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| |  | | (This debate is closed and is a read-only archive.) | | Putting rising cancer rates in context
[25-Oct-2005]
| Some clarity needs to be added to the remarks of some contributor to this spiked-debate.
| Ingrid Dickenson says: 'How can a lecturer in sociology pass judgement upon a subject which requires detailed knowledge of physics, biology and medicine? Mike Dolan is a lawyer. I doubt that understands these subjects either.' Since Dickenson doesn't have 'detailed knowledge of physics, biology and medicine', I presume that she also discounts her own views as having no value.
| As for Eileen O'Connor, it might come as a surprise to her that cancer rates are rising, and have to rise. People are living longer, and aren't dying of as many things as used to be the case. Of course cancer rates are rising - it's an inevitable consequence of people living much longer than was historically the case.
| The evidence that she quotes is data dredging at its worst. Of all of these so-called studies claiming to find 'significant health effects, such as headaches, dizziness, depression, fatigue, sleep disorder, difficulty in concentration and cardiovascular problems', there are two problems worth noting. First, the claimed health effects are never found in any studies seeking replication or confirmation. At best, later studies find some other effect not reported in the first study. Second, the effects found are so statistically small that they fail any test of significance. The 'fourfold increase in cancer' sounds threatening, but when it's based upon a tiny incidence to begin with, it becomes meaningless.
| Most humorous of all, O'Connor doesn't bother to mention any of the studies which might have shown no such effect. A touch of selective researching, perhaps?
| What O'Connor really wants is found in her fifth paragraph - namely the precautionary principle, which stands in practice for 'build absolutely nothing anywhere, because you'll never convince me that the effects I'm terrified of aren't happening'. Her views have a great deal to do with public fearmongering, and nothing to do with science.
| Colin Hunt, Canada
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