Re: English Radon Study

["Otto G. Raabe" <ograabe@ucdavis.edu>]

June 17, 1998

Dear Joyce:

You wrote the following about the yet-to-be-published English radon study:

"The study concludes that the estimated relative risk associated with a 100
Bq m(-3) increase in residential
radon concentration is 0.08 (with a 95 percent confidence interval of -0.03
to 0.2)."

It would appear that they use a linear relative risk model and the slope
was not significantly different from zero. Hence, there was apparently no
statistically significant effect of radon on relative risk (presumably for
lung cancer). Since almost all lung cancer is associated with cigarette
smoking, smoking is an important confounder in lung cancer cases that is
difficult to evaluate.

Otto
		*****************************************************
		Prof. Otto G. Raabe, Ph.D., CHP
                [President, Health Physics Society, 1997-1998]
		Institute of Toxicology & Environmental Health (ITEH)
		     (Street address: Old Davis Road)
		University of California, Davis, CA 95616
		Phone: 530-752-7754  FAX: 530-758-6140 [NEW AREA CODE]
		E-mail ograabe@ucdavis.edu