Presentation: Using the Standard Incidence Ratio (SIR) to Investigate a Potential Link between Cancer Incidence and a Chemical Spill in North Pole, Alaska
Presented By: David O'Brien, Alaska Cancer Registry, Anchorage, AK
Location: US Fish & Wildlife Service, 1011 E Tudor Road - BRING ID
Date: September 17, 2012, 12:00 - 1:00 PM
The Alaska Cancer Registry has been working with the AK Section of Epidemiology's Environmental Public Health Program in investigating potential health risks of a sulfoland chemical spill in the town of North Pole, Alaska. A map of the delineated sulfolane plume showed that it was almost entirely contained within the North Star Borough's Census Tract 16 and is over half the size of the census tract. ACR determined the number of observed cancer cases for this census tract, calculated the number of expected cancer cases, and used the Standard Incidence Ratio (SIR) statistical significance test to determine if the difference between the two numbers was statistically significant.