Even if you have a real risk of 1/1,000,000 how do you ever sort that out when the background rate is 300,000/1,000,000?
Do you ban a substance that may save lives such as clorinated water. A small amount of organochlorines is produced which may produce a 1/1,000,000 lifetime risk of cancer but has saved millions of lives since its introduction?
It is really a shame that epidemiology is not tought to the vast majority of students.
Completely agree. I think the fundamental problem is that most people don't have - and never learn - a sense of history period - let alone the massive benefits that modern practices have for the well being of society as a whole.
That creates a big hole in a place where a standard of comparison should have been in my opinion.
It is really a shame that epidemiology is not tought to the vast majority of students.
If not true epidemioligy, basics of risk (and statistics) at least. Not to mention basic cost benefit analysis. Ethics will have to be addressed, but the current approach of assessing only the risks and not the benefits is a very serious problem as you very correctly point out.