Abstract:
|
The objective is to investigate childhood cancer mortality and toxic release statistics in the Midwest, using innovative geographical information and exploratory analyses. The methods are being developed to meet the needs of environmental indicators development project, to better integrate health and environmental data for schools initiatives and to meet public and community groups requests to take fuller advantage of pollution prevention opportunities. The environmental statistics come from the counties with the highest rates of childhood cancer over more than 40 years and from toxic release data spanning more that a decade. Particular care is given to caveats and data quality for the time period of comparable health and environmental statistics. Environmental indicators are selected based on chemicals with known carcinogenic, genotoxic, immunotoxic, and bioaccumulation potential, without regard to assumptions on direct cause and effect. The focus is on developing geographically specific tools to highlight prevention opportunities. Overall, the project fosters better integration of health and environmental statistics for addressing multiple community and stakeholder concerns.
|