Linear Model

[HWADE@aol.com]

1. Cohen's 1995 paper answers the previous criticisms that the "ecological
fallacy" marred its conclusions. HP,v68,no.2.
Therefor, previous criticisms are no longer valid
2. Cohen has now completed a case-control study that shows a negative
correlation between radon concentration and case-control ratio. Annual
Meeting abstracts, HP,supp to v68, no.6.
3. The Japanese data are subject to the same "ecological fallacy" as other
studies, yet we seem to be able to accept them, and indeed use them to build
a case for linearity.
4. The paper by the IARC study group on cancer risk among nuclear industry
workers, Lancet, 344:1039;1994 fits the data to a linear model and therefor
cannot be used as an argument for the validity of the linear model. (not
unless you believe one can pull himself up by tugging on his bootstraps.)