4. Illinois Cancer and Pollution

I was interested to see if cancer rates varied by proximity to waste sites across Illinois.

I started with datasets provided by the EPA: EPA Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) Landfill and Landfill Gas Energy Project Database, Landfill Data Files [March 2023] and the EPA Superfund Site Database. For cancer rates, I used the Illinois state cancer profile data provided by cancer.gov and kept the national and state average cancer rates as the comparator.

Due to the large data sets (18 different cancers and 102 Illinois counties), combining all data into one graph created a very complex visual for the cancer rates. Most of the state and national cancer rates were similar with a few exceptions and I marked these with reference lines in blue (US) or orange (IL). Cancer rates were colored according to whether they fell above the state average (orange bars) or below (blue bars). To visualize the locations of waste disposal sites, I used the GIS data to create a county map marked with the superfund sites (green) or landfill sites (blue). I am continuing to revise this visualization.