Re: Cost of a Person-Sievert -- LNT and all that

["Frank "Free Spirit" Borger" <frank@rover.bsd.uchicago.edu>]

> Date:          Thu, 6 Feb 97 15:51:08 -0600
> Reply-to:      radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
> From:          xat@inel.gov (Alden Tschaeche)

> One of the interesting things the authors say is: "One out of every 4 to
> 5 individuals will eventually be stricken with and die from cancer." 
> I'm surprised the reviewers let that one get by (as I am surprised that
> the reviewers let several things in the paper get by).   Cancer
> treatment is improving by the year.  I fully expect in my lifetime that
> "cancer" will be curable and maybe even preventable.

	Cureable and preventable are entirely different. Probably the primary
	source of lung cancer is cigarette smoking. The  question of "threshold"
	is moot, because almost nobody smokes 1 -2  cigarettes a week. This
	is preventable, but over my career I've seen cure rates in radiation therapy
	go from about 25% to 50% (ballpark,) but lung cancer remains eminently
	uncureable.

	As long as John and Jane Q. public are panic-stricken by nearby power-
	lines, and  vote NIMBY  on referendums on LLLW, waste depositories,
	but continue to puff away,  cost goes out the window.

Frank R. Borger - Physicist - Center for Radiation Therapy
net: Frank@rover.uchicago.edu   ph: 312-791-8075 fa: 791-3697

"Those who are willing to trade too much of their freedom
for security, will end up with neither freedom nor security."
- Benjamin Franklin