2007.12.10 – Federal Officials Discrediting Cancer Study

http://www.dogflu.ca/12102007/07/federal_officials_discrediting_cancer_study

Federal Officials Discrediting Cancer Study

It is being reported that federal and state officials are discrediting a study to be released today, that found that an environmental factor played a role in increased cases of a rare blood cancer in people living in Tamaqua and other areas in Schuylkill and Luzerne counties.

The Agency for Toxic Substances is stating that data that was used in the study was inaccurate, thus the findings of the study are also inaccurate.

The entire study is based on environmental factors stemming from illegal dumping at a Kline Township site in the 1970s.

An abstract of the report has been available for weeks, one that claims that the high local rate of a rare blood disease was caused by chemicals at McAdoo Associates, once one of the top federal Superfund sites in the nation.

Officials state that the abstract was mistakenly released, and that no direct link had been established between the toxic chemicals and an increased blood cancer rate.

“Lack of traditional epidemiological explanations and the high degree of statistical certainty for the geographical association of the cases strongly suggests that an external influence led to the development of PV,” the abstract reads.

The abstract is to be presented by Dr. Ronald Hoffman of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York at a conference Monday at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

“We’re going to have to retract the abstract to correct the record because it is erroneous information,” said Steve Dearwent, chief of health investigations for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the federal agency that oversaw the study. “It was preliminary and hadn’t been vetted, and unfortunately it got submitted unbeknownst to most people here.”

The type of cancer is known as polycythemia vera, which is a blood cancer that is brought about by the massive production of all blood cells, especially red blood cells.
By Administrator at 2007-12-10 13:08 | Health | News