Statistical cancer increases can be measured without establishing their cause.

Evidence

In Woburn, deaths from all cancers had increased by 17 percent during a five-year period in the mid-1970s. The incidence of leukemia in particular, and to a lesser extent kidney cancers, was alarming. “Even though cancer seems to be on the increase in Woburn,” wrote Ryan, “there is no way of knowing if that increase is due to the toxic wastes found in north Woburn.” — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 163

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the correspondence problem in epidemiology: rates rise, attribution lags. Links to the causation-versus-correlation themes in the Trust essays and Milgrom’s information-cost work. — connects to: Cancer clusters can be dismissed as random coin-flip groupings. — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action , 879
• SEED: Angle: ‘The 17 Percent Problem’ — why the first credible cluster study can never prove what the neighbors already believe.