REPORT: Death rates rise in Burke County, GA after startup of Vogtle Nuclear Plant

Epidemiology is a branch of medicine which studies how often diseases occur and why. It seeks cause-and-effect relationships for disease based on population data to reveal which groups are at high risk and to find effective treatments. The most well-known example of epidemiological method is the Framingham Heart Study which established connections between heart disease and high blood pressure, diet and cigarette smoking.  Before the Framingham study, little was known about these risk factors for heart disease. Today, they are common knowledge.

The author of this study of death rates in Burke County, Joseph Mangano, is a trained epidemiologist possessing both Master of Public Health and Master of Business Administration degrees (MPH, MBA).