Re: The value(?) of the Nuclear Shipyard Workers Study (NSWS)

[John Jacobus <crispy_bird@YAHOO.COM>]

 

 Kai Kaletsch <eic@shaw.ca> wrote:

Could someone please reconcile these two statements for me?:

From: "Strom, Daniel J"
>... "The NSWS study is characterized by an unhealthy
> control group, making it one of the very few studies in occupational
> epidemiology not to find a "healthy worker effect" (Table 1).

and

From: John Jacobus

>....It is interesting that all groups who worked in the shipyard, exposed
and non-exposed to radiation, had lower risks than the general population.
Maybe that should tell you something about the subject population also.

Thanks,
Kai

 

Kai,

My comment went to the issue that shipyard workers were reported to healther (in a general sense) than the general population.  This effect has been noted in several reviews of the data, and it is inappropriate to make these kind of comparisons as almost all such studies find a "healthy worker" effect.  I believe Dan was referring to the fact that the control group, the non-nuclear workers, had a high incidence of lung cancer, which was actually higher than that for the general population. 

Again, I was criticizing comparisions to the general population, and he was just commenting on the unusal anit-health worker effect discovered.

I hope this answers your question.

-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail:  crispy_bird@yahoo.com

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