Cancer Cluster Blog (Witt Welch)

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 lower than the reference population. However, there is no conclusion on how the number of individuals with cancer has gone up steadily in the past couple of decades because there is still a possibility of it being a coincidence. In Tom’s River they found the a chemical substance in two wells which linked the incident to an explanation. In Los Alamos there is not enough evidence to link the rise in cancer rates to any specific source of the problem.

Source:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/80b7/f9791bf4e47ce51ad646548874f5799fd892.pdf 

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