Re: Deaths from fossil fuel burning air pollution

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

	The citation for the paper by Pope et al is Am J Respir Crit Care
Med, Vol 151, pp 669-674, 1995. My copy is not of good quality but I will
fax you a copy if no one else offers to do so
	I hope I haven't given the impression that the whole case rests on
the study by Pope et al. There are dozens of other studies that give
similar results. A good source of references is the book "Particles in our
Air" by Richard Wilson and John Spengler. My book, "The Nuclear Energy
Option" gives a few dozen such references.


 Bernard L. Cohen
Physics Dept.
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Tel: (412)624-9245
Fax: (412)624-9163
e-mail: blc+@pitt.edu


On Thu, 23 Nov 2000, ruth_weiner wrote:

> Could you please repeat the citation for the Pope paper?  Does anyone out
> there have a copy that they can fax to me, please (505-856-5564)?  Thanks in
> advance.
> 
> Ruth Weiner
> ruth_weiner@msn.com
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bernard L Cohen <blc+@pitt.edu>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
> Date: Monday, November 20, 2000 9:33 AM
> Subject: Re: Deaths from fossil fuel burning air pollution
> 
> 
> >
> >On Mon, 20 Nov 2000, ruth_weiner wrote:
> >
> >> I have another thought about this sort of "prospective epidemiology" (if
> I
> >> may coin a term).  Isn't epidemiology really (1) observing a health
> effect
> >> in a population (e.g., polio), (2) THEN looking for a correlation (e.g.,
> >> cases where there has been activity in crowded venues often involving
> water
> >> (public drinking fountains, public swimming pools), and (3) FINALLY
> looking
> >> for a cause (in this case, the polio virus)?  In these studies of
> "deaths"
> >> from air pollutants and for that matter from small amounts of ionizing
> >> radiation, isn't epidemiology being done backwards?  Don't we (1)
> identify
> >> something that might have a health effect and (2) then look for a
> population
> >> in which that health effect might occur, whether it is actually observed
> or
> >> not?
> >
> > --I don't see the problem here. We could say that (1) It has been
> >observed that some Metropolitan areas have higher cardiopulmonary
> >mortality rates than others; (2) We find that the differences correlate
> >strongly with air pollution levels; (3) In looking for a mechanism we can
> >cite many dozens of studies that show increased disease symptoms from air
> >pollution.
> >
> >Bernard L. Cohen
> >Physics Dept.
> >University of Pittsburgh
> >Pittsburgh, PA 15260
> >Tel: (412)624-9245
> >Fax: (412)624-9163
> >e-mail: blc+@pitt.edu
> >
> >
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