I work in an area they have determined to have a cancer cluster

Lovemy3kids

what to do with this information?

https://patch.com/illinois/libertyville/s/gjoaz/cluster-of-cancer-risk-caused-by-2-lake-county-sites?utm_term=article-slot-1&utm_source=newsletter-daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

Anonymous

I'm thinking that you can't do anything yet, but there may be a class action suit filed in the future. It says no laws have been violated--but it sounds like this is still in early stages. You could share this information with your medical team, including your MO, so they have it on record and see what they say at your next appointment.

I'm a downwinder and it took thousands of other downwinders and about 20 years to get the US government to agree they harmed citizens with the nuclear tests outside of Las Vegas in the 50s and 60s, but now we have the RECA and all of us that were downwind of the fallout can file for compensation if we wind up with particular types of cancers (b.c. was on the list). I got my token payment. I was 3 and affected by the fallout in Northern Arizona.

Claire in AZ

LimnoGal

First, realize that this is a modeling exercise done using available information from public databases and health-protective assumptions. No actual cancer cases have been identified.

Warning-tedious, nerdy explanation: This exercise took TRI data on releases from a facility, combined that with meteorological data from the area to model an air concentration. The modeled air concentration is then used to calculate the dose that a person might receive if they lived in the area and breathed that air over a long period of time (24 hours per day over 30 years to a lifetime), which is then combined with known toxicity information to determine the potential cancer risk. Areas where the determined cancer risk exceeds 1 excess cancer in 10,000 to 1,000,000 exposed individuals are considered unacceptable. For comparison, in the US, approximately 1 in 3 people will develop cancer at some point in their life (don’t we know that!). End of tedious, nerdy explanation.

Second, you can arm yourself with knowledge. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registries has a fact sheet on ethylene oxide (https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/PHS/PHS.asp?id=732&tid=133) which provides health information for the public. If you are feeling adventurous, they have a tox profile which summarizes the available research (https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp.asp?id=734&tid=133).

And finally, I wouldn’t worry toomuch about it.

Lovemy3kids

wowzer that’s a lot of really good information!

You ladies are great at helping us work it out.

I so appreciate this expl