Re: Source of cancer data

Jim,

Let me see if I understand this, since you are such an expert.

1. The primary facto is a 'case-control' study is knowing the dose to the

individual.

2. Radon case-control studies do NOT know the dose to the individual.

3. Dr. Cohen collects large amounts of data about smoking, radon levels in

soil, eating habits, etc.

4. Dr. Cohen does not match the data to any individuals, or groups of

individuals, like steel workers, miners, etc.

5. Dr. Cohen's data is better because he has lots of data.

So, it is not necessary to match individuals to the data, it is just

collecting data and making sure you have small error bars. Thanks for

clearing that up for me.

I do hope you had a nice holiday.

-- John

John Jacobus, MS

Certified Health Physicist

3050 Traymore Lane

Bowie, MD 20715-2024

jenday1@email.msn.com (H)

------------------------------

Jim Muckerheide wrote:

. . .

The primary factor in a 'case-control' study is knowing the dose to the

individual. Radon case-control studies do NOT know the dose to the

individual. They are bad case-control studies, and poor epi because the

groups are too small to produce credible statistics (demonstrated in a study

as wide error bars, and in many studies by many different dose-response

results, unlike large ecological studies by Cohen and others which produce

both small error bars and consistent results in hundreds of studies.

Discounting good studies in favor of bad/indeterminate studies is

non-scientific political/funding-motivated disinformation.

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