Abstract
Environmental cancer risks remain difficult to detect, investigate, and remediate despite decades of federal regulation under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Cancer cluster investigations are designed to identify unusual patterns of cancer and their environmental causes, but fragmented authority, inconsistent methodologies, and narrow investigative frameworks routinely prevent these investigations from addressing population-level harms. By failing to detect and address cancer clusters, public health systems inadvertently perpetuate environmental injustices, disproportionately harming communities already underserved and overburdened by pollution.
These failures are not merely scientific but reflect legal and institutional design choices that determine which cancer risks are visible, investigable, and actionable. Cancer cluster investigations rarely integrate environmental regulatory data, assess cumulative exposures, or account for disparities in enforcement, leaving vulnerable communities with unrecognized and unremedied health risks. Existing legal frameworks often lack consistent standards, require minimal coordination across agencies, and offer little guidance for incorporating environmental law into public health inquiries.
This Comment argues that legal epidemiology provides the analytical framework necessary to address these systemic gaps. By treating law as a determinant of population health, legal epidemiology can identify structural deficiencies, integrate environmental regulatory data into causal analysis, evaluate cumulative exposure, and incorporate social and environmental justice considerations. Applied in the context of Trevor’s Law, this approach could improve investigative rigor, enhance transparency and public participation, and better align environmental and public health systems to prevent and respond to environmentally mediated cancer risks. By reframing law as an active tool for public health, legal epidemiology offers a principled and evidence-based pathway to make invisible hazards visible, promote accountability, and strengthen protections for communities most at risk.
Recommended Citation
Beverley C. Thompson,
Making Environmental Cancer Risk Legally Visible: Legal Epidemiology, Chemical Regulation, and the Failures of Cancer Cluster Investigations,
75
Emory L. J.
1589
(2026).
Available at:
https://scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/elj/vol75/iss6/5