but the news was contained. The teeth had been sampled, but many remained in boxes. They wound up in a storage room. To be rediscovered later.
This has led to a follow up, epidemiological study found even more frightening data about the results of exposure to radiation.
What they found was a correlation between baby tooth radiation levels and later cancers and mortality.
Of course people working in the nuclear industry jumped to defend themselves. When mainstream media published this story they usually interview Nuclear Power spokespersons who will say things like the study “confuses correlation with causation.” But we already have evidence that radioactive substances cause mutations. That mutations cause cancers. We have that from the lab. Simple deduction shows that If a person is exposed to radiation (even small amounts) there will be mutations. Given there are mutations there will be cancers.
The next objection is that a healthy immune system will deal with most mutated cells and incipient cancers. The body normally uses Killer T Cells to “order” the mutated cells to self destruct. It takes an accumulation of mutations and specific cancer generating processes for cancer to develop. So merely being exposed to cancer causing substances doesn’t mean that a particular mutagen caused a particular cancer. But laboratory evidence also shows that radiation impacts the immune system too. In severely radiated people they don’t die directly from radiation in some cases but from leukemias, cancers and Radiation induced Acquired Immune Deficiency (AIDS). So again the causation can be deduced from laboratory evidence and simple logic.
Now whether these effects are non-linear or linear is a matter for argument. I personally believe that the numbers will suggest non-linearity (Chaotic rather than purely random or simply determined). Non linearity suggests that there are probably thresholds beyond which odds start rising exponentially, but also suggests that normal curves don’t apply and that risk never falls to zero. In any case most of the arguments you hear from the officials are deceptive, simplistic and deliberately misleading. So I don’t believe the authors really believe what they are saying themselves. And the results of the Survey described in the book “Radioactive Baby Teeth Cancer Link” support that theory.
Therefore in this case correlation verifies causation.
Example of arguments on the “linear no threshold” argument.
This entry was posted in atomic on January 27, 2015 by citizenperth.