Re: : Re: Toxic Trivia

[Bernard L Cohen <blc+@pitt.edu>]

On Wed, 9 Feb 2000, Erik C. Nielsen wrote:

> About 10 years ago I attended a seminar where Dr. Cember was a guest 
> lecturer.  During this course he indicated that "in his opinion" most lung 
> cancers associated with cigarettes were caused by radioactivity rather than 
> the chemical carcinogens.  He indicated that Pb-210 and Po-210 as the 
> primary sources of the radiation.

	About 25 years ago, Ed Martel who worked for one of the Institutes
in Boulder, CO was advocating this position very actively. But I don't
believe his position ever became widely accepted. If you use the dose
estimates by NCRP, the fraction of lung cancers due to radiation is only
about 10-20 percent of the total due to smoking.

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