Cancer Cluster Duck
Terry on Jul 27th 2012
From
PEEReview:
A Publication of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility
Summer 2012, p11.
Robert Indian, chief of the Ohio Health Department comprehensive cancer-control program announced that his office will no longer investigate cancer clusters: “We want to focus on primary prevention; people not smoking; be aware of chemicals in the workplace. There’s more pay-off in that and it does more good than continuing to pursue these will-o’-the-wisp things.”
While not discounting prevention and admitting that cancer clusters can be dif- ficult to prove, many experts believe the state should do both. Dr. Richard Jackson, chair of environmental health sciences at UCLA said “Cancer clusters rarely pan out with an environmental cause, but it is an ill-advised health official who dismisses all of them without at least a bit of a look.” For example, at least the state should do some data analysis, Dr. Jackson added.
Nevertheless, Indian plans to stick with what he calls his “very 21st-century” approach of non-involvement.
