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To Bill Field and Radsafe,
Dr. Puskin has contributed an interesting and valuable paper addressing “Cohen’s discrepancy,” i.e., Cohen’s negative county level association between radon and lung cancer. Puskin shows that respiratory system cancers correlate negatively with radon, but other cancers do not. He then assumes that this is due to smoking (i.e., the smoke causes respiratory system cancers but not other cancers). He then implies that, for some reason, radon is higher in counties where smoking is lower. He offers no data demonstrating why this would be so.
I can think of no reason why radon would be robustly and consistently higher in counties where smoking is lower. To me, this is an implausible association.
Bill Field’s implication that Dr. Puskin has explained Dr. Cohen’s discrepancy and deserves the award is premature.
Best regards, Wes Wesley R. Van Pelt, PhD, CIH, CHP Wesley R. Van Pelt Associates, Inc. http://home.att.net/~wesvanpelt/Radiation.html
> Carl, > > Since Dr. Puskin is a federal employee, he likely can not accept a reward > offer. However, a donation to the American Cancer Society could be made > in > his name. > > Regards, Bill Field
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