Remote Sensing Suggest Link Between Light at Night and Breast Cancer

Thursday, February 21. 2008

Remote Sensing Suggest Link Between Light at Night and Breast Cancer

Update: Here are the details, via the Washington Post

"By no means are we saying that light at night is the only or the major risk factor for breast cancer," said Itai Kloog, of the University of Haifa in Israel, who led the new work. "But we found a clear and strong correlation that should be taken into consideration."

The report is in this week's online issue of the journal Chronobiology International.

--------minimalist original post --------

"Using NASA satellite imagery to plot high emissions of light at night, researchers found breast cancer rates were as much as 60-percent higher in high-light areas than in darker ones."

- NBC 12, Virginia

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Remote Sensing at 07:51 | Comments (6)

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The article doesn't source who the "experts" and "researchers" are. Perhaps the relationship is due to there being 60 percent more population in areas with a lot of lights!

#1 Anonymous on 2008-02-21 19:10 (Reply)

This one is a bit on the far fetched side... and conjures up bad memories of that movie "Enemy of the State." I didn't realize that remote sensing could analyze light levels in my bedroom.

I bet that the same 'risk factor' analysis would show that people who live in 'higher light' areas earn more income per capita than those who don't, that they are less likely to eat vegetables from home gardens, and that they have more indoor-only cats. Hmm... I'd better go make sure my streetlight is working.

Wow... sorry to be so harsh... this is a bad combination of poorly interpreted statistics and 'cool' technology.

#2 Chris A on 2008-02-22 01:52 (Reply)

Indeed, I agree with Chris A: There are many, many confounding factors that could be at work here, far more plausible. For instance, high light concentrations may correlate with high breast cancer rates because they correlate with urban areas, and, so, with groundwater contamination, or with industrial pollutants, or with automobile exhaust. This is one of the kinds of things that Paulos rightly rants against.

#3 Jan Theodore Galkowski (Link) on 2008-02-22 07:36 (Reply)

Ding ding ding, we have a winner.

#3.1 Daniel (Link) on 2008-02-23 00:34 (Reply)

Hopefully the "rate" is a ratio of cases in relation to popultion and not a specific number of cases in that area. But, the higher breast cancer rates could do with density of people in a city as opposed to rural areas.

#4 Melissa on 2008-02-22 09:32 (Reply)

Agreed with previous posters, this research "conclusion" has autocorrelation written all over it!

#5 Anonymous on 2008-02-25 10:49 (Reply)

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