Cancer cluster
A cancer cluster is an above-average clustering of cancers in a group of persons, geographical region or a period. Whether a cluster is accidental, caused by statistical spread or whether it was caused by an as yet unknown cause, is a research task of statisticians and often the subject of public discussion.
In contrast to the representation in popular films such as Erin Brockovich and A Civil Action are situations in which have caused chemical or radioactive pollution in the general population, cancer cluster, in fact rare. By far the most scientifically proven cause-effect relationships for cancer clusters relate instead occupational exposures of workers, harmful behaviors such as (tobacco smoking) or carcinogenic drugs. Environmental damage could be associated almost exclusively after massive disasters heaped with cancers of the surrounding population, such as after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the Bhopal disaster or the Sevesounglück. A counter- example in which the observed by the person affected cluster of childhood leukemia has ultimately led to the discovery of the underlying industrial emissions, in 1972 the leukemia cluster of Woburn (Massachusetts ).
The systematic search for cancer clusters has only become possible with the introduction of national population-based cancer registries. In the U.S., it falls within the remit of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; in Germany priced especially the Robert Koch Institute and the Society of Population-based Cancer Registries in Germany (yet still incomplete ) register data at the national level. Random observations of cancer clusters should be reported to those authorities to let them check for statistical significance and, if necessary, initiate a search for causes. Scientific studies of cancer clusters are difficult, expensive, and often remain inconclusive.
In public, visible exposure sources ( nuclear power plants, chemical factories and mobile transmitters) are often viewed as a trigger. The proof is difficult. The cluster can be faked (see target error, clustering illusion ), or it is caused by other than the obvious pollutant. Cancer is a multifactorial illness and cause of death known to be dependent on genetic and lifestyle factors in question; infections may also have a regional and time striking patterns of distribution.
Historic cancer cluster
Historic cancer clusters have often been discovered by the attending physicians. For example, testicular cancer among chimney sweeps in the 18th century by Percivall Pott; Osteosarcomas in the dial painters in watch factories ( " Radium Girls" ) in the 1920s by the New York dentist Theodor Blum; Skin cancer in farmers in 1712 by Bernardino Ramazzini; Bladder cancer in workers who were exposed to the dye industry certain aromatic amines, by the German occupational physicians Mengellsdorf 1947, leukemias and malignant lymphomas in chemical workers who were in contact with benzene, in 1963 by the Russian occupational physician E. Tareeff.
Cancer clusters in the vicinity of nuclear facilities
Multiple clusters of cases of leukemia in the area were described by nuclear plants. Infamous is the British Windscale reprocessing plant, where in 1957 the world's first serious nuclear accident occurred ( Windscale fire ) in which radioactive contaminants to Ireland ranged. Hundreds more, more or less serious incidents have since become known at Sellafield. In 1984 it was found that the number of cases of leukemia in the vicinity of the nuclear complex is about tenfold higher than the national average. 1997 British researchers found plutonium in the teeth of children and adolescents.
About the so-called leukemia cluster Elbmarsch is intensely debated in Germany since 1991. In the municipality Elbmarsch (Lower Saxony and the neighboring Geest Hachts (Schleswig -Holstein ), near the nuclear power plant Krummel, 19 children were diagnosed with leukemia in the years from 1986, four of them died. At the initiative of a local pediatrician, a citizens' initiative made researching forced. Subsequently the German childhood Cancer Registry (Mainz ) conducted a nationwide long-term survey of childhood cancers ( KiKK study) by. This study and then reference the Commission on Radiological Protection in 2008 came to the conclusion that an increased level of radioactive contamination of the area is undetectable and be the cluster while real but not explainable.
List of known cancer cluster
Notes:
Sources to the table:
- Capper Pass: RTZ " inferno " closes down. April 26, 1991, World Information Service on Energy
- Childhood memories of Capper Pass tinged with sadness as great spirals on. 6 June 2001 Johnston Publishing