‘Town wrongly thinks it has higher cancer risk’

Research in the Cork Harbour region has shown people living in the Cobh area believe they are at a greater risk of cancer because of a nearby chemical dump — even though no evidence exists to support those beliefs.

Fears of a cancer cluster in the wider Cobh area emerged four-and-a-half years ago when an estimated 500,000 tonnes of chemical waste from a former steel plant was found on Haulbowline Island, just south of the East Cork town of Cobh. The waste contained traces of chromium-six, a carcinogen.

There were calls for a baseline health study to be completed after National Cancer Registry figures showed that between 1994 and 2007, the town of Cobh had a cancer rate 37% higher than overall Irish figures. The National Cancer Registry said these figures can’t be linked to the dump at Haulbowline.

However, researchers believe the “perceived environmental hazard” at Haulbowline has led people to think incorrectly that they are now at a greater risk of cancer.

Door-to-door questionnaires demonstrated how, even though the West Cork town of Bandon has a rate of cancer identical with Cobh, people living in Cobh believe they are at a greater risk. The researchers described this elevated perception risk as “statistically significant”.

According to the author, the research suggests that cancer risk perception is elevated in the presence of a prominent environmental hazard and that a gap exists between real and perceived cancer risk when there is an environmental hazard in an area.

“Our study also uncovered statistically significant correlations between level of satisfaction with information on local cancer rates; level of motivation to have local cancer rates investigated; and cancer risk perception.

“These correlations suggest that as level of satisfaction with information on local cancer rates decreases, the level of cancer risk perception increases. Furthermore, as cancer risk perception rises, so too does the level of motivation to have local cancer rates investigated.

“These findings have implications for public health and health promotion suggesting as they do that resources should be allocated upstream to cancereducation in the community, rather than towards expensive cancer cluster investigations,” Dr Antoinette O’Connor said.

The study was part of Dr O’Connor’s fourth-year medic-ine project, completed under the supervision of Dr Harry Comber of the National Cancer Registry of Ireland, and submitted to the Department of Epidemiology.