Despite their best efforts, scientists can't prove the connection between industrial plants emitting noxious chemicals and geographical outliers in cancer numbers.
Excerpt:
Critics say there was a key flaw in the registry’s study: It looked at county-wide numbers, a data set large enough to subsume and hide the high number of cancer-stricken residents living right near the coal ash pond. This deficiency is representative of a larger problem that characterizes most attempts to uncover what’s behind suspected but unconfirmed geographical cancer clusters: Often, researchers can’t get the granular data they need forproof. “With environmental exposures, it’s much more difficult to measure at the individual level,” says Hal Morgenstern, a University of Michigan epidemiologist who studies cancer clusters. “Even with people living in the same neighborhoods, some may be exposed while others aren’t.”









