Re: I'm get tired of it too, but...

[Ernesto_Faillace@notes.ymp.gov]

If I believed that radon caused lung cancer and *if* I knew that my basement or
other rooms had high radon levels, I may logically and consciously choose to
avoid these locations as much as I could to avoid exposing myself.  As a
non-smoker, I already consciously try to avoid locations that attract smokers.
Could this be a confounding factor?  That is: a "known" high radon level in my
house causes me to spend less time indoors, therefore, my radon exposure is
actually lower than it may have been had I spent more time indoors inside a
house with lower radon levels.   Therefore, high radon levels *could* correlate
with lower exposures (and risks) if we use this "avoidance hypothesis".
Wouldn't the only way to truly assess this effect be with a cohort study (and
the required time-motion tracking of exposure), which as mentioned before is
prohibitively expensive?  Has anyone assessed the effect of an individual 's
actions to a potential radon hazard once the individual is made aware of the
potential hazard?

I once heard that to measure anything, you must perturb it, and if you perturb
it enough, the measured quantity deviates significantly from the pre-perturbed
quantity (an example is taking the blood pressure of persons that are anxious
about their blood pressure, which cuases their blood pressure to go up relative
to the pre-measurement level).

Ernesto Faillace CHP
efaillace@earthlink.net


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