Report backs pending legislation to investigate disease clusters

http://www.nature.com

• Alisa Opar

Journal name:  Nature Medicine   Volume:  17,  Page:   518  Year published:   (2011)

DOI: doi:10.1038/nm0511-518a

Published online  05 May 2011

 

In Kettleman City, California, a town of 1,620 people, 11 babies were born with severe birth defects in the last three years. Meanwhile, at least 60 men who lived on the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base in North Carolina from the late 1950s into the 1980s have developed breast cancer. And residents in Wellington, Ohio are three times more likely to develop multiple sclerosis than in the rest of the country.


A new report highlights these and 39 other so-called 'disease clusters'—defined as unusual aggregations, real or perceived, of health events grouped together in time and space—that have been confirmed or are currently being identified by a local, state or federal agency in 13 US states since 1976. The 28 March report from two nonprofit organizations, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the National Disease Clusters Alliance, calls for expanded federal efforts to identify clusters and their causes.

Sources:  http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v17/n5/full/nm0511-518a.html