Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #117281

Robin Streeter, MS, MPH¹, Shannon Brown, PhD¹, Norma Fox Kanarek, PhD², Beth A. Resnick, MPH¹, Mary A. Fox, PhD, MPH¹, and Thomas A. Burke, PhD, MPH¹. (1) Health Policy and Management, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, 624 N. Broadway, Room 484, Baltimore, MD 21205, 4432870848, rstreete@jhsph.edu, (2) Environmental Health Sciences, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, 615 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205

The Johns Hopkins Center for Excellence in Environmental Public Health Tracking has established a multi-disciplinary cancer team to work with practitioners to develop, analyze and display cancer information (including hazard, exposure, and outcome data) in response to local concerns. The team assesses potential local cancer excesses by analyzing spatial/temporal trends in cancer occurrence, deriving population exposure estimates, and developing epidemiological and spatial statistics algorithms. The presentation describes this integrated approach and highlights three specific areas of research: (1) Maryland county cancer risks are estimated using annual average ambient air concentrations from EPA′s 1996 National Air Toxics Assessment Program for known/probable human carcinogens. Estimated risks are compared to incidences of selected environmental cancers, including bladder cancer, liver cancer, lung cancer, and leukemia. Potential associations between cancer and pesticides are also examined using Maryland Department of Agriculture data; (2) Arsenic levels in groundwater used for drinking water in eastern Maryland are characterized through a rigorous sampling program coupled with spatial statistical analysis to predict arsenic levels at unsampled locations. This information is linked to Maryland Cancer Registry data for bladder and lung cancers to assess potential associations between arsenic exposure and cancer mortality; and (3) Applying statistical tools within an epidemiological framework, an algorithm for investigating apparent local excesses is developed for bladder, liver, and lung cancers. Supplemental information about local environmental exposures and risk factors is integrated into the algorithm as appropriate. The algorithm′s ability to identify unique hazards, exposures or populations at risk is then tested using Maryland data.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify sources of hazard, exposure and outcome data that may be useful in assessing local excesses of environmentally-related cancers
• Describe how spatial statistical analysis may be used to estimate potential exposures
• List several types of information that may be used to help identify populations at risk for environmentally-related cancers

Keywords: Environmental Exposures, Cancer

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.