Abelson, Philip
absolute risk vs. relative risk
ACS, See American Cancer Society
activism: activists’ unrealistic expectations for breast cancer studies, antismoking movement, and breast cancer research, and sociology of hazard assessment
Ad Council
Adair, Robert K.
Ahlbom, A.
AIDS, magnitude of breast cancer problem compared to
air pollution, difficulties in assessing exposure
Alaska, heart attack rates and confounding
alcohol consumption, and cancer of the mouth, and colorectal cancer, and heart disease, interaction with smoking
ALS
American Cancer Society (ACS)
American Health Fondation
American Legacy Foundation
American Physical Society
Ames, Bruce
analytic studies. See case-control studies; cohort studies
antismoking movement
Argonne National Laboratories
asbestos
aspirin
asthma
Atlanta Constitution
autism
availability heuristic
Bailar, John
Balaban, Barbara
Bayer, Ronald
BEIR IV study
BEIR VI study
Bennett, William R., Jr.
Bernstein, Peter L.
bias: defined, 26; and EMF studies, examples, information bias (reporting bias, recall bias), and passive smoking studies. See also selection bias
Bioelectromagnetics
Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation. See BEIR IV study; BEIR VI study
Blow-Up (movie)
Boice, John
Bracken, Michael
Bray, Dennis
breast cancer, advocacy, cohort studies, contrast between risk perception of public and scientists, downturn in incidence, ecological studies, (fig.); and electric blankets, and EMF studies, established associations, and fat consumption, (fig.), fears associated with, and hormone replacement therapy, incidence vs. mortality confusion, melatonin hypothesis, and nuns, and para-knowledge, and politics, potential environmental causes (see Long Island breast cancer research); regional variation within the U.S., rise of interest in environmental links, statistics, (fig.); summary of take-home points, treatment and prevention of. See also Long Island breast cancer research
British Medical Journal
Broder, Samuel
Brodeur, Paul
caffeine consumption, and benign breast disease
California Environmental Protection Agency
Campion, Edward
cancer: cancer clusters
cancer of the mouth, cervical cancer, colorectal cancer, endometrial cancer, liver cancer. See also breast cancer; electromagnetic field–childhood cancer association; Long Island breast cancer research; lung cancer; radon, occupational exposure of miners; radon, residential; smoking (active); smoking (passive)
Cancer Prevention Study I (CPS I),
Cancer Prevention Study II (CPS II),
carbon monoxide
case-control studies: biases in defined/described, and EMF studies, and passive smoking, and residential radon
case-control studies, and breast cancer research
causation: vs. association, criteria for judging, and EMF studies, and smoking studies, web of. See also dose-response relationship
The Causes of Cancer (Doll and Peto),
Center for Indoor Air Research (CIAR)
cervical cancer
childhood leukemia. See electromagnetic field–childhood cancer association
cholera
CIAR. See Center for Indoor Air Research
Citizen’s Guide to Radon (EPA publication)
A Civil Action (film)
coffee drinking and pancreatic cancer
cohort studies, defined/described, fat consumption/breast cancer studies, occupational radon exposure in miners, and passive smoking–heart disease association, 166–74; and passive smoking–lung cancer studies, strengths and limitations of. See also Women’s Health Study
Cole, L. A.
Colgrove, James
colorectal cancer
confidence interval
confounding: avoided in randomized controlled trials, and EMF studies, examples, as major problem in ecological studies, and passive smoking studies
congressional mandates. See legislation
control groups: and case-control studies, in randomized controlled trials
correlational studies. See ecological studies
costs of distortion about risks, corruption of science due to attempts to create consensus by ignoring divergent evidence, costs of remediation, needless anxiety, resources and attention diverted from bigger risks
CPS I study
CPS II study
Crichton, Michael
Currents of Death (Brodeur)
D’Amato, Alfonse
Darby, S.
Davis, Devra Lee
DDT
Department of Energy
descriptive studies, defined
Doll, Sir Richard
dose-response relationship and active smoking, and EMF studies, and Long Island breast cancer research, (fig.); and passive smoking, and radon studies, (fig.)
Douglas, Mary
drugs. See prescription drugs
Durkheim, Émile
eco-epidemiology
ecological fallacy
ecological studies, defined
electric blankets
Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)
electromagnetic field–childhood cancer association, animal experiments, and causation, conclusions about, and confounding, Currents of Death (Brodeur), differing points of view on value of research, difficulties in assessing exposure, divergent assessments of risk, dose-response relationship, epidemiologists’ tunnel vision, Feychting and Ahlbom study, and funding, inadequate biological rationale, Los Angeles study of, melatonin hypothesis, National Cancer Institute study, null results of studies, occupational studies, Poole and Trichopoulos review article, pooled studies and meta-analyses, rise of interest in, Savitz et al. review article, Savitz et al. study, selection biases, and statistical significance, Stockholm study, Wertheimer and Leeper study, (figs), wire code paradox
electromagnetic fields (EMFs), (fig.); biological implausibility, biological implausibility of effects, and breast cancer, electrical vs. magnetic fields, energy of low frequency radiation, and EPA, exposure metric, fear associated with, and industry, and media, social costs of perceived hazard
ELF-EMF. See electromagnetic
fields
EMF-RAPID program
EMFs. See electromagnetic fields
endocrine disruptors
endometrial cancer
Enstrom, James
environment, scientific meaning of
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), approach to passive smoking, congressionally mandated “action level” for residential radon, “conservative” approach to risks, criticism of passive smoking report, criticism of radon campaign, distortion of passive smoking evidence, distortion of radon evidence, and EMF scare, jurisdiction over radon issue, passive smoking report of radon policy, and rise of concern about residential radon
environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). See smoking (passive)
environmentalism, rise of
EPA. See Environmental Protection Agency
epidemiology, absolute risk vs. relative risk, association vs. causation, confounding and bias, examples, difficulties of, examples of established associations, interaction of several exposures, epidemiology, epidemiology, long time required for studies, low predictive ability at individual level, measures of association, metaanalysis and pooling of studies, and monitoring the health of populations, need for global approach to health, need for inclusion of social factors in disease, overview of science, Peto on, rates epidemiology of occurrence rather than absolute number of cases, rise of, sample size, strengths of, strong relationships already identified, successes of, summary of sources of distortion, summary of take-home points, types of studies, and web of causation. See also bias; case-control studies; cohort studies; confounding; descriptive studies; ecological studies; exposure; meta-analysis; pooling of studies; randomized controlled trials; specific issues
EPRI. See Electric Power Research Institute
Erin Brokovich (film)
ERT. See estrogen replacement therapy
estrogen: and breast cancer and melatonin
estrogen replacement therapy (ERT)
ETS. See smoking (passive)
experts and expert committees
exposure: difficulties in assessing, difficulties in assessing (breast cancer research), difficulties in assessing (EMF research), difficulties in assessing (passive smoking), difficulties in assessing (residential radon), exposure metric for EMFs, interaction of several exposures, (see also radon, residential); misclassification of exposure status (passive smoking), monitoring exposure to secondhand smoke, radon exposure in miners. See also dose-response relationship
external threats, tendency to focus on
Fabrikant, Jacob
fat consumption, and breast cancer
fear, and selection of risks
Feychting, M.
First, Melvin
food irradiation
Foucault, Michel
funding: and breast cancer research, and EMF studies, industry-funded studies automatically discounted, and manufacture of hazards, and passive smoking studies
gamma rays
Gammon, Marilie
Garfinkel, Lawrence
GASP. See Group Against Smokers’ Pollution
genome
geographic information system (GIS)
Gesell, Thomas
GIS. See geographic information system
Glanz, Stanton
Greenland, Sander
Group Against Smokers’ Pollution (GASP)
Guimond, Richard
Hammond, E. Cuyler
Harkin, Tom
Harley, Naomi
Harting, F. H.
Health Effects of Exposure to Radon (National Research Council report)
Health Risks from Radon and Other Internally Deposited Alpha-Emitters (National Research Council report)
heart disease: and alcohol consumption, and confounding, and smoking, and women
Heineman, Ellen
hepatitis B
Hesse, W.
Hill, Austin Bradford
Hinds, William
Hirayama, Takeshi
HIV/AIDS
hormone replacement therapy (HRT): and breast cancer, and causation, and colorectal cancer, and dose-response relationship, and endometrial cancer, established associations
Hornung, Richard
Houk, Vernon
Indoor Radon Abatement Act of
industry. See also tobacco industry
information bias (reporting bias, recall bias)
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)
inverse association
Ioannidis, John P. S.
Jenkins, Roger
Jordan, V. Craig
Journal of the National Cancer Institute
Kabat, G. C.
Kahneman, Daniel
Kluger, Richard
Kolata, Gina
Krewski, D.
Kritchek, Fran
Lautenberg, Frank
Law, M. R.
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories
Layard, M. W.
Leeper, Edward
legislation: on “action level” of residential radon, on breast cancer research, Broder on negative effects of mandates, on EMF-RAPID program, on radon abatement, on restriction of smoking in public places
Létourneau, Ernest
leukemia. See electromagnetic field–childhood cancer association
LeVois, M. E.
lifestyle risks, lack of fear associated with
light, artificial
Lippman, Morton
liver cancer
Long Island breast cancer research, and activism, activists’ disillusionment with studies, characteristics of Long Island population, congressional mandate for research, difficulties in assessing exposure, gulf between scientists and breast cancer activists, and media, missing data problem, need for markers of exposure, null results of studies, persistence of misinformation, politics and funding for, reactions to studies, rise of interest in environmental links to breast cancer, scientific limitations not understood by advocates, studies described, unrealistic expectations for studies
longitudinal studies. See cohort studies
Love, Susan
Lubin, Jay
lung cancer: misinformation about, two-by-two tables, and women. See also radon, occupational exposure of miners; radon, residential; smoking (active); smoking (passive)
mammography
Mantel, Nathan
Markey, Edward
Massachusetts Lung Association
McCarthyism in science
measures of association absolute risk vs. relative risk, confidence interval, inverse association, null value, odds ratio, relative risk, statistical significance
media: and EMF studies, and Long Island breast cancer research, and residential radon, and sociology of hazard assessment
melatonin
meta-analysis: defined/described, and EMF studies, limitations of, misapplication of, and passive smoking– heart disease studies, and passive smoking–lung cancer studies, and radon studies
Microwave News
miners, and radon exposure
misclassification
misinformation risk
Mitchell, George
Morris, Jeremy
National Breast Cancer Coalition
National Cancer Institute
National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
National Research Council (NRC): and EMF studies, and passive smoking, and radon studies
Nature
Nazaroff, William
Nero, Anthony
Neuberger, John
New York Times
The New Yorker
Newsday (Long Island newspaper)
Newsweek
NIEHS. See National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences
nonsmokers’ rights movement
NRC. See National Research Council
nuclear power
null value
nuns, and breast cancer
Oak Ridge National Laboratories
obesity
Obrams, Iris
observational studies. See casecontrol studies; cohort studies; ecological studies
odds ratio
Olden, Kenneth
organochlorine compounds. See DDT; PCBs
Osteen, William
PAH-DNA adducts
Paracelsus
para-knowledge
pattern of playing up initial findings of a hazard
PCBs
peer review process
pesticides
Peto, Sir Richard
politics: and breast cancer research, and passive smoking, and residential radon, role in manufacture of hazards
Poole, C.
pooling of studies, EMF studies, limitations of, residential radon studies
prescription drugs
Proctor, Robert
prospective studies. See cohort studies
public perception of risk, and absolute risk vs. relative risk, belief and advocacy, contrast to scientists’ perceptions of risk, and paradoxes and uncertainties about residential radon, public consensus on passive smoking, social construction of risk selection, types of risks that invoke fear. See also activism; sociology of hazard assessment
radon, occupational exposure of miners, BEIR IV study, BEIR VI study, dose-response relationship, (fig.); interpretation of BEIR VI study, synergism with smoking, radon, residential, 111–45, 184; absolute risk for smokers vs. nonsmokers, 136; biological activity of radon, 111; case-control studies, 130–32; compared to risks of smoking, congressionally mandated “action level” for, contrast between risk perception of public and scientists, costs of remediation, difficulties in assessing exposure, difficulties of extrapolating from miners to residential exposure, divergent view of risks, EPA campaign, EPA campaign, criticism of, EPA’s distortion of evidence, excess odds ratio, high variability of, interaction with smoking, interaction with smoking ignored, interpretation of BEIR VI study, legislation on, and media, meta-analysis, misinformation about, natural origins of, 114; need for focus on highly contaminated homes, paradoxes and uncertainties, and paraknowledge, and politics, pooling of studies, and residential mobility, results of studies in the rise of concern about, risk assessments, studies’ lack of focus on nonsmokers, summary of take-home points, and women
Radon Gas and Indoor Air Quality Research Act of
Radon Reduction Methods (EPA publication)
raloxifene
Ramazzini, Bernardino
randomized controlled trials
Reagan, Ronald
recall bias. See information bias
regulatory agencies, role in manufacture of hazards. See also Environmental Protection Agency; politics; U.S. Surgeon General
relative risk: vs. absolute risk, examples of most meaningful reporting methods, as measure of association in cohort studies. See also specific diseases and hazards
reporting bias. See information bias
reproductive factors in breast cancer, 50
Respiratory Health Effects of Passive Smoking (EPA report)
risk factor
risk factor epidemiology
risk perception. See public perception of risk
Robert Woods Johnson Foundation
Rothman, Ken
Samet, Jonathan
sample size
Sandler, Dale P.
Savitz, David
Schiliro, Phil
scientific evidence, distorted in radon campaign, distorted in tobacco wars, evidence contested by stakeholders, examples of most meaningful reporting methods, interpretation of, and manufacture of hazards, intriguing results of small, early studies not borne out, long time required for studies, preliminary findings taken out of context, questionable means used to achieve beneficial ends, scientific limitations not understood by activists, “self silencing,” and sociology of hazard assessment, summary of sources of distortion. See also epidemiology; specific issues scientists: “fashions” and political pressures in science, and funding, gulf between epidemiologists and physicists on EMF question, gulf between scientists and breast cancer activists, and McCarthyism in science, role in manufacture of hazards, (see also specific issues); scientists’ vs. public’s perception of risk, vested interests of
scleroderma
secondhand smoke. See smoking (passive)
selection bias: avoided in cohort studies, and case-control studies, and EMF studies
SERMs
Shubik, Philippe
Siegel, Michael
silicone breast implants
silver mining
Slesin, Louis
smoking (active), absolute risk vs. relative risk, correlation with other lifestyle factors, dose-response relationship, and ecological studies, and heart disease, and Hill’s criteria for judging causation, interaction with alcohol, interaction with radon, interaction with radon ignored, radon studies’ lack of focus on nonsmokers, restriction of smoking in public places, and rise of epidemiology, two-by-two tables
smoking (passive), and association vs. causation, and asthma, biological plausibility of effects, and heart disease, and para-knowledge, Peto’s testimony before the House of Lords, and respiratory infections, summary of take-home points. See also following headings
smoking (passive), exposure issues: difficulties in assessing exposure, low amount of typical exposure, misclassification of exposure status, moni
smoking (passive), political issues, antismoking movement, early agency reports, EPA report, EPA report, criticism of, funding issues, industry-funded studies automatically discounted, null results and subsequent negative response to British Medical Journal article, origins of antismoking campaign, questionable means used to achieve beneficial ends, recent agency reports
smoking (passive), studies: biases, blurring of distinction between active and passive smoking, and confounding, distortion of evidence, industry-funded studies automatically discounted, meta-analysis of heart disease studies, meta-analysis of lung cancer studies, null results and subsequentnegative response to British Medical Journal article, null results of studies, studies described
Snow, John
social context of disease
“social facts,”
sociology of health hazards and absolute risk vs. relative risk, belief and advocacy, consideration of benefits as well as risks, contrast between risk perception of public and scientists, costs of distortion about risks, influence of regulatory agencies and expert committees, interrelations of factors, and McCarthyism in science, measurement of low-level contaminants, and media, misuse of science for political ends, para-knowledge, and politics, and public perception of risk, rise of epidemiology and environmentalism, role of scientists, and scientific evidence, selection of risks. See also epidemiology; experts and expert committees; politics; scientific evidence; scientists; specific issues
statistical significance
Steenland
Steinfeld, Jesse L.
Stellman, Steven
Stevens, Charles
Stevens, Richard
Sullum, Jacob
Surgeon General. See U.S. Surgeon General
Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health
tamoxifen
Teichman, Kevin
thermal noise of the body
Thomas, Lee
Three Mile Island nuclear power plant
Thun, Michael
tobacco industry: and antismoking activists’ tactics, criticism of EPA report, funding for studies, and rise of nonsmokers’ rights movement
tobacco wars. See smoking (active); smoking (passive)
Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (TRDRP)
Toniolo, Paolo
toxicology
TRDRP. See Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program
Trichopoulos, D.
Tversky, Amos
two-by-two tables
ultraviolet radiation
Ungar, Sheldon
Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act of
uranium mining
U.S. Surgeon General
vaccines
vitamins
Wald, N. J.
Warner, Kenneth
Watras, Stanley
Waxman, Henry
Weinberg, Clarice
Wertheimer, Nancy
Wildavsky, Aaron
Winn, Deborah
Wolff, Mary
women: and lung cancer–passive smoking association, (fig.); and lung cancer–radon association, statistics for heart disease, lung disease, and breast cancer. See also breast cancer; hormone replacement therapy; Long Island breast cancer research
Women’s Health Initiative, findings regarding hormone replacement therapy
Women’s Health Study
World Cancer Research Fund
World Health Organization
Wynder, Ernst
X-rays
Yalow, Rosalind
Yuhnke, Robert