When Is a Health Outcome Data Evaluation Conducted?

Exercise

Review the characteristics below for the Oak Estates site and determine whether a health outcome data evaluation should be conducted. Before making this determination, review the resource information available at the bottom of this screen.

The following characteristics related to Oak Estates have been established:

• The site is a 30-acre trailer park, a portion of which was built on a former landfill.
• In 1962, residents began moving in as the first phase of construction was completed.
• All of the residents are retirees, and most of them are in their 60s.
• Residents have expressed a concern about the number of people in their community who are getting cancer
• The county is known to maintain birth and death certificates and a cancer incidence registry.

Other information the health assessor discovered when evaluating how people at Oak Estates were contacting chemicals and whether contact with the chemicals was at levels that could cause harm include the following findings:

• Oak Estates residents who garden are contacting arsenic and Aroclor 1254 in soil.
• The exposure doses to residents contacting arsenic and Aroclor 1254 in soil are below levels associated with noncancer and cancer health effects.

The health assessor would not recommend conducting a health outcome data evaluation because the health assessor has not been able to establish that residents are contacting site chemicals at levels associated with noncancer illnesses, and residents are not at increased risk of developing cancer as a result of their exposure.

While ATSDR considers community health concerns, it no longer uses community concerns as a primary decision step in deciding to conduct a health outcome data evaluation.

A health outcome data decision tree is available to health assessors to help them determine when evaluating health outcome data for a site or community would be useful.

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