raid
Dad Photographer
Thanks, Michael.
Maybe such articles will make more people aware of cancer threats.
It seems rather sad that only Florida has a state mandated pediatric tumor program which collects all data from the cancer centers. The rest of the USA depend on cancer registeries that have questionable quality for their data sets.
This will hinder more research for other states. It is very annoying and I cannot understand why there is not in every state a similar tumor program that double and triple checks for overcountiung and similar practices by cancer registeries.
What are supposed to be public access data sites turn out ot be useless for data access. I have tried and tried. The U.of Miami cancer center wants $1000 for each year of data for a "confidential data set".
Shouldn't we in 2010 have good data available to researchers? I am shocked by what I am seeing.
Maybe such articles will make more people aware of cancer threats.
It seems rather sad that only Florida has a state mandated pediatric tumor program which collects all data from the cancer centers. The rest of the USA depend on cancer registeries that have questionable quality for their data sets.
This will hinder more research for other states. It is very annoying and I cannot understand why there is not in every state a similar tumor program that double and triple checks for overcountiung and similar practices by cancer registeries.
What are supposed to be public access data sites turn out ot be useless for data access. I have tried and tried. The U.of Miami cancer center wants $1000 for each year of data for a "confidential data set".
Shouldn't we in 2010 have good data available to researchers? I am shocked by what I am seeing.
maddoc
... likes film again.
Raid, congratulations on your article and valuable achievement. On a side note, taking a mayor turn from the comfort zone in research must be very hard (Something I am thinking about to do to get a next position) but the results speak for themselves.
raid
Dad Photographer
Thanks. I became a Professor after 8 years, so I have the security to try out new things.
ampguy
Veteran
Hi John
Hi John
Rural areas have their own challenges. One of the biggest wrt cancer is water sources. 15% of all water is from private wells, and the EPA doesn't care or check on them.
Most of the Calif. bay area is sitting on toxic acknowledged superfund sites. Raw sewage still flows from the mountains to the ocean.
In 2002, Morgan Hill had about 500 private wells contaminated with Perchlorates from a defunct flare factory.
Even now, with clean city water, we user a reverse osmosis unit for our drinking water.
Hi John
Rural areas have their own challenges. One of the biggest wrt cancer is water sources. 15% of all water is from private wells, and the EPA doesn't care or check on them.
Most of the Calif. bay area is sitting on toxic acknowledged superfund sites. Raw sewage still flows from the mountains to the ocean.
In 2002, Morgan Hill had about 500 private wells contaminated with Perchlorates from a defunct flare factory.
Even now, with clean city water, we user a reverse osmosis unit for our drinking water.
raid
Dad Photographer
Only reverse osmosis can remove radioactive material from water, but it does not helpif the water ptification plant releases the drip-off to the canals that are used to irrigate the orange groves. The manager said "I did this to recycle water". Is this smart or what,
raid
Dad Photographer
I will be presenting findings at a medical symposium in San Antonio this month. Do we have RFF members there?
charjohncarter
Veteran
Good for you, but is there anyway we can read your study; online? The last time I was involved with these types of studies was in 1969. I'd like to see how they are formatted and appear in 2010.
BillBingham2
Registered User
Raid,
Great work. One way you can recover some of your costs is to keep your algorithms and data cleansing techniques. That is where the value (that someone will buy) is long term.
Sell yourself as a consultant, big monkey bucks to government and even move to law firm (read MUCH BIGGER).
Data cleansing is very hard on large data sets, that is what made Acxiom a large messed up company rather than a footnote in history.
Really excellent work.
Good luck and if I come up with any other ideas I will let you know.
B2 (;->
Great work. One way you can recover some of your costs is to keep your algorithms and data cleansing techniques. That is where the value (that someone will buy) is long term.
Sell yourself as a consultant, big monkey bucks to government and even move to law firm (read MUCH BIGGER).
Data cleansing is very hard on large data sets, that is what made Acxiom a large messed up company rather than a footnote in history.
Really excellent work.
Good luck and if I come up with any other ideas I will let you know.
B2 (;->
BillBingham2
Registered User
Raid,
Another thing, reach out to Current TV and see about doing a quick video about what you've found. They would LOVE IT!!!
B2 (;->
Another thing, reach out to Current TV and see about doing a quick video about what you've found. They would LOVE IT!!!
B2 (;->
raid
Dad Photographer
raid
Dad Photographer
I was told by some state health officer today to ... have better luck with others states when I asked for data! I guess, things are getting beyond the comfort zone. The tone used was quite defensive and maybe even insulting.
raid
Dad Photographer
Thanks, Bill. I also think that I have done enough free work for the health department. I need to get the word out that "I am here" before any grant money comes my way.
BillBingham2
Registered User
Not a shock. From my limited time in county government and dealing with the state government yes, you will hit road blocks. You are pointing something out that they did not do, but could have and should have. At the end of this path I see a root cause being identified and hopefully corrected. But along the path will be some really ugly lawsuits. You have lit the fuse that they are going to get hurt out of. Unless they thank you profusely and start action NOW.
You are so on the side of right you really need to turn up your volume. Please look at www.ted.com my second favorite place to hang out on the Internet. You have a great story to tell and that would be one place to do it.
Current.com is another place you must go. What really needs to happen is to get some students to produce two or three different videos for you. The first is the story of what you did, why you did it, the problems you had and the outcome. Perhaps ten to fourteen minutes in length. This is what you send into Current. Second is basically an edit of the first cutting it down to three minutes, just the highlights. This one goes on YouTube.com and points them to a website of yours and/or to Current for more info. Third is you giving the full boat presentation, this one is optional as you are giving away the milk (read giving it away for free).
You need to have a website that covers the info in the first video but without to much detail just now. This is where you sell the talks and perhaps the opertunity for you to train people in what you've done and perhaps how to do it.
From a grant perspective you really need to get in front of NIH or CDC. Another option is to contact the state governments and ask them for a grant and access to their data so that you can work for each state. Every state should want to fund you ASAP to get this done. If they say no then you have some interesting information for the next election for their opponent.
Another option is Oprah. This is big enough that I can reach out to an woman I've met a few times who is a producer for her. Your story is of that magnitude. You need to work through how you want to approach this to make sure as much good is done as possible but your time is reasonably covered.
This brings up such an interesting thing especially now with open source and geeks getting together to do stuff for the world. There was a group who met the weekend after Haiti to pull together some programs to help with the effort here in Chicago. Your effort brings up some interesting stuff that groups could go out and do for states or people.
While I like the NIH approach, I think Al Gore (who created CurrentTV) or Oprah would be better channels to get both the word out as well as some potential funding. I could see Oprah funding this for a much wider space. Obama might be an option as it shows the power of a standard approach to maintaining health data.
Another option is WebMD. I had a friend at the AMA some years back who talked about what a good job WebMD was doing as a source for the general public and it was something they wanted to do. This might be another great place to get the world out.
Yet another option would be the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. They are into health big time, really big time.
If you would like my help on turning up the volume on this I would be happy to. Drop me a PM with your phone number time(s) that work for you and I will call you this weekend. The only major task I have to do this weekend is some electrical work in the two rooms I did major changes on, taxes and look for a job. Kid out with scouts skiing and snowboarding till Monday so I've got a bit of time.
I did not say it but thanks for doing this. This is the stuff that Think Tanks used to do back in the 70s and early 80s. It's great to see it happen again.
B2 (;->
raid
Dad Photographer
Bill,
I sent you a pm.
By the way, if you recall the Julia Roberts movie (Erin Brokovich), the same 'Erin" is in south Florida since last summer. She is working with two law firms and the families living in the Acreage (a few miles west of West Palm Beach). You can read about the Acreage by googling it.
I sent you a pm.
By the way, if you recall the Julia Roberts movie (Erin Brokovich), the same 'Erin" is in south Florida since last summer. She is working with two law firms and the families living in the Acreage (a few miles west of West Palm Beach). You can read about the Acreage by googling it.
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raid
Dad Photographer
Thanks, Robert. One of the references we used was a similar application to portions of Italy.
raid
Dad Photographer
Hi Carter,
This is very interesting. It seems that swamps and shallow aquifers may amplify the role of some external factors
raid
Dad Photographer
Thanks. I like the mapping approach to show the big picture, while most cancer studies seem to prefer studying a very small area with known problems.
raid
Dad Photographer
My article from last year:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/multimedia/archive/00238/University_of_West__238778a.pdf
I am now in the process of writing up an article on childhood cancers and air pollution in Florida.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/multimedia/archive/00238/University_of_West__238778a.pdf
I am now in the process of writing up an article on childhood cancers and air pollution in Florida.
Olsen
Well-known
...but the frequency of cancer is not just dependant on geographical area, or water pollution, nor even air pollution alone. Social economical factors and bad habits also play a role. Like alcohol drinking, cigarette smoking, drug use, diet, life style etc. Here in Oslo we see a higher frequency of cancer in the poorer areas of the city, while large parts of the western/richer part of Oslo is spotted with a radioactive shale with an 'alarmingly' high ground radiation. Despite this, cancer frequency is lower in the 'richer' or 'more educated' part of the city - with high radioactive ground radiation. This tendency is repeated in other cities in Norway too. Poorer & less educated people have a tendency to get more cancer than the rich & educated.
dave lackey
Veteran
Yes, from a regional planning/teaching background, I can agree with this. If one looks at the overall comparison between the two demographic groups, it is amazing.
