Re: Newsarticle: Cold War's Human Costs Linger

["dkosloff1" <dkosloff1@email.msn.com>]

----- Original Message -----

From: "Michael Stabin" <michael.g.stabin@vanderbilt.edu>

To: "Radsafe" <radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>

Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2001 8:19 AM

Subject: Re: Newsarticle: Cold War's Human Costs Linger





A survey is not a statistic.  It is raw data of unknown accuracy.   The

information presented below does not include any information that would

allow it to be called a statistic.



> According to the association's survey of 1,572 men

> present for the 1946 Bikini Atoll detonations, 59 percent have died of

> cancer, at an average age of 57.



For example, there is no information on how the 1,572 men were selected from

the more than 10,000 men who were involved.   In addition, there is no dose

information, no indication of time between exposure and cancer onset, type

of cancer, no information on confounders (smoking was encouraged at the

time), and no mention of a control group.  The use of "average at death" is

non-specific without the above information.



The potential self-secection bias was noted earlier.   Some of the men who

were at the tests were inside ships below the waterline and would have

received no radiation dose.  Yet they would have been exposed to numerous

other carcinogens, both during the testing and at other times during their

time in the navy.  For example, asbestos and fuel oil fumes.



Sincerely,

Don Kosloff dkosloff1@msn.com

2910 Main St. Perry OH 44081