It's official
By BECKY BROOKS
Enterprise Editor
clydenews@bizwoh.rr.com
The Ohio Department of Health has now only officially determined that Clyde and Green Creek Township are part of a cancer cluster, but the defined area now includes the northeast section of Sandusky County, a small chunk of Erie County and southeastern Ottawa County.
A spatial analysis using information on 277 pediatric cancer cases from 1996 to 2007 in eight counties was entered into a software program which generated diagrams of a cancer cluster not only in Sandusky County - but a larger regional cluster.
ODH's Dr. Robert Indian also pointed out at a press conference last week that there is a low probability that the cancers would have occurred by chance alone.
"The next step is to take this and say what is in that circle," commented Mary Dennis, a supervisor at Sandusky County Health Department, on Monday morning in the Countryside Drive office.
"It defines a better idea of where we should be looking," she added.
The regional childhood cancer cluster will mean area health departments will be working together in the future.
Nancy C. Osborn, R.N. Ottawa County Health Commissioner, said Tuesday that she has not received additional information yet from ODH as to the type of pediatric cancers that have been diagnosed in their county. She added she was not aware there were significant cases of pediatric cancers in Ottawa County that it would be included with the Clyde Cancer Cluster.
Dawn Mason, Director of Nursing for the Sandusky County Health Department, said since the announcement of the cluster information last Friday local health officials have not spoken to Ottawa County HD officials. "We'll assist the Ohio Department of Health anyway we can. We'll look to them to decide what the path can be."
Both Mason and Dennis said the information is pointing the state and county health departments in the right direction.
In the regional cancer cluster of 27 cases - 19 children are in Sandusky County and eight are in Ottawa County. No cases were identified in Erie County in the study.
Mason added that investigators have to consider if there was a solitary event or some transient event that occurred over a period of time.
ODH and the SCHD held a press conference Friday in Fremont, according to Mason.
The Clyde Enterprise and several other area media were not notified of the press conference by ODH by an oversight, county health officials reported this week.
At the press conference, Dr. Indian, the director of the ODH comprehensive cancer control, presented four different analysis reports using incidents of childhood cancer reported to the Ohio Cancer Incidence surveillance System.
Two study models reviewed the locations of 38 cases of childhood cancer in Sandusky County reported from 1996-2006. One of the models was weighted by the population center. Models indicated a circular cancer cluster reaching into northern Seneca County, covering the City of Clyde and Village of Green Springs and reaching into Fremont proper.
Another two models used 277 cases of childhood cancer reported in an eight-county area plotted on a regional map. The map included all of Sandusky, Ottawa and Seneca counties as well as portions of Erie, Huron, Lucas, Wood and Hancock counties.
ODH officials looked for clustering first by a geographic center and then weighted by population center.
"What they found was basically was evidence for two clusters in Sandusky County in the eastern portion," according to Dennis.
The four analysis suggested that there is cancer clustering, Dennis said. "This really does show we do have a cluster here."
The next steps for the Sandusky County Health Department are to await a report from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency on known industrial sites, landfills and old dumps in the county - due to be released within the next week.
Mason and Dennis will also begin the summer long process of investigating and compiling information on county fetal mortality, birth defects, low birth weight, and infant deaths.
|
