Re: Radon Health Hazard, Myth or Reality?

[LIPTONW@detroitedison.com]

You wrote: 
 
Would any of you out there happen to know specifically where I could find 
the original Czech miner studies?  I'm particularly interested in looking 
at how (or whether) socioeconomic factors and personal habits were handled 
in the data analysis. 
 
I have always had a bit of a problem with the idea of using data from a 
low-income (poverty-level?) single-occupation group from an Eastern Block 
nation to predict cancer risk for the entire spectrum of American 
lifestyles and locations.  For example, did the study address diet 
(probably much poorer than most Americans), availability of quality routine 
medical care and average life span (both probably much lower for the 
Czechs), and local environmental pollution (undoubtedly far greater than 
most of us here suffer)?  Dr. Cohen aparently took great pains to account 
for confounding factors in his recent studies here in the U.S.  I'm 
wondering how well the authors did on the study upon which so much of our 
regulation seems to be based. 
 
Unless you feel that the info is desired by the whole group, please reply 
to my e-mail.  Thank you in advance for your assistance. 
 
A good place to start is NCRP Report No. 78, "Evaluation of Occupational and 
Environmental Exposure to Radon and Radon Daughters in the United States."  
This includes a review of epidemiological studies, including those on the 
Czech miners.  These include: 
 
Sevc et. al., "Lung cancer in uranium miners and long term exposure to radon 
daughter products," Health Physics 30, 433 (1976) 
 
Kunz et. al, "Lung cancer mortality in uranium miners (methodological 
aspects)," Health Physics 35, 579 (1978) 
 
Kunz et. al., "Lung cancer in man in relation to different time distribution 
of radiation exposure," Health Physics 36, 699 (1979) 
 
 
The opinions expressed are strictly mine. 
It's not about dose, it's about trust. 
 
Bill Lipton 
liptonw@detroitedison.com