Reply #2: Ya can't do much epidemiology looking at only raw totals and refusing ... [View All]

to compute any ratios. And, of course, I naturally suspect that the next time I ever dare to quote raw totals, you'll be happily sneering that I should have used percentages instead.

In any case, it is not at all clear how to reliably compare mortality for which a industrial cause seems immediately obvious to mortality for which an industrial cause is statistically inferred.

For the diffuse morbidity and mortality, which is estimated only by crude epidemiology, it is clear that poorly designed studies will underestimate effects, by mixing groups that should have remained separate. But there is another problem: in many cases, morbidity mechanisms cannot determined precisely enough to allocate a casuality to a cause; and in fact in many cases, a multiplicity of insults may all have contributed to the final outcome. Crudely speaking, the problem of allocating a cancer (to an immune problem or to radiation damage or to chemical exposure or etc) may impossible because the different steps in a multistep process may have distinct causes.

Nor is it clear to me exactly what events to count, even in the concrete case: people die by electrocution, regardless of the type of generator; people die traffic accidents going to or from the power plant, regardless of type; in the coal, hydro, and nuclear plants, people fall off ladders.

Meanwhile, electrocity is obviously providing some benefits that may improve health and prolong life, such as improved hygiene conditions.

So my reaction to your anecdotes about coal-mining accidents is not that there's no real issue but rather that the debate will be a sticky wicket the resolution of which would not only require hard tedious work --- and but would also likely be entirely irrelevant politically.


BTW, the Texas Tech system was (last I looked) separate from University of Texas system ( http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/ed.toc.htm ). People sometimes like their real home institution to get credit for their presence.