Section 2.0: Introduction
Module 2: Maximize Data & Expert Insights
Cancer coalition partners— as well as external stakeholders— may have expressed concern about exposures to specific environmental and occupational toxicants occurring within your state.
How can these concerns be addressed in your state cancer control plan? Answering this question requires understanding current environmental issues and data locally.
This module provides data and information resources, including environmental health tracking data, to help you and your state cancer coalition better understand the nature of potential environmental and occupational cancer risks in your region. Before digging into this surveillance data, it is important to take a systems perspective to understand the dynamics influencing environmental cancer risks. This may inform additional data needs to best target intervention opportunities.
Module 3 offers scientific evidence sources to help decide if concerns identified through surveillance data and stakeholder input from Module 2 warrant action based on the strength of scientific evidence linking these exposures to a higher cancer risk.
Key Takeaways
- Identifying priority targets for environmental cancer risk reduction efforts requires taking a systems perspective on needs and opportunities.
- A range of online tools can help inform and prioritize environmental cancer risk reduction strategies.
- Engaging both technical experts and those with lived experience in impacted communities is a necessary part of identifying priority targets; the science and data alone are insufficient for this process.