Re: Alternate explanations

[Bernard L Cohen <blc+@pitt.edu>]

Bernard L. Cohen
Physics Dept.
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Tel: (412)624-9245
Fax: (412)624-9163
e-mail: blc+@pitt.edu


On Tue, 3 Mar 1998, Dale E. Boyce wrote:
> 
> A long time ago I took age adjusted cancer deaths from the 1985
> American Cancer Society pamplet and plotted them against mean
> state altitude.  To a very great degree the cancer death rates were anti-
> correlated with mean altitude and therefore background exposure.
> 
> Possible confounding factor?  Industry tends to be at low altitude.
> Maybe air polution.  BTW California was an outlier on the plot.
> The mean altitude is fairly high but the population lives at low
> altitudes, and have a lot of air pollution.

	--altitude was one of the 500 potential confounding factors that I
investigated. Our discrepancy with LNT is found if we consider only high
altitude areas, or if we consider only near sea level areas. It is also
found if we consider only industrial areas, or if we consider only
strictly rural areas. The same applies to the other 500 potential
confounding factors I have investigated.

Bernard L. Cohen
Physics Dept.
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Tel: (412)624-9245
Fax: (412)624-9163
e-mail: blc+@pitt.edu