[ RadSafe ] Re: Residential radon risk

[Wesley]

Hi Otto,

 

You are always a strong and welcome voice of reason on Radsafe.

 

I think my study of altitude and oxygen concentration offers a non-complex,
non-mysterious and biologically plausible relationship that removes much of
Cohen's negative association. When my correction for altitude is done,
Cohen's data comes closer to showing zero effect of radon on lung cancer. 

 

Best regards,

Wes

Wesley R. Van Pelt, PhD, CIH, CHP

Wesley R. Van Pelt Associates, Inc.

 

 

Dear Bill:

 

Snip....

 

As B. Cohen has shown, no matter how you slice it, lung cancer rates in the 

U.S. tend to be lower where indoor radon levels tend to be higher. This is 

a robust observation that can be hypothetically explained away as caused by 

some complex confounding relationship, but what that relationship is, if it 

exists, seems to be a mystery.

 

Best regards,

 

Otto

 

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*

 

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.

 

Health Phys. 85(4):397- 403; 2003