AW: AW: [ RadSafe ] In utero dose "Alara Does Work" ?!!

[John Jacobus]

Rainer,
Thank you for your comments.  I believe, and have for
many years, that this study is not a useful to cite
either for or against hormesis. 

It appears obvious to me that you are addressing
issues about the need to monitor to 100 mSv which is
not what our original postings were about.  They were
about the validity of the shipyard study.  

I will pass your comments along to Dr. Strom.

--- Rainer.Facius at dlr.de wrote:

> "The (Navy Shipyard Worker Study) is characterized
> by an unhealthy control group, making it one of the
> very few studies in occupational epidemiology not to
> find a 'health worker effect'(Table 1).  This odd
> finding challenges the consisttency criterion(15)
> (findings whould be consistent across studies) and
> makes the entire study suspect.  Comparisons with an
> unhealthy control group will, of course, sho a
> protective effect!"
> 
> Strom D J, Cameron J R, McDonald J C. Is it useful
> to assess annual effective doses that are less than
> 100 mSv. (Topics under Debate) Radiat Prot
> Dosim98#2(2002)239-245
> 
> Dear John:
> 
> Thank you for once more providing a copy of this
> (and the other) paper by Strom.
> 
> Inspection of the above argument and the table
> reproduced by Strom reveals that he backs his
> criticism with the one class of mortality causes,
> i.e., cancer mortality for which usually no reasons
> are provided why the employment medical should have
> prognostic value for cancer risk and hence would
> select against cancer prone applicants.
> 
> Had instead he chosen to look at those causes for
> mortality where the mechanism for such a selection
> effect is evident and which furnish the single most
> frequent cause (close to 43% instead of 25% ) for
> fatalities, i.e., circulatory diseases, he would
> have seen the healthy worker effect in its common
> size. 
> 
> The validity of his above criticism therefore
> entirely rests upon this choice of him - and of
> course on his ignorance of the fact that other known
> potent cancerogenic agents were identified as
> operating at these workplaces!
> 
> Furthermore, the significant trend for
> non-malignancies (and all causes) between NW <5 mSv
> and >5 mSv, does not depend on the NNW group
> (although I do not want to rest an argument on
> this).
> 
> Thank you anyway for sharing your files.
> 
> Best regards, Rainer
> 
> Dr. Rainer Facius
> German Aerospace Center
> Institute of Aerospace Medicine
> Linder Hoehe
> 51147 Koeln
> GERMANY
> Voice: +49 2203 601 3147 or 3150
> FAX:   +49 2203 61970
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

+++++++++++++++++++
"You get a lot more authority when the workforce doesn't think it's amateur hour on the top floor."
GEN. MICHAEL V. HAYDEN, President Bush's nominee for C.I.A. director.

-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail:  crispy_bird at yahoo.com

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