February 17, 2005 Health Review Shows Some Cancer Rates Higher, Some Lower in Cow Island AreaNo significant difference for most arsenic-related cancers

- A statistical review by the Louisiana Department of Health and the Louisiana Tumor Registry shows some cancer rates in the Cow Island area to be higher and some to be lower when compared to similar cancer rates in Vermilion Parish and throughout the state.
 
A comparison among three zip codes in the region, including the zip code in which Cow Island is located, showed no consistent pattern of higher rates for arsenic-related cancers.


In a meeting Thursday in Cow Island, Dr. Raoult Ratard, state epidemiologist, said the overall conclusion is there is no statistical difference for the overall combined cancer rate in Cow Island when compared to cancer rates at the parish and state level.

The review was conducted after Cow Island residents raised concerns that arsenic in private water wells in the area might cause cancer. Testing by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality in 2004 showed that of 25 water wells sampled in Cow Island, four were found with levels of arsenic above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s limit of 10 parts per billion (ppb). 

The Tumor Registry provided LDH with 10 years of cancer data from Vermilion Parish, focusing on three zip codes in that region, one of which was Cow Island. The data were used to compare the parish rates to state rates and to compare the three zip codes’ rates with each other.

“In summary, the cancer data reviewed showed that there was no increased cancer risk that could be linked to arsenic in Cow Island’s drinking water,” said Ratard.

The review also noted no significantly higher rates overall when studying the types of cancer associated with arsenic exposure --- urinary bladder, kidney and liver.

-end-
 

Cow Island Environmental & Health Concerns
Fact Sheet

Comparison of cancer rates between Vermilion Parish and the state of Louisiana showed:

To investigate the concerns about cancer rates, data from the Louisiana Tumor Registry (LTR) were used to both compare Vermilion Parish rates to state of Louisiana rates and the rates from three zip codes in the region (one including Cow Island) with each other.

These types of comparisons are useful to identify effects in large populations; however, they are not precise enough to detect small changes in cancer rates that involve only a few people.

The Louisiana Tumor Registry (LTR) “has submitted five years (1996-2000) of data and passed rigorous criteria for each year’s data including completeness of reporting, non-duplication of records, percent unknown in critical data fields, percent of cases registered with information on death certificates only, and internal consistency among data items” (American Cancer Society, Cancer Facts and Figures 2004).  Only 26 states met this high level of quality in 2004.

Demographic and cancer information provided to the Louisiana Department of Health (LDHH) by the residents of Cow Island on 270 community members is being reviewed by the Louisiana Tumor Registry (LTR) and Louisiana Office of Public Health (LOPH) to confirm how many self-reported cases matched those in LTR’s database.
 

Surgeon General Ralph L. Abraham, M.D.

Secretary Bruce D. Greenstein

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