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Love Canal Follow-USudy Summary

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In 1995, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a settlement agreement of its Love Canal lawsuit against Occidental Chemical Company on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)25. The agreement included a $3 million fund for follow-up health studies of Love Canal residents and the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) was charged with administering the fund25. New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) was responsible for conducting the follow-up study. This was a big study called Love Canal Follow-up Health Study which consisted of 4 smaller studies focusing on reproductive outcomes, cancer incidence, blood serum investigations, and mortality rates47, 58-60. These four studies used the same study group which were the Love Canal residents (both homeowners and renters). The control groups were those who lived in New York State and/or Niagara Falls County25. The study group of this follow-up study consisted of 6,181 Love Canal residents that were the same group of residents (or their children) who were interviewed between 1978 and 1982 by NYSDOH52. The inclusion criteria were adults over the age of 18 and had lived in the Love Canal area25. The interviews recorded their …show more content…

However, the limitations were limited data from those who agreed to interview only, but data from those who died before 1978 could not be included25. Also, the investigators did not know what chemicals the residents were exposed to before the time of interview25. Health outcomes were obtained from health registries and doctors’ and hospitals’ reports submitted to New York State, so there were small number of events for some outcomes of interest, such as birth

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