RE: NY Times Editorial on Marie Curie -Reply

[Charles Willis <CAW@nrc.gov>]

Glen,

Mme. Curie's cause of death, according to her physicians, was pernicious anemia, a
non-radiogenic affliction (involving the inability to adequately utilize vitamin B-12). 
Thus, a probability of causation calculation gives a zero result, no matter what
doses are assumed.  If, however, you want to throw out the medical opinion, the
cause of death could have been most anything.  (Childbirth, for example, is quite
hazardous for a woman 66 years old.)  With an unknown cause of death, the
probability of causation result is small; among the most highly exposed A bomb
survivors (doses of 2 Gy or more) only about eight percent died of radiogenic
causes by 1990, according to the RERF data.

Charlie Willis
caw@nrc.gov
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