WHO's current policies and plans for reform.

Individuals living in houses with a high radon concentration have a significantly increased frequency of chromosomal aberrations in peripheral lymphocytes, the a-dose being delivered mainly by the radon daughter nuclides "'Po and 214PO. Some epidemiological and geographical studies have suggested an association between a-particle exposure via radon and the occurrence of leukaemia, brain tumours, and kidney cancer, especially in children. 5 The presence of 210Po in vehicle exhausts may be unique in terms of what is known of its carcinogenic potential at environmental exposure levels. In our view it should be added to the list of potential carcinogens from motor vehicles to which the population is exposed. distribution of naturally occurring 210Po and 226Ra in children's teeth. SIR-In your Jan 28 editorial you make an ill-informed attack on the World Health Organization. By coincidence, your editorial appeared as the Executive Board of WHO concluded one of its most constructive sessions in recent years, during which it endorsed a wide range of important reforms and helped to set its targets and priorities for the future. No one from The Lancet attended any of the board's eleven working days. Far from adopting "a fortress mentality, fighting bitterly to retain the status quo and meanwhile allowing goodwill and opportunities for revitalisation to slip away", WHO is dedicating itself to radical change, to greater openness and to closer relations with its partners in health. You seem out of touch with WHO's current policies and reforms, and make sweeping and inaccurate assertions. For example, you say "the mental and societal dimensions of health are virtually ignored"-but WHO's Division of Mental Health made world headlines with a major 14-country study of mental illness published in December, 1994, in the Journal of the Arnerican Medical Association. Another example is, "Appropriate respect for national sovereignty has been overtaken by blind obeisance to narrow national wishes-eg, the desire to avoid embarrassment, as in admitting that an epidemic is underway". WHO intervened directly in the plague outbreak in India last September. The Director-General went to India, met the Prime Minister and Health Minister, and set up in India an international team that thoroughly investigated the outbreak and produced a full report. You say that WHO "remains essentially unaccountable", but it is directly accountable to each and all of its 189 member states (whom you also describe as its "official shareholders") through the Executive Board and the World Health Assembly. The …