On Sun, 19 Jul 1998, James Crocker wrote:

> On 07/17/98 05:15:43 you wrote:
> >The best predictor of Down's
> >Syndrome is the mother's exposure to radiation prior to the
> >pregnancy.
>
> Do you have any references for this?  It's true that strong ionizing radiation could possibly
> exhibit tetragenic effects to a fetus.  But I find it highly unlikely that radiation exposure
> *before* pregnancy would do much of anything to the mother, not to mention the pre-concieved
> fetus.

See Robert Mendelsohn, M.D., _Male Practice: How Doctors
Manipulate Women_ (Chicago, 1981).  Also _Journal of Epidemiology
and Community Health_ (1995) 49:164-70.  _Lancet_ (1994) 344:
1134-36.  The Lancet article shows the increase in Downs babies
in Berlin nine months after the Chernobyl incident.

Mendelsohn criticizes the prevalent view that the age of the
mother is the main risk factor for DS, except to the extent that
age is positively correlated with radiation exposure.  African
Americans, for example, have fewer DS babies than white Americans
do, controlling for age variables.  They also get fewer X-rays.
Obviously, there are other differences, but in the context of
other evidence linking radiation with DS risk the pattern is not
hard to discern.

Todd Moody
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