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Experimental Proof of Hormesis
Hi All,
The current thread on hormesis on RADSAFE seems to imply that there is
no valid experimental confirmation. Well, that is what the Linear Mafia
wants you to think! Fortunately, wanting it does not make it so. That
is why that same Linear Mafia has hurled all kinds of 'bombs' at the
Shipyard worker study and at Bernie Cohen's study of the Radon/Lung
cancer mortality correlation.
On their own merits, both experiments strongly contradict the Linear
No-threshold (LNT) Model. Against the Shipyard worker study, there are
nothing except handwaving arguments without solid numerical foundation.
Against Bernie's measurements there are a number of papers with
arguments using non-numerical claims of confounding factors resulting in
the "Ecological Fallacy". According to the Mafia, that fallacy makes the
data useless for risk assessment purposes.
Joe Alvarez and I have shown the fallacy argument to be invalid, and the
raw Cohen data to be the only scientific basis for a valid risk
assessment. We made our case in a paper now published as a
'Perspective' in the December issue of HERA:
F.A. Seiler and J.L. Alvarez ,"Is the 'Ecological Fallacy" a
Fallacy?" Human and Ecological Risk Assessment, vol. 6,
921-941 (2000).
By demonstrating that the use of the raw Cohen data is appropriate,
we have also demonstrated that the dose-effect model for human exposure
to radon and its daughters is U-shaped and is thus NONLINEAR. Also, and
contrary to Mafia claims, all the hormetic looking data in the
voluminous collections of such data can now be used as such, if the
Assumption of Equivalent Populations (definition given in paper) can be
made.
Let's face facts, hormesis is back; and this time, it is back to stay!
Have a fun weekend,
Fritz
--
" The American Republic will endure until the day Congress
discovers that it can bribe the Public with the Public's money."
Alexis de Tocqueville
Democracy in America
***************************
Fritz A. Seiler, Ph.D.
Sigma Five Consulting
P.O. Box 1709
Los Lunas, NM 87031, USA
Tel. 505-866-5193
Fax. 505-866-5197
e-mail: faseiler@nmia.com
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