How safe is it to live near a nuclear reactor? Men who lived in a coastal strip that extends 20 miles north from a nuclear reactor in Plymouth, Massachusetts, developed some forms of cancer at a rate 50% higher than the statewide rate, according to a study endorsed by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and reported in the May 21, 1987, edition of the New York Times.
1. If the 52 reported cases represented a rate 50% higher than the statewide rate, what is a reasonable estimate of m, the average number of such cancer cases statewide?
2. Based on your estimate of m, what is the estimated standard deviation of the number of cancer cases statewide?
3. What is the z-score for the x = 52 observed cases of cancer? How do you interpret this z-score in light of the concern about an elevated rate of hematopoietic cancers in this area?