Re: Logical fallacy

["Frank R. Borger_(FRB)" <frb@gammex.com>]

>>> "ruth_weiner" <ruth_weiner@email.msn.com> August 31, 2000 14:04 >>>
>Dear RADSAFERs:

Ruth, I'd say you left out one important item, repair mechanisms and the false
equality of lowdose*long-time = highdose*short time I'm personally biased about
this being left out because of my years in radiotherapy, where we typically give
10 times a 50% LD during a course of treatments, without massive cancer results.

>If one person swallows 50 aspirin tablets, that person will suffer kidney failure, 
>but if 50 people each take one aspirin, none of them will suffer kidney failure.
>This translates to the person-rem = person-rem fallacy.  

My version of the above for dose rate is

If I can kill a cow by a single well placed shot-gun blast, I can kill that same
cow with fifty bb-gun shots, once a week. (Apologies to PETA for the analogy.)


Frank R. Borger - Physicist, Gammex RMI
fborger@gammex.com   phn: 608-828-7289 fax: 608-828-7500
"One third of the rats were improved on the experimental
medication, one third remained the same, and the other one
third could not be reported on, because that rat got away."
- Edwin Bidwell Wilson

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