causing agent was present in their environment and responsible for the childhood cancers.
Facing continuing questions and complaints about the scientific language, the investigators eventually dropped that language and used the term "cancer cluster."
For those that might be interested, reports on the various studies undertaken in Dover Township are avialable on the web at
www.state.nj.us/health/eoh/hhazweb/dovertwp.htm
Gerald Nicholls
NJ Dept. of Environmental Protection
609-633-7964
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