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Re: Hormesis and LNT

Dear Joan,



        Well, I also have a problem with trying not to be sarcastic about the

LNT! I grew up as an experimental nuclear physicist and learned what "Doing

Good Science" means.  I almost studied theoretical nuclear Physics (which I

later did).  In all this work, I learned to respect the influence of good data

and its relationship with theory.  So I get aggravated when I see the LNT

crowd blatantly ignoring good data (Bernie Cohen etc.) or set them aside with

some blatantly illogical argument. That lack of logic was the reason for our

last publication.(*) and for my reaction to the statement that you need huge

data sets at low doses.  The key is that while you do need huge samples for

small effects, that is not necessarily true for small doses.  But for a

Linearist small doses and small effects are the same!

        I agree with your math, no trouble there! But when I came to the US in

1980 and joined the staff at Lovelace ITRI, that was the reason given to me

why you should not try to do low-dose experiments unless you have money to

waste!  It took a while to find out that the argument was based on an effect

decreasing monotonically with decreasing dose.

Remove that basis and the argument is wrong.  Your argument stands because you

don't say how large or small the incidence, npq, is.



(*)  Seiler, F.A., & Alvarez, J.L. (2000). Is the ‘ecological fallacy' a

fallacy? Human and Ecological Risk Assessment, 6, 921-941.



Have a nice week,



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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