Re: Cancer Alley

[DrBillC@aol.com]

The article itself is too long to reproduce here, but it can be obtained from
the Louisiana State Medical Society.

It is not a case-control study; it simply looks at incidence rates.  That's
why smoking can't be taken into account explicitly.  The authors acknowledge
this and (by my reading) stop short of assigning cause.  The cancers
considered were oral cavity, colon, rectum, larynx, lung, bone, soft tissue,
melanoma, female breast, uterine corpus, ovary, prostate, bladder, Hodgkins
lymphoma, and all sites.  The increases were only seen in lung and larynx;
deficits were seen scattered in the other areas.  The confidence limits
chosen were 99.99%.  The areas were South Louisiana (altogether), Acadiana,
Florida Parishes, Lake Charles area, New Orleans area and the River Parishes.

Bill Carroll
Chlorine Chemistry Council