ODH to develop written policy for investigating potential cancer clusters

Ohio Department of Health officials said last week that they are working on a written policy to guide how the department responses to inquiries about cancer incidence in a community (Source: “State to set cancer-cluster policy after health official’s comment,” Columbus Dispatch, June 18, 2012). 

The announcement of the development of a formal plan for deciding on investigating communities with potentially higher-than-expected cases of cancer came after Robert Indian, the department’s top cancer-control expert,  said the state should focus its resources more on promoting prevention and early detection, rather than investigating cancer clusters.

“We want to focus on primary prevention,” Indian said in a June 11 article in the Columbus Dispatch. “We want to promote people not smoking. ... We want them to be aware of chemicals in the workplace. There’s more payoff in that, and it does more good than continuing to pursue these will-o’-the-wisp things.”

However, Dr. Ted Wymyslo clarified that ODH will still respond whenever residents bring forward concerns about the incidence of cancer in a certain area. He said that at a minimum, the state always will provide data to put the cancer incidence into perspective and help determine whether there are higher-than-normal rates.