PREFACE:

In 1980, the town of Love Canal, in the United States, was declared a "disaster" area and more than 900 families were evacuated. This exercise is concerned with assessing potential community exposures to multiple chemicals at a toxic dump site and then determining if those exposures may have human biologic effects. Many different environmental and epidemiologic studies were performed at Love Canal over a five-year period by government agencies and community groups. Precise and objective measures of human exposure were difficult to develop. Many kinds of acute and chronic illness received attention, especially reproductive abnormalities and cancer.

The exercise covers the development of a community exposure/health effects survey, analysis of survey results, and use of methods available for studying long-term, delayed health outcomes and for assessing potential sub-clinical effects.