What does it mean when there is a “statistically significant” elevation of cancers in an area?
This means that researchers believe that the number of cancer cases in a place or time is greater than would be expected due to normal fluctuations alone. Researchers use statistics to help them decide if a cancer rate is really unusual. For cancer concerns, researchers commonly agree that an excess of cancer cases is “statistically significant” when it is so different from average that you would expect it only 1 out of 100 times by chance alone. The term “statistical significance” is tricky for many people to understand. “Statistical significance” only means that the number of cases that has occurred is unusual. It does not explain why the number of cases is high. Furthermore, it does not rule out chance as a cause.
