Re: LNT, Collective Dose

[RuthWeiner@aol.com]

No, that is not correct.  First, three measurements are not enough to give 
you a good basis for analysis.  More important, you may say that the average 
dose for the three houses is (24+2+1)/3 = 9 pCi/liter but that does not 
change the doses in the three houses.  Moreover, if there is more than one 
person in any house, then the collective dose is the number of residents 
times the average dose in that house.  

Curies (or picocuries) are not a measure of dose but a measure of source 
strength or, if you will, quantity of radioactive material.  To know what the 
dose is, you must know the breathing rate, exposure time, and dose conversion 
factor for radon.  In collecting or analyzing data for a large number of 
houses (as Dr. Cohen has done, for example) you can use pCi of radon as a 
surrogate for dose.

what the LNT theory says is that no matter how small the collective dose 
(person-rem), there is a finite, non-zero probability that some radiation 
induced cancer will occur in the exposed population.  Extrapolating this idea 
to an individual ("if I'm exposed to any radiation I might get cancer") is 
dicey at best, and is, in my opinion, a misuse of the notion of risk and 
population dose (albeit it is popular).

OK, that's my to cents.

Ruth Weiner
ruthweiner@aol.com
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