Cohen's ecologic study reanalyses

["Gary Howard" <radiation@webmail.co.za>]

Dr. Cohen,



What are your thoughts on this recent paper?



Health Physics, Volume 85, Issue 4



EPIDEMIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATIONS AMONG LUNG CANCER, RADON EXPOSURE AND

ELEVATION ABOVE SEA LEVEL—A REASSESSMENT OF COHEN'S COUNTY LEVEL RADON

STUDY



Wesley R. Van Pelt*





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Abstract—Inhalation of radon (222Rn) decay products by persons living

in homes has been associated with increased risk of lung cancer. Some

epidemiological studies have shown a positive association between

radon exposure and lung cancer rates. However, a large U.S.-wide

ecological study (Cohen 1995) has shown a clear inverse association

between average county radon concentration in homes and average lung

cancer rates in the county. Cohen's strong inverse association between

radon and lung cancer is surprising since there is no plausible

biological reason for an inverse causal relationship between the two.

We plot the county average lung cancer rate vs. the elevation above

sea level (altitude) and show an inverse association between county

average lung cancer rate and elevation. The elevation used for each

county is the altitude of the most populous place in the county. We

postulate that the decrease in lung cancer rates with higher

elevations is caused by the carcinogenic effect of higher absolute

oxygen concentration in the inspired air at lower elevations.

Stratifying Cohen's lung cancer vs. radon data into ten groups of

counties with similar elevations removes some, but not all, of his

inverse association between radon and lung cancer.







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