Re: I'm get tired too, but look

["Tom Savin" <lexicon@hotbot.com>]

 I believe some have briefly touched on the important points. Now for my two cents.  LNT simply by definition does not exist because of the following:

1.  If one hit causes a problem for all individuals in a given population the population simply ceases to exist - this is obviously not the case for all humans, whales, genetically altered mice, etc.  

2.  Every individual in a given population has a predisposed threshold, or tolerance.  Using alcohol as example, some members of a population are more tolerant from the effects than others /per unit volume.  This is due to metabolic differences, size differences, genetic makeup (ADH enzyme for example)and length of exposure and built up tolerances. The same goes for other types of biological, chemical and physical insults.  We have survived as a species (sometimes in spite of ourselves) because of genetic diversity.

So here is the truly important point. We as individuals can/and do perform our own cost and risk benefit analysis to help shape/develop our quality of life.  For example: If I do not like the idea of living in a radon enriched area and willing to spend X amount of hours (QUALYs)(of my life) to shield myself then I have less hours available to invest in other things.  In other words we all must perform our own decision analysis. Science is what provides us with the knowledge to help us make those life decisions - so why quibble about a model or models that more exactly predict what may happen when a a good estimate will suffice.

I enjoyed this - thanks for the time 



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