Passage Summary: A columnist claims we can't blame radiation for cancer spikes because it's impossible to know for sure what caused any one person's specific illness.

Conclusion: It is impossible to prove that lax radiation standards at nuclear reactors actually caused an increase in local cancer rates.

Reasoning: Because we cannot determine the specific cause of any individual's cancer, we cannot definitively attribute a case to radiation rather than other factors like smoking or genetics.

Analysis: The columnist is confusing individual causation with statistical evidence. While it might be impossible to point to a specific patient and say 'radiation caused this,' we can certainly use population data to show that cancer rates are significantly higher than expected in areas with lax standards. Look for an answer that identifies this failure to distinguish between individual cases and group-wide statistical trends. It’s a bit like saying we can’t prove rain makes things wet because we can’t track every single molecule of water.