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Scenario: A mother living near your home mentions that her son has
recently been diagnosed with leukemia. "That's odd," you say: "I know two
other people in our neighborhood who also have leukemia." Suddenly, the two
of your start making enquiries, and discover that your neighborhood seems to
have a disproportionate number of leukemias. You alert your public
health dept, expecting an investigation.
At about the same time, the drinking water in your home town is shown to be
contaminated by a pair of wells (out of a total of eight). A glance at the
map shows that they are in close proximity to your neighborhood.
Questions:
- How would you address the issue of whether or not the perceived
excess is, in fact, excessive?
- Is the close physical proximity of the wells a "smoking gun",
implicating the wells in disease? (Is exposure measured "as the crow
flies"?)
- Does the contamination of wells have anything to do with leukemia, or
could it be the nuclear power plant that sits next to your elementary
school?
- Have you checked out our grabber?
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