Radon and never-smokers in Sweden

[precura.martin@T-ONLINE.DE (Dr. Karl Martin)]

Dear Jim,



I'm not saying the subjects lied. The recall bias I mentioned is an attempt to 

explain the discrepancies in Table 6 of the Swedish study between subjects 

exposed to ETS and not exposed. The authors gave no explanation for this 

important result.



My atttempt is based on results from the Schneeberg Study when the smoking habit 

was validated and results from an ongoing uranium miners study. When comparing 

the self-reported smoking status of lung cancer cases prior to diagnosis (data 

from medical records when x-rayed for lung diseases and tuberculosis) and at 

time of diagnosis (interviewed in the lung cancer registry) resulted in an 

obvious tendency by lung cancer cases to minimise and even deny their smoking 

behaviour. This could apply to never-smokers from the Swedish study too. It is 

humane. When being certain to include never-smokers in your study you cannot 

rely on the self-reported smoking history at time of diagnosis for lung cancer. 

 

People with lifestyle related diseases tend to minimise their own contribution 

or try to put the blame on other reasons. You can find extensive literatur about 

this, try AJE or ask your physician.



As BEIR VI stated, the lung cancer risk from smoking amounts to 10-20 and that 

from indoor radon to 0,2-0,3 only. Risk estimations for lung cancer due to 

indoor radon react therefore very sensitive to misspecifications of cigarettes 

smoked. Even with a misspecification of one cigarette per day only over about 30 

years the relative error comprises 13%.



Karl



================================================

PreCura Institute for Preventive Medicine

Dr. Karl Martin

Auguststraße 2

D-16321 Schönow

FON/FAX 0049 3338 3221

e-mail: precura.martin@t-online.de

=================================================             



************************************************************************

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.