Bernard Cohen Professor Emeritus of Physics, University of Pittsburgh

Bernard Cohen

Professor Emeritus of Physics,
University of Pittsburgh

Curriculum Vita

Some of my publications that are most currently useful are accessible below. Items 1-6  and 9 are in PDF format that can be read with Adobe Acrobat. Items 7,8, and 10-16 are text only. .      Items 1,2,7,8,14 and 16 deal with our test of the linear-no threshold theory of radiation induced cancer, based on lung cancer rates vs radon exposures in U.S. counties. #7 is the best place to start in reading about that study; it reviews and justifies the procedures, with  special emphasis on treatment of confounding factors.  #1 is the basic paper published in 1995. #2 is an extension involving substantial additional data. #8 is a less technical fairly recent review of that project, but parts of it are superseded by #7. Several other papers on that study are included in my list of publications in the CV. Item #14 is a response to a criticism of that work published in a British journal. Item #15 is a response to a very interesting observation by Puskin relevant to that work. Item #16 is my response to a letter by Mossman published in the July 2003 edition of Health Physics News.           Items 3 and 9  are  wide ranging review papers, analyzing the validity of the linear-no threshold theory.            Item 4 is the latest version of my Catalog of Risks, my attempt to put the risks we all face into perspective.           Items 5, 6, 10, and 11 deal with my work on radioactive waste.  #5 gives a rather complete technical treatment of my probabilistic risk analysis (PRA) of wastes from generation of electricity. #10 is a recent brief presentation of the PRA, emphasizing a modified viewpoint. #11 is a less technical broad overview of the risks from high level radioactive waste. #6 deals with the issue of discounting in assessing far future health impacts, such as those considered in items 5,10, and 11.            Item 12 is my book �The Nuclear Energy Option� published by Plenum Press in 1990. Figures are missing (few are important for understanding the text) and the editing is deficient, but otherwise, the material is there.      Item 13 gives instructions for anyone to access our data on which #1 is based.

1. Test of the linear-no threshold theory .... (8.8 MB PDF)
2. Update of test of the linear-no threshold theory .... (4.0 MB PDF)
3. Cancer Risk from Low-Level Radiation
4. Catalog of risks (17.0 MB PDF)
5. Risk Analysis of Buried Wastes from Electricity Generation (5.0 MB PDF)
6. Discounting in Assessment of Future Radiation Risks (5.1 MB PDF)
7. Treatment of Confounding Factors in a Test of the Linear-No Threshold Theory, or
Test of Linear-No Threshold Theory: Rationale for Procedures (186 kB HTML)
8. Test of the Linear-no Threshold Theory-Recent Semi-popular  (71 kB HTML)
9. The Cancer Risk from Low Level Radiation (601 kB PDF)
10. Probabilistic risk analysis of a high level radioactive waste repository (37 kB HTML)
11. Perspectives on the risks from buried high level waste (98 kB HTML)
12. Book-The Nuclear Energy Option (1.5 MB HTML)
13. Instruction for accessing data file (6 kB HTML)
14. Response to The potential for bias in Cohen�s ecological analysis of lung cancer and residential radon (23 kB HTML)
15. Response to suggestion by Puskin of an alternative explanation of my data
16. Response to Mossman Letter to Editor, Health Physics News, July 2003
17. Understanding the Toxicity of Buried Radioactive Waste and Its Impacts

 Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh