[ RadSafe ] Go Figure: How can you explain cancer clusters?

[Maury]

One might wish for a wider sample of friends with whom to throw random 
darts! Note: there will be a meeting Monday, Apr 1st, to study the 
intelligent design of darts ....
Maury&doG
=============================
On 5/13/2011 6:30 PM, Paul Rubin wrote:
> Why would you have non-scientist friends?
>
> On May 13, 2011, at 5:23 PM, Jerry Cohen<jjc105 at yahoo.com>  wrote:
>
>> In this regard, an interesting experiment to try with your non-scientist friends
>> is the following:
>> 1) pin a map of your state or country to the wall,
>> 2) throw 2 darts randomly on to the map,
>> 3) note the  city or town closest to where each dart landed
>> 4) find the cancer rate of each community- inevitably one community will have a
>> higher rate than the      other
>> 5) ask your non-scientist friends what they think might account for the
>> difference.
>> I have tried this a few times and get responses suggesting different "pollution"
>> levels, types of industry , age of population, etc., but never have I received a
>> response suggesting that this is just a matter of random variation.
>>
>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: "Brennan, Mike  (DOH)"<Mike.Brennan at DOH.WA.GOV>
>> To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) MailingList
>> <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
>> Sent: Fri, May 13, 2011 1:44:22 PM
>> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Go Figure: How can you explain cancer clusters?
>>
>> Or there can be a causal relationship, just not the one people think.
>>
>> I am reminded of a story (it may be true, but as I've heard similar
>> stories for different facilities, it might be illustrative of a concept)
>> of a "study" by a group against a particular facility (a nuclear power
>> pla
> ----------snipped---------------