Re: We are killing nuclear workers!

[Jim Muckerheide <jmuckerheide@delphi.com>]

Otto, Herman,

I didn't refer to worker/non-worker comparisons, that invite the HWE excuse. 
Consider hi-dose vs. low/no-dose workers (even among one cohort of badged
workers, but also with badged vs. non-badged workers. But even in the Nuclear
Shipyard Workers Study DOE misrepresents the results as "due to the HWE."

Regards, Jim
muckerheide@mediaone.net
========================

"Otto G. Raabe" wrote:
> 
> At 12:55 AM 1/5/01 -0600, Herman Cember wrote:
> >
> >I believe that the enrichment plants had radiation safety programs.  I also
> >believe that the best defense of the health and safety record of workerss in
> >the nuclear industry is to poin out that all the studies (of whch I know)
> >find the standard mortality ratios (SMR) for workers in nuclear facilities,
> >including laboratories, production facilities, and nuclear power plants, to
> >be much less than 1.  I believe that the SMR's for all causes of death run
> on
> >the order of 0.8 - 0.9.  Am I correct in my figures?  I also believe that
> the
> >next worker to die from radiation in the United States commercial nuclear
> >power industry will be the first one.  This certainly cannot be said of the
> >safety record of the fossil fuel generating stations.
> >                                                             Herman Cember
> *****************************************************************************
> January 5, 2001
> Davis, CA
> 
> Yes, but the answer that is usually given is that this is the "healthy
> worker effect". Nuclear workers were healthy when hired and they got good
> health care benefits from their employment. Because of this assumption,
> most epidemiological studies of nuclear workers compare those with "high"
> doses to those with "low" doses and ignore SMR's. That is also what has
> been done in the atomic bomb survivor studies by RERF.
> 
> Otto
> **********************************************
> Prof. Otto G. Raabe, Ph.D., CHP
> Institute of Toxicology & Environmental Health
> (Street Address: Bldg. 3792, Old Davis Road)
> University of California, Davis, CA 95616
> E-Mail: ograabe@ucdavis.edu
> Phone: (530) 752-7754   FAX: (530) 758-6140
> ***********************************************
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