Comparison of 2 cities

[hughesj@songs.sce.com]

Regarding the Gofman position shown below: The Tooth Fairy project has not
done the three things Gofman says are necessary before comparing two
cities.
                                                              
 Pro-Nuclear Argument 2:                                      
 People living in high altitude cities, such as Denver,       
 receive twice as much natural radiation as do those living   
 at low altitudes . . . yet the residents of such cosmically  
 bombarded locales don't display double the average incidence 
 of cancer.                                                   
                                                              
                                                              
 GOFMAN:                                                      
 The answer to this favorite pronuclear argument is that the  
 cosmic radiation hitting the people in Denver probably does  
 cause an increase in the number of cancer cases per capita.  
 (One should not expect to find twice as many cases of        
 cancer, of course, because radiation is not the only cause   
 of the disease.)                                             
 But to statistically demonstrate such a reality, we would    
 first have to know                                           
 [1] that the medical reporting of disease categories was     
 equally accurate in that city and the sea-level community to 
 which Denver was being compared,                             
 [2] that the people who are considered "at risk" in both     
 communities had all lived at the same location all their     
 lives, and                                                   
 [3] that any other carcinogenic factors--aside from          
 background radiation--were identical in both areas.          
 (Undoubtedly they would not be identical.)                   
 The fact is that no expert in the field of vital statistics  
 would be prepared to contest the point that Denver residents 
 may be experiencing an increased cancer incidence rate as a  
 result of cosmic radiation . . . when compared with          
 otherwise equivalent people at sea level.                    
                                                              




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