Re: Outdoor Radon Abstract Online

[Muckerheide <muckerheide@mediaone.net>]

Hi Bill, Radsafers,

I've briefly reviewed your full paper in the online EHP.

1. Note to all that online subs to EHP are free and with the password
provide access to full papers, not just the abstract.

2. Your efforts to quantify radon exposures with reference to
implications to case-control studies continues to be exemplary. This is
especially important with regard to the nature of the problem of not
knowing the dose in radon case-control studies. Valid statistics in a
case-control study is totally dependent on knowing the dose (in the
typical case-control study by actual ingestion or injection of
well-known quantities, etc). This is why a case-control is considered to
be "good". This is also why the existing radon case-control studies do
not (can not) produce consistent or accurate results. Your efforts may
hopefully contribute to resolving this problem. 

3. You will also note that the Minnesota county radon data, which has
been on the web as part of the LLBL radon project (which has much
greater variation between low and high radon counties than Iowa) can be
compared to lung cancer statistics available from the CDC Wonder Epi
database on the web, with a negative correlation :-)  Unfortunately, I'm
not able to compare their county data and yours to see if this holds up.
If anyone has time to do that, I'd be very interested in the result.

Thanks.

Regards, Jim Muckerheide
muckerheide@mediaone.net
========================
 
> Radsafers:
> 
> Listserv members may find the article in the February 1999 issue of the
> Journal, Environmental Health Perspectives of interest.  The article describes
> the outdoor radon concentrations in IA and areas of MN.  It is noteworthy that
> the radon concentrations in some outdoor areas of Iowa exceed the national
> indoor average radon concentration for single family homes.  The importance of
> considering outdoor radon exposure in the framework of an epidemiologic case-
> control study is discussed.
> 
> See abstract at:
> 
> http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/1999/107p123-127steck/abstract.html
> 
> Regards, Bill Field
> 
> Department of Preventive Medicine
> Division of Epidemiology
> University of Iowa
> 
> mailto:bill-field@uiowa.edu
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