§280g–17 Designation and investigation of potential cancer clusters

Summary

The Secretary must make clear rules for spotting and labeling possible cancer clusters and must explain key words: "cancer cluster" means more cases than expected in a group, place, and time; "particular cancer" means one cancer type or cancers proven to have the same cause; "population group" means groups used to count rates, like by race, age, or gender. The rules must cover how to tell when cancer numbers are higher than normal, make sure the cases are the same cancer type, account for which people are included, set fair map boundaries, and set the time span to count cases. The Secretary, working with the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists and state and local health officials, must publish and update investigation guidelines that use those rules, follow the best science, weigh the evidence, and give standard ways to review and categorize data and use proper epidemiology methods. The Secretary must talk with state and local health departments about whether to investigate a possible cluster and can choose which cases to study first based on available resources. Investigations must be coordinated with other HHS parts and other federal agencies like the EPA and must use biomonitoring data such as the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The Secretary must keep trained staff ready to help, keep expertise in areas like epidemiology, toxicology, data analysis, environmental health, exposure assessment, and community outreach, involve the community as appropriate, keep records and share reports about investigations and actions taken, and offer technical help through programs like CDC’s Epi-Aids and ATSDR’s Assessments of Chemical Exposures.