Bender A P, Williams A N, Sprafka J M, Mandel J S, Straub C P
Section of Chronic Disease and Environmental Epidemiology, Minnesota Department of Health, Minneapolis 55440.
Am J Public Health. 1988 Mar;78(3):287-90. doi: 10.2105/ajph.78.3.287.
Episodes of public water supply contamination with industrial or agricultural chemicals frequently give rise to public concerns about adverse health effects. These concerns may precipitate epidemiologic or clinical investigations requiring large expenditures of state and federal resources regardless of whether such investigations are justified by scientific criteria. An alternative is a comprehensive feasibility study, utilizing all available information to determine whether large-scale studies are warranted or feasible. At a relatively modest cost, a feasibility study allows health officials to identify information needs and deficiencies, outline potential study options and costs, clearly establish the rationale for a proposed study or, conversely, prevent unwarranted expenditures of public resources. Furthermore, a feasibility study may in itself resolve many community and scientific concerns. This article provides a case study of the usefulness of a formal feasibility study in a situation involving an elevated cancer rate and contaminated municipal water supply wells surrounding a federal superfund site.
公共供水受到工业或农业化学品污染的事件常常引发公众对健康不良影响的担忧。这些担忧可能促使进行流行病学或临床调查，这需要耗费大量州和联邦资源，而不论此类调查是否符合科学标准。另一种选择是进行全面的可行性研究，利用所有可用信息来确定大规模研究是否必要或可行。以相对适度的成本，可行性研究能让卫生官员识别信息需求和不足，概述潜在的研究方案和成本，明确提出拟议研究的理由，或者相反，防止公共资源的不必要支出。此外，可行性研究本身可能会解决许多社区和科学方面的担忧。本文提供了一个案例研究，展示了正式可行性研究在涉及癌症发病率升高以及围绕联邦超级基金场地的市政供水井受污染的情况下的有用性。
