The correct answer is The high cancer rates surrounding a large manufacturing plant in New Mexico
Epidemiology is a basic discipline of Public Health focused on the understanding of the health-disease process in populations, an aspect that differentiates it from the clinic, which aims to study this process, but in individual terms.
As a science, Epidemiology is grounded in causal reasoning; As a Public Health discipline, it is concerned with the development of strategies for actions aimed at the protection and promotion of community health.