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RE: Apparent anti-correlations between geographic radiation and cancer are no...



As a newcomer to the list (great info, BTW), I was interested in this thread.
:~)
A couple of comments (from a relative layman!):

1: Surely all efforts at correlating the data in the US will be somewhat confused by the relative mobility of the population? i was surprised to see no one looking beyond the US to some regions with greater natural radiation.

2: For a (long-term) stable population, surely natural selection will have created a population relatively immune to local levels in natural radiation (e.g. in parts of Brazil, where the natural radiation levels can be very high). But again, population movement would make this pretty difficult to confirm in a short term study...

3: With the multiplicity of potentially adverse agents introduced in a "developed" society, surely these will make any study of the effects of radiation on cancer incidence very tenuous at best? how would you isolate all these (I think this has been mentioned a number of times).

4: Common sense would tend to argue against exposure to any quantity of man-made agent - in whatever quantity - which has known adverse effects. And, as we learn, we eliminate some of the so-called "beneficial" machines introduced (remember those machines in the shoe shops which allowed you to see how your feet fit? and I very well remember having weekly "therapeutic radiations" sitting in front of a powerful UV generating arc lamp (of German origin, I think) when I was a kid, complete with black-out glasses to protect me from blindness!. I used to be bemused by the stink of ozone it created! don't see them for sale in the High Street any more......

Regards
Doug Aitken             Schlumberger Drilling and Measurements QHSE Advisor                      
Phone (Sugarland):      281 285-8009
Phone (Home office):    713 797-0919    
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        Principal E-mail: jdaitken@earthlink.net
        Schlumberger: daitken@sugar-land.oilfield.slb.com