Re: Radon and never-smokers in Sweden

["Jim Nelson" <nelsonjima@HOTMAIL.COM>]

Karl,



This is a study of never smokers. Are you saying that you think the subjects 

lied and said they never smoked when in fact they did. Why would the Swedish 

subjects not be truthful?  Especially people who have developed lung cancer. 

  They want to find the cause of their cancer as much as anyone.  Do you 

have any firm data to support the Swedish study suffers from smoking recall 

bias?



Jim Nelson



>From: precura.martin@T-ONLINE.DE (Dr. Karl Martin)

>Reply-To: precura.martin@T-ONLINE.DE (Dr. Karl Martin)

>To: nelsonjima@HOTMAIL.COM

>CC: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu, conrady@plasmaphotonics.de,        

>juergen.lembcke@notghi.com

>Subject: Radon and never-smokers in Sweden

>Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 12:11:18 +0200

>

>Dear Jim,

>

>the efforts by the Swedish epidemiologists to use never-smokers for a risk

>assessment for indoor radon is to appreciate as discussed in the Schneeberg

>Study. Besides your and Tom's comments I agree with, the study has 

>weaknesses

>that make it doubtful to accept the results presented as valid. Main 

>objections

>are:

>

>Radon measurements are performed during 3 months in the heating season 

>between

>October and May when indoor radon is especially high in comparison to the 

>other

>months of the year. Standard is a one year measurement to avoid seasonal 

>changes

>(winter high, summer low)and recently retrospective measurements are 

>introduced

>to validate current measurements. Measurements by standard procedure (one 

>year)

>of radon concentration would result in fewer houses in "higher" categories

>making risk assessments even more suspicious.

>

>In all honesty the authors evaluated the interaction between residential 

>radon

>exposure and ETS at home (Table 6). The trend of increased risk with 

>increasing

>radon levels seems to be limited to subjects exposed to ETS at home, and 

>this

>pattern was consistent both in the current study as well as among 

>never-smokers

>in the nationwide study. When subjects with no ETS at home are analysed for

>their RR of lung cancer, no elevated and significant risk can be found up 

>to

>80-140 Bq/m³. Only in the category >140 Bq/m³ a small elevated (1,13) risk 

>can

>be established but still not significant. My conclusion is that there is a

>smoking bias at work as discussed in the Schneeberg Study. An unknown 

>number of

>cases claiming to be exposed to ETS were more likely smokers. The health 

>effects

>in the group of the exposed to ETS is possibly smoking related and not 

>caused by

>indoor radon.

>

>Karl

>

>=============================================

>PreCura Institute for Preventive Medicine

>Dr.Karl Martin

>Augustsraße 2

>D-16321 Schönow

>FON/FAX 0049-3338-3221

>Email: precura.martin@t-online.de

>www.precura.de

>===============================================

>

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