Roger Ceragioli wrote: >These are good points, Tom. And so perhaps the medical effects of >exposure to light at night could assist in the persuasion? People >usually become quite concerned when they hear about cancer. > >At any rate, I was trying to redirect the original thread away from >worrying about getting sick from doing astronomy at night > The intent of my original post was not to get everyone worried about "...getting sick from doing astronomy...". I just asked a question "...is [there] any data indicating amateur or professional astronomers are more prone to breast, colon, or prostrate cancer", and this is an important question. Because it _appears_ the link between night lighting in night jobs and the increase in the cancer rate has still not been firmly established (it is still a 'theory' according to the newspaper article), then if it can be shown that people with jobs or activities at night with low light levels or exposure, such as astronomers both amateur and professional (or maybe even night watchmen), are less prone to breast, colon, or prostrate cancer, then this would help cement the link between night lights and cancer. Alternatively, if there is not a link (melatonin is still produced at night but at lower levels when light is present) between night jobs and lights, and in fact the increase in the cancer rate is caused by disrupting the normal diurnal-nocturnal body rhythms, then this is important to know also so we can better run our own lives. Stan -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list.