Waycross cancer cluster

[Magical Realist]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbsmiI5RjM0

[C C]

Pertaining to a history of arsenic run-off into the water as one of the possibilities in those areas...

Should I worry about arsenic in my rice? (BBC, 2017): The consequences of arsenic poisoning have been seen most dramatically in Bangladesh, where populations have been exposed to contaminated drinking water. The result has been described as a "slow burning epidemic" of cancers, heart disease and developmental problems.

Because arsenic exists in soil, small amounts can get into food, though in general these levels are so low that they're not a cause for concern. Rice however, is different from other crops, because it's grown under flooded conditions. This makes the arsenic locked in the soil more readily available, meaning that more can be absorbed into the rice grains. This is why rice contains about 10-20 times more arsenic than other cereal crops. But are these levels high enough to do us any real harm?

"The only thing I can really equate it to is smoking," says Prof Andy Meharg of Queen's University Belfast, who has been studying arsenic for decades. "If you take one or two cigarettes per day, your risks are going to be a lot less than if you're smoking 30 or 40 cigarettes a day. It's dose-dependent - the more you eat, the higher your risk is."

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[Magical Realist]

I never knew arsenic was so directly related to cancer. Sounds like a good explanation for this cancer cluster, especially if all those cattle washings over the past century seeped into the ground water. They need to get Erin Brockovich on this.