Cancer health concern for Fort Chipewyan.Limiting the collection of data to those who resided in Fort Chipewyan Fort Chipewyan (chĭpəwī`ən), trading post, NE Alta., Canada, at the west end of Lake Athabasca. The old Fort Chipewyan, on the south shore, was built for the North West Company at the urging of Alexander Mackenzie in 1788. has skewed skewed curve of a usually unimodal distribution with one tail drawn out more than the other and the median will lie above or below the mean. skewed Epidemiology adjective Referring to an asymmetrical distribution of a population or of data the findings of Alberta Health Services' report on cancer cases in the community 600 km northeast of Edmonton. And with that claim, the Nunee Health Board is insisting that its name be removed from the final report. "We did not endorse the study. We were not an active partner in it," said Claudia Simpson, health director of the Nunee Health Board. The report indicated that there are 30 per cent more cases of cancer in Fort Chipewyan than cancer officials had expected. But Simpson said if the number of Fort Chip patients seeking medical treatment outside of the community was taken into consideration--as the Nunee Health Board had recommended--that statistic would be even higher. "We do have those (additional) numbers, but we're unable to disclose them at this time," said Simpson. Despite appeals by the board that the study be conducted on a case by case basis, highly practical because of the small population of the community, the researcher decided to use Fort Chip's postal code Noun 1. postal code - a code of letters and digits added to a postal address to aid in the sorting of mail postcode, ZIP code, ZIP code - a coding system used for transmitting messages requiring brevity or secrecy to track results, said Simpson. "It was the expert opinion of the researcher on the methodology (to be used) and what would get the most results and how we would be able to compare it to other populations," explained Lee Elliott, director of public relations public relations, activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most and communications for the Alberta Cancer Board of Alberta Health Services health services Managed care The benefits covered under a health contract . Elliott also noted that the methodology was found sound by independent peer reviewers from Austalia, New Zealand New Zealand (zē`lənd), island country (2005 est. pop. 4,035,000), 104,454 sq mi (270,534 sq km), in the S Pacific Ocean, over 1,000 mi (1,600 km) SE of Australia. The capital is Wellington; the largest city and leading port is Auckland. and the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . Researchers found that 47 residents with Fort Chip postal codes This list shows an overview of postal code notation schemes for all countries that use postal/ZIP codes: Key
In a news release issued by Alberta Health Services, senior official Dr. Tony Fields said that Fort Chip residents had no reason to be alarmed. The statement comes as no surprise to Simpson. "It was exactly what we anticipated them to say," she said, and that was why the health board requested that Alberta Health Services not release the findings of the report. "They undermined us by not counting the statistics as we had recommended." The latest statement from Alberta Health Services regarding cancer numbers in Fort Chip was made in February, but Simpson pointed out that the same report was initially released in 2008. Field's latest statement is based on revisiting the report "to ensure everything had been counted," said Simpson. "They're essentially saying the same thing. They're saying the prevalence of cancer is the same throughout Alberta." "Looking at these numbers, there is no cause for alarm," reiterated Elliott. But Simpson's concerns aren't only centred on how the data was collected but also when the data was collected. As far as she's concerned, 51 cases of cancer over a 10 year period should not be used as a baseline for future studies. "If an 80-year-old Elder is saying, 'I've never seen this kind of cancer in my lifetime, now I'm seeing it the last 20 years and that the young people are dying of cancer,' it says something. We should have a retroactive Having reference to things that happened in the past, prior to the occurrence of the act in question. A retroactive or retrospective law is one that takes away or impairs vested rights acquired under existing laws, creates new obligations, imposes new duties, or attaches a study, looking back, not looking forward," said Simpson. But in moving ahead, Alberta Health Services has indicated that Fort Chip will continue to be monitored for cancer cases. What form that monitoring will take is not yet clear and will be based on discussion with the community, said Elliott. The Alberta Cancer Board will also continue to track Fort Chip cancer cases. "We want to see if this is an anomaly or a trend going on that needs further investigation," said Elliott. Claudia Simpson, health director of the Nunee Health Board, pointed out that if Albertans are willing to accept a 30 per cent higher than anticipated rate for cancer across the province that doesn't mean that Fort Chip residents are willing to do the same. While the report doesn't pin down the cause of the cancers in the community, environment is one of the factors, said Simpson, noting that the community is in the midst Adv. 1. in the midst - the middle or central part or point; "in the midst of the forest"; "could he walk out in the midst of his piece?" midmost of industrial development which includes oil sands 250 km upstream, as well as uranium mining Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the ground. As uranium ore is mostly present at relatively low concentrations, most uranium mining is very volume-intensive, and thus tends to be undertaken as open-pit mining. and pulp mills A pulp mill is a manufacturing facility that converts wood chips or other plant fiber source into a thick fiber board which can be shipped to a paper mill for further processing. . Along with environmental exposure the report recommended analyzing other risk factors such as lifestyle, family history and occupational exposures. By Shari Narine Windspeaker Writer |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion