[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Radon and Never Smokers
Jim et al.
I do not find this study at all surprising. It is very
interesting. Radon's daughter products inhaled in a
chronic exposure condition would have a greater lung
retention and greater effect than the thorium and
organics found in tobacco smoke. Certain tobaccos
grown in higher thorium soil (red clays for example in
Ky, Ga, Tn) would be worse than those grown in more
humic soils (Va, NC). Many Europeans smoke cigarettes
grown in low thorium soils with higher natural
nicotine (less chemically induced nicotine
enhancement). These cigarettes are usually more
expensive. This may partially explain longevity in
European cultures who have a larger smoking population
than the US.
Paul Shafer
--- Jim Nelson <nelsonjima@HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
> Interesting article recently published.
>
http://www.epidem.com/article.asp?ISSN=1044-3983&VOL=12&ISS=4&PAGE=396
>
>
> Residential Radon and Lung Cancer among
> Never-Smokers in Sweden
>
> Frédéric Lagarde1; Gösta Axelsson2; Lena Damber3;
> Hans Mellander4; Fredrik
> Nyberg1; Göran Pershagen1,5
>
> From the 1Institute of Environmental Medicine,
> Karolinska Institutet,
> Stockholm;
> 2Department of Environmental Medicine, Göteborg
> University, Gothenburg;
> 3Department of Oncology, University Hospital, Ume;
> 4Swedish Radiation Protection Institute, Stockholm;
> and
> 5Department of Environmental Health, Stockholm
> County Council, Stockholm,
> Sweden.
>
> EPIDEMIOLOGY 2001;12:396-404
>
>
>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In this study, we attempted to reduce existing
> uncertainty about the
> relative risk of lung cancer from residential radon
> exposure among
> never-smokers. Comprehensive measurements of
> domestic radon were performed
> for 258 never-smoking lung cancer cases and 487
> never-smoking controls from
> five Swedish case-control studies. With additional
> never-smokers from a
> previous case-control study of lung cancer and
> residential radon exposure in
> Sweden, a total of 436 never-smoking lung cancer
> cases diagnosed in Sweden
> between 1980 and 1995 and 1,649 never-smoking
> controls were included. The
> relative risks (with 95% confidence intervals in
> parentheses) of lung cancer
> in relation to categories of time-weighted average
> domestic radon
> concentration during three decades, delimited by
> cutpoints at 50, 80, and
> 140 Bq m–3, were 1.08 (0.8–1.5), 1.18 (0.9–1.6), and
> 1.44 (1.0–2.1),
> respectively, with average radon concentrations
> below 50 Bq m–3 used as
> reference category and with adjustment for other
> risk factors. The data
> suggested that among never-smokers residential radon
> exposure may be more
> harmful for those exposed to environmental tobacco
> smoke. Overall, an excess
> relative risk of 10% per 100 Bq m–3 average radon
> concentration was
> estimated, which is similar to the summary effect
> estimate for all subjects
> in the main residential radon studies to date.
>
> Keywords: case-control study; lung neoplasms; risk
> assessment; radon;
> never-smokers; cocarcinogenesis; tobacco smoke
> pollution; environmental
> exposures
>
>
>
_________________________________________________________________
> Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at
> http://explorer.msn.com
>
>
************************************************************************
> You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing
> list. To unsubscribe,
> send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu Put
> the text "unsubscribe
> radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail,
> with no subject line.
>
************************************************************************
You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,
send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu Put the text "unsubscribe
radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line.