Re[2]: Leukemia in Astronauts

[jeff.king@srs.gov]

     You know, this whole thread has become extremely amusing when you sit 
     back and look at it.  If I recall correctly, it consisted of one post 
     suggesting that cosmic radiation might be implicated in Alan 
     Sheppard's leukemia, one ironic/sarcastic post saying it certainly 
     wasn't, one detailed post explaining about a possible confounding 
     factor and the need to be careful when drawing conclusions and then a 
     whole lot of debate about people saying things about the first post 
     that they may or may not have intended.
     
     From this, I draw three conclusions:
     
     1)  Some of us have too much free time. ;-)
     2)  Some of us need to relax a bit.
     3)  E-mail is not a developed enough communications medium that humor, 
     irony, or sarcasm translate well; even though they are common and 
     integral to spoken communication.  It is inevitable that someone will 
     miss the point and get upset.  Unfortunately, accounting for this 
     makes for dry and less entertaining reading material.
     
     And now I will keep my mouth shut, as meta-discussions about 
     meta-discussion are almost assuredly not on topic.
     
     Jeff King
     Facility Representative
     In-Tank Precipitation Facility
     Savannah River Operations Office
     


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: RE: Leukemia in Astronauts
Author:  vchase@bi-pharm.com at Mailhub
Date:    7/24/98 10:54 AM


I am troubled by the Pavlovian responses to this thread.  Many 
responders seem to have forgotten that all the volunteers for the 
Mercury space program were fighter pilots and/or test pilots.  As such, 
they were exposed for many years to a variety of fuels, chemicals, 
rubbers and materials that we now know to be carcinogenic long before 
they entered the Mercury program.  And let's not forget that some of 
these guys were smokers, too.  How many times a week did they fill up 
those commemorative Zippo lighters with everybody's favorite carcinogen, 
benzene?