Re: "Overmatching" is an Oxymoron. DBPC May Force LNT Out

[RuthWeiner@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 9/15/02 12:50:32 AM Mountain Daylight Time, epirad@mchsi.com writes:



> The study 
>
> covered a total of 163 subjects with incident lung 
>
> cancer and a population sample of 241 cancer-free 
>
> subjects since 1992-1994. Odds ratios for radon were 
>
> estimated using logistic regression adjusted for sex, 
>
> age, lifetime tobacco use, family history, and habitat. 


What was the percentage of smokers in their lung cancer cases?  In their cancer-free cases?  How about second-hand smoke exposure?


Perhaps I am missing something, but I cannot see how one can tease out the influence of radon on lung cancer in a smoker with lung cancer, or in a large number of smokers with lung cancer, or even in people with long-term exposure to second-hand smoke.  I can see how one could observe synergism, and synergism makes some mechanistic sense, but I don't see how the two effects can be separated.  Maybe I am being too simplistic, but this is where I get stuck with Field, et al.    


Ruth Weiner, Ph. D.

ruthweiner@aol.com