Re: alpha particles and lung cancer

["Harry Hinks" <harryhinks@hotmail.com>]

Franz,

Sorry, the reference is Radiat Environ Biophys 2000 Jun;39(2):137-9

Harry Hinks
harryhinks@hotmail.com

>Being an Austrian citizen, a radiochemist by background and working in
>radiation protection now for many years I can tell you, that the
>"radon"-therapy in Badgastein (and other places) is far from being
>uniformely accepted in Austria. It is a multimillion (or rather
>multibillion) dollar business - not only in Badgastein, but in spas all 
>over
>the world. I do not at all dispute, that therapy in a radon spa will result
>in relief from certain health problems like rheumatism - just as the same
>therapy without radon (warm water, microwave and galvanic treatment etc.)
>will do. Many radiation protection professionals simply do not understand,
>why people are exposed to extremely high radon concentrations on one side,
>because they are "healthy" and on the other side stringent limits are
>introduced for radon in indoor air.
>
>I have and will criticize the attitude of certain groups like Greenpeace to
>back their incredible stories (like the deadly plutonium, the highly
>radioactive depleted uranium and the worlds most poisonous stuff -
>plutonium, the recycled plutonium, from which you can construct in your
>garage a nuclear bomb etc....) with pseudo-science. I will criticize as 
>well
>the pseudo-science which is very active with regard to radon spas. A very
>good example is the "paper" you cited in your mail.
>
>First of all I am missing the citation of the journal, where this paper has
>been published - is there any? Secondly the paper pretends to be 
>scientific,
>by for instance stating the number of cases studied - therefore pretending
>as well a statistical approach - which is not given, because 6 (six) and 5
>(five) not healthy subjects have been investigated and therefore no
>statistical valid conclusion would be possible. Even worse is, that no
>statistical approach is necessary, because nothing has to be proved. When
>people stay in an atmosphere of 40 kBq/m3 - which is about thousand times
>the average indoor radon concentration in Austria - for an hour, causing
>them to sweat because of the elevated temperature and the high humidity,
>what do you expect to be found in the sweat? Plutonium? Uranium? Be-7?
>Tritium? C-14? Neither of them, only radon (which is to some extent soluble
>in water) and radon progeny which plates out on any surface in this area.
>And now we have this "breathtaking" conclusion, since radon and radon
>daughters are present in sweat it is a direct proof of 
>hormesis!!!!!!???????

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