When the data were analyzed and tabulated, there must have been a number of stunned Johns Hopkins Ph.D.s wondering what had happened. They started out to show the adverse effects of gamma radiation and ended up showing that it enhanced healthfulness.
The first page of the "Summary of Findings" tells the story:
"The all cause mortality is highest for the NNW [Nones] group and lowest for the NW>0.5 [Highs] which certainly does not suggest that radiation causes a general risk of health. In fact, in the NW>0.5 group, the mortality is only 76 percent of that of the general population and is significantly lower than would be expected."
Following these statements are eight pages of possible explanations of what may have happened to give such unexpected results. One suggestion was to use the Lows as the comparison group instead of the Nones, but even this still has the higher exposed group with the lowest overall death rate... not what was expected. An attempt to explain away the unusual with the usual "healthy worker effect" was mentioned, though without much enthusiasm. But nothing in the report even got close to explaining the numbers printed in the report under "Actual Data."
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