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Re: The Ultimate Hormesis Paper
Otto,
It is difficult to comment without seeing the details of the paper. It would be
interesting to see whether or not the comparison group was at least age
adjusted. If the investigation followed a rigorous study design, the authors
should submit the paper to a credible scientific peer-reviewed journal such as
the American Journal of Epidemiology, Health Physics, Radiation Research, etc.
Wouldn't the easiest way to get attention for the study logically be submission
to and publication in a reputable scientific journal?
Regards, Bill
------------------------------
R. William Field, Ph.D.
Community of Science: http://myprofile.cos.com/Fieldrw
> July 23, 2003
> HPS Meeting, San Diego, CA
>
> At the ongoing 48th Annual Meeting of the Health Physics Society here in
> San Diego, I encountered poster paper P.78 entitled "The Beneficial Health
> Effects of Chronic Radiation Experienced in the Incident of Co-60
> Contaminated Apartments in Taiwan." This paper has 14 authors, all
> associated with nuclear and radiation protection organizations in Taiwan
> including one from the National Taiwan University. The lead authors are
> W.L. Chen and Y.C. Luan, Nuclear Sciences and Technology Association, 4th
> F, W. 245, Sec. 3, Roosevelt Road, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
>
> About 20 years ago 180 apartment buildings comprising about 1700 apartments
> were built using rebar containing Co-60 from a discarded source. It was
> about 10 years before this incident was discovered. This paper discusses
> the incidence of cancer and detectable genetic defects in about 10,000
> people who lived from 9 to 20 years in these apartments. The highest
> irradiated apartment had dose rates of about 0.5 Sv per year and the lowest
> about 0.02 Sv per year. The paper describes dosimetric reconstruction
> showing that the average total excess dose for the 10,000 people in the
> study was about 0.4 Sv, while some had total doses as high as 6 Sv.
>
> The authors compared the approximately 10,000 people in this study with
> published cancer mortality statistics and reported an expected incidence of
> cancer in these 10,000 people of about 217 cases of cancer during the study
> period. The number of cases found was only 7. This demonstrated about a 97%
> reduction in cancer incidence for people living in the high radiation
> environment of these contaminated apartment. They found a similar reduction
> in "genetic defects". The authors could not find any obvious confounding
> factors associated with their study.
>
> The abstract of this paper is found in a recent published HPS Journal
> Supplement. You can write to the authors to get the whole paper.
>
> I was told by the program committee that this paper was submitted as a
> poster to the HPS meeting held in Tampa last year. In that meeting the
> title was "The True Health Effects of Radiation Revealed in the Incident of
> Co-60 Contamination in Taiwan." Unfortunately, someone stole the whole
> poster an hour after it was mounted last year, so few people saw it.
>
> The authors seem to indicate that their work is not being given the
> attention it deserves. Many would like to disregard it as nonsencse.
> Clearly, there should be a detailed independent scientific evaluation of
> these data and a more complete study to verify or discredit the findings.
> I'm not sure who would be willing to fund such a study.
>
> Otto
> *****************************************************
> Prof. Otto G. Raabe, Ph.D., CHP
> Center for Health & the Environment (CHE)
> (Street Address: Bldg. 3792, Old Davis Road)
> University of California, Davis, CA 95616
> E-Mail: ograabe@ucdavis.edu
> Phone:(530) 752-7754, FAX:(530) 758-6140
> *****************************************************
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