In message <199408252138.OAA15395@well.sf.ca.us> Brad Dolan writes:
On the other hand I say that such studies are poor criteria for judging the effects of radiation intended to do the maximum possible harm.
Well, these studies are about all we have to go on right now. The wartime residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki do provide a large set of folks exposed to "radiation intended to do the maximum possible harm" but, darn it, none of them were wearing dosimeters. People do study these groups, making educated guesses about doses, but it's hard to draw precise conclusions on that basis.
There is a Sufi parable about a guy who loses something on a dark street. His friend finds him searching the ground carefully at the corner under a street light. He asks him what he is doing, and he explains that he dropped something. "Where?" "Down the street." "Then why are you looking here?" "Because there is a light down here." -- Jim Dixon