Environment:Science & Policy

I found this article on the internet that shows the highest ranking cancer clusters found in the world throughout history. It spoke about the cancer outbreak in St. Louis, Missouri where a chemical company that would process Uranium started dumping radioactive waste into a creek in the mid-1940s. Eventually this began to cause contamination in the soil and groundwater in St. Louis by the 60s, which lead to about 544 cases of people getting cancer. Similar to the other cases of cancer clusters rank in this article, it talks about how there was still no true discovery of how these people actually developed cancer and if the cause was really from these chemical. I find this interesting because I would think the repetition in the type of cancer developed, how it was discovered in the person, and the region in which this substance is found would help solve the issue; however, the research being done is not as conclusive and all these people continue to suffer.

In a 2019 article, journalist Ben Margiott revisits the mystery surrounding the outbreak of a rare, childhood leukemia cancer in the small city of Fallon, Nevada two decades ago. Out of sixteen cases, three of the children died. Despite the money and resources that went into researching the cause, the results were inconclusive; there was speculation around the water supplies in the city, but a direct cause could not be proven. Scientists working on the case seem to be in agreement that this unprecedented cancer case will most likely remain a mystery (Margiott 2019). The case of Fallon, Nevada highlights how random cancer clusters can be; the estimated chances of a cancer cluster like this happening were placed at 1 in 233 million (Margiott 2019). With no direct cause being identified, many questions that intersect science and policy are brought up - are such random cases of cancer clusters worth the money and resources of researching cause, if so many end up being inconclusive? what ...

I researched cancer cluster areas in the United States and found an article from January 22 of 2019 discussing findings from Franklin, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis. Franklin and the surrounding areas have had a reported 58 cases of childhood cancer since 2008. The cancer findings have commonly been diagnosed as a rare type of brain or blood cancer. It is believed that the cancer has been caused by underground chemicals being released from “at least one former industrial site that has a history of contamination problems” that is located near where the townspeople live, as well as two local schools. The former industrial site built electrical parts and was found responsible for releasing toxic chemicals in the city’s sewer system by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Tests were conducted to see if the carcinogenic contaminants trichloroethylene (TCE) and Tetrachloroethylene (PCE) were present. Levels of TCE were 252 times the state government’s safe...

Under the report of Zheng Gumei, I learned that the cancer rate in the villages was found to be too high in some rural areas of China. These villages are called "cancer villages" and belong to the cancer cluster. The reporters followed follow-up studies according to commissioned experts and professional journalists. The study found that villagers' crops were affected by pollution from chemical industries. The ash falls on the fruit, and the effluent comes from the upper reaches of the river to where the people live. Coupled with the investigation experts found that "sodium dichromate" is still appearing in the raw materials of those factory, and this chemical resource can cause serious cancer, the villagers tried to protest. But the factories side also showed the reason why they can continue to exist. “The pollution has accumulated for more than 10 years and cannot be solved immediately.” And the mistake was pushed to the original factories. This can justify ou...

Henry Cooke Should DDT be banned? Should DDT be banned? Yes, DDT should be banned internationally. DDT brings so many negative effects to the environment and just anything around it. For example this chemical threatens fish, wildlife and could possibly be a threat to humans, giving off fumes that could lead to cancer. Defenders of DDT argue that a ban would have a devastating effect on those who imported it to fight diseases. In the end, DDT is a hazard to the environment and should be banned.

Four cases of Ewings Sarcoma over 10 years were found in Washington Count PA. Ewings Sarcoma is rare among children and very rare for young adults. The investigation into the matter determined there was no conclusive evidence. The district includes a former radium and uranium plant that was purported to be the cause of the cancer cases. Surgeons were dubious that Ewing Sarcoma could be caused by environmental factors, as of now there no known reason why the cancer occurs. In a larger region around Pittsburgh including Washington, there were 27 cases of Ewing Sarcoma over 10 years, on average in an area the same size as the four-country region there are 8. Statistical analysis revealed that while the incidences where high, they could have occurred randomly. At least one other case was found in 2018 after the study concluded and parents of victims want further investigation.

The Toms River reading enhanced my understanding of “scientific uncertainty” because even though the people knew there was something going on, the scientist could not pinpoint exactly what was going on. There was a lot of “scientific uncertainty” because the data was not sufficient to signal what potentially could have caused people to be affected with cancer. The data was not conclusive, but it did give some indication on what could have caused cancer for those kids. Science did not provide enough clarity for the people because they were not able to obtain enough evidence to figure out what was happening and give people closure. In the reading we can the scientist struggled to interpret the data they had collected in order to make significant conclusions, their intervals were very large which negatively impacted the certainty of their conclusions.  Reid Frazier in his article, “State investigating potential cancer cluster in western Pa.; some residents fear an environmental cau...

Mesothelioma in Shipbuilders: Surveys were conducted to determine cancer rates, and they also collected various other information such as demographics, occupations, etc. One interesting thing the survey revealed is that the rates for lung cancer were unusually high among for white male residents in southern coastal areas. Further research and interviews were conducted and it was determined that shipyard working was at least partially correlated/responsible for for the cancer rates. The reason that this correlation took so long to make was because the effects of the asbestos were not immediate but almost thirty years later in which signs began to occur. Once this correlation was establish, further research was done to determine if there were similar correlations among other high lung cancer rates and shipyard building. In addition one of the difficulties in associating shipbuilding and the exposure to asbestos was because in the people who smoked, they were more likely to develop lung...

Instead of focusing on a particular city in a foreign nation, I decided to research the prevalence of cancer clusters in various U.S. states. The way states conduct their studies of cancer clusters as well as what they choose to do with the data differs greatly. I located a scientific journal article which investigates how effectively health agencies have tracked cancer clusters. Recognizing that data is often insignificant, the article determines which studies from the past 20 years (published in 2012) successfully confirmed the presence of a cancer cluster. The study’s findings greatly contribute to the question of whether or not there is enough evidence to positively link certain exposure to a specific cancer. With so many factors, proving that individual traits of a defined geographic area are the direct cause of cancer diagnoses.             The study detailed the observations and results of 428 investigations that were com...

Recently, a study in western Pennsylvania has found a coincide of cancerous tumors to be developing on people near Washington County School district. Many are believing this problem to be environmentally caused, especially because of the location of the cancer cluster. Washington, PA is located near what used to be a very coal-centered industrious culture. Near Pittsburgh, as well, Washington is is located at the hub of what was once a booming industrious landscape with the production of steel and the mining of coal. Medical records are being examined as early as 1985 to see if there is any relation to the cancer cluster that is currently forming in the area. The district was also located near an old uranium and radium plant and sources are believing that this must have something to do with the issue as well. Sources claim that at the site of the plant, nearly 200,000 tons of contaminated waste are buried and could possibly be leaking into the local ground water. This cluster is being ...

According to the research done by William F. Athas there had been a discovery of cancer clusters in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The study is being done due to an excessive rise in brain cancer in the county, which has the community highly concerned. The results from the study were compiled of information from 1970 to 1990 in Los Alamos. Cancer rates were collected for the brain, nervous system, and a variety of other types. The county rates were then compared to rates derived from a New Mexico state reference population and a national reference population.The county cancer rates during this time period was around 70% to 80%  higher than that observed in the state and national populations that were used for reference. From 1980 to 1990 all cancer rates were higher than the reference rate used from the State of New Mexico. After a review of 22 types of major cancers and childhood cancers it showed that in some instances the Los Alamos cancer rates were higher and in others they were lo...

In New Castle, Delaware, there has been a statistically higher number of residents who have developed cancer in comparison to other places in Delaware and across the country due to pollution. Residents in seven New Castle County communities including Belvedere, Cedar Heights, Dunleith, Marshallton, Newport, Oakmont, and Southbridge are at greater risk for this disease. Hazardous waste sites and factories have contributed to major pollution problems in these areas. Residents in these specified communities are known to get cancer 10 percent to 45 percent more than other Delaware communities as seen by a study done by state health officials. These percentages are significantly higher than most studies, which shows that an error in the study was unlikely. In the Middletown-Odensa census area, residents were 44.8 percent more likely to develop colorectal cancer in terms of the state average. Also, Wilmington, Delaware had a comprehensive cancer rate that was 10 percent higher than the aver...

In Cottage Grove, Minnesota, there was a fear for many years that cancer cases in the area had been caused by chemicals in the water system. These per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) were from a 3M factory that started in the 1950s. In 2017, the Minnesota state health department introduced a requirement that the chemical be at a lower level than what was found in Cottage Grove. PFAS has one of the strongest molecular bonds, meaning it doesn’t break down in the environment, and can also accumulate in people’s bodies. This type of water contamination has been found across the United States, due to military bases, fire stations, and airports that use firefighting foams, as well as factories such as the one in Cottage Grove that create the chemical. The mayor of Cottage Grove, Myron Bailey, did take action by declaring an emergency, making plans install water filters on the wells, and attempting to hold 3M responsible for the costs. 3M denied responsibility, even when Bail...

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jgh.13018 This retrospective study attempts to make sense all colorectal cancer cases in both Hong Kong and Chongqing, China. Because Chongqing, specifically, is a rapidly industrializing city, individuals have become skeptical if there is a possibility of cancer clusters in the area. This is logical when taking the Tom’s River, New Jersey scenario into account.  This study essentially compiled all cases of colorectal cancer in three different hospitals (both located in Chongqing and Hong Kong) from 2003 to 2012 and aimed to search for statistical significance with these cancer reports. Chongqing had 2,320 cases of colorectal cancer within this time frame, which accounts for 61.3% of the cancer reports in the city, making it notably common. The study also found that there is a downward trend with age and colorectal cancer in Chongqing, but not in Hong Kong. This is fairly significant because colorectal cancer is said to be an ...

I read about the rising rate of cancer in Staten Island, New York, which has consistently had the highest amount out of any other borough in New York City. Staten Island had 2,781 cases reported out of 38,838 in New York City, which accounted for 7.16 percent of all New York City cancer incidences even though only account for 5.5 percent of the city’s population. For both males and females rates were high above New York City’s average, males 13.48 percent higher and females 18.53 percent higher. The article then went into describing the different types of cancer present in that area which included: breast, pancreatic, and thyroid, which were all found to be over 10 percent higher than New York City as a whole. They ended the article by discussing various possible causes of these cancer rates, which included high smoking rates, New Jersey pollution, and landfill contamination. A comprehensive third-party study was called upon the landfill to find out what effects the dump...

Over the past couple decades, the Chinese economy has become a powerhouse of production, dominating several global industries. One of these is the chemical industry. China produces far more chemical products than any other country. However, this has the (possible) unintended effect of causing cancer among factory workers and any others who are exposed to pollution. Many of these people are poor and depend on their factory jobs to sustain them. They cannot move to avoid the effects of pollution: even though their air and water are too polluted for it to be healthy, the poor in these villages cannot afford to move, especially because they would lose their jobs. They also do not have the political means to advocate for and protect their environment. The chemical industry is very powerful in China, and Chinese leaders care more about economic wealth than personal wellbeing: as Linh Nguyen writes in her article “Cancer Villages in China,” the Chinese government supports the “grow (pollute)...

  In today’s China, along with the rapid economic development reflected on growing GDP, the number of people who developed certain illnesses caused by pollutions is also growing at an alarming rate. According to author Nguyen’s article, the research and reports on “cancer villages” in China emerged in the 1970s, however, this topic did not get enough attention until the early 2000s. After years of intensive investigation on cancer villages conducted by both local and foreign scientists, they claimed there is a clear link between the numbers of villages downstream and industrial activities upstream. Sadly, even “cancer village” crisis receives a lot of attention from the public via social media, there are still many difficulties and challenges faced by patients, owners of heavy-industries, policymakers, and environmental scientists in finding an effective and practical to mitigate this crisis. In the following passage, I will address some of the salient hinders presented in Nguyen’...

I read about research conducted on colorectal cancer in both Hong Kong and Chongqing. Researchers conducted the study over a ten-year time period using data from patients in two Hong Kong hospitals and two Chongqing hospitals. 61.3% of all cancers in Chongqing during the ten-year time period were colorectal cancer. However, there was no significant change in the distribution of cancers in Chongqing during the duration of the study. Researchers found that many people who were affected by colorectal cancer during this time were below 40 years of age. The researchers acknowledge that there was no cancer registry in Chongqing, so they were forced to only use colorectal cancer cases from the last ten years in order to gather data. They do not mention a cancer cluster specifically, but do note that in terms of gender/age, there are more instances of colorectal cancer in Chongqing than Hong Kong. This is specific for women. There is not enough evidence to support a cancer cluster. source:...

During the past several decades, lung cancer cases and mortality rates have skyrocketed in China (Fu et al., 2017). Particularly, in Shandong Province, which is the second most populated province in China with over 96 million residents. In a study that tracked the lung cancer mortality rate from 1970 to 2013, researchers presented three major findings using the Spatial Scan Statistics method (Fu et al., 2017).  First, lung cancer mortality rate in Shandong Province increased drastically between 2 time periods; 1970-1974 and 2011-2013 (Fu et al., 2017). More specifically, nearly 7.81 times from 7.22 per 100,000 person to 56.37 per 100,000 person. Second, researchers found that non-demographic factors, such as air pollution, accounted for about 97.88%, 79.65%, and 70.37% of the spike in lung cancer mortality rate in 1990-1992, 2004-2005, and 2011-2013. Third, cancer clusters have spread from the northern region to the Southwesteen region over time. This conclusion derives from t...

According to Florida Trend website, cancer is the number one killer in Florida since 2011. In “High number of cancer cases found in 2 ZIP codes, Florida Health Report Shows,” Jim Waymer writes about the data findings concerning possible cancer clusters in Florida Today . He focuses on two ZIP code areas, 32937 concerning Satellite Beach, Indian Harbour Beach, and South Patrick Shores and 32940 concerning Suntree, Palm Shores and Viera. While there are no charts in his article, he states some data on the amount of cancer cases that emerged. For instance,  within the 32937 area between 1995 and 2005, a higher than expected number of cases for bladder cancer in men (106 cases with 80 expected) and women (37 cases with 23-24 expected). Also for the 32940 area, 50 leukemia cases occurred between 1996 and 2005 when only 28-29 cases were expected. He mentions other types of cancers that affected many people within theses areas and the public response to the information. Furthermore, man...

We learned that there was a situation in Tom's River where a lot of children were being diagnosed with cancer based on a water supply. Scientists were trying to figure out if there was a specific connection between this water and the children, and lawyers wanted to help find a way to help these families and bring attention to this issue. It was interesting to us that the study was based on women who drank the polluted water when they were pregnant. Scientists wanted to study how pregnant women caused pre-natal issues for the children if they drank this water and if so how many of those children had cancer. The evidence found was good at finding a correlation; however, these results were too specific to a type of cancer and did not help with children who had a different cancerous disease.