RE: Healthy Worker Effect vs. Hormesis

[Shonka Research Associates Inc <sra@crl.com>]

Al,
I can't believe you.  But, you've got the controversy stirring.  In
order to prove a statistical point, the power of the study must be
defined.  In many cases, the statement has been made that it would
take a controlled experiment with more than the world's population to
establish the "linear with no threshold" theory with adequate power
at occupational dose levels.  The converse is also certainly true. 
That is, the population needed to unequivocally establish hormesis is
certainly much greater than the (approx) 100,000 rad workers that
have been studied with "good?" dosimetry, and much greater than the
250,000 A-bomb survivors.  However, if you can find someone to pay
for it, I'm eager to study that problem.  I think Ethel Gilbert (from
PNL)  is already involved in an attempt to aggregate the US and
British studies.  The numbers are too small to "prove" hormesis, and
the results will likely simply refine current risk estimates.

Joe Shonka
sra@crl.com