Scared Senseless (book review)

Wall Street Journal ^ | September 11, 2008 | Ronald Bailey

[reaganaut1]

In "Hyping Health Risks," Geoffrey Kabat, an epidemiologist himself, shows how activists, regulators and scientists distort or magnify minuscule environmental risks. He duly notes the accomplishments of epidemiology, such as uncovering the risks of tobacco smoking and the dangers of exposure to vinyl chloride and asbestos. And he acknowledges that industry has attempted to manipulate science. But he is concerned about a less reported problem: "The highly charged climate surrounding environmental health risks can create powerful pressure for scientists to conform and to fall into line with a particular position."

Mr. Kabat looks at four claims -- those trying to link cancer to man-made chemicals, electromagnetic fields and radon and to link cancer and heart disease to passive smoking. In each, he finds more bias than biology -- until further research, years later, corrects exaggeration or error.

...

[reaganaut1]

Anti-global warming programs will have costs that dwarf these scares.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

I know whereof Mr. Kabat speaks. In 1992, as the producer of a PBS program, I interviewed an epidemiologist who was on the EPA's passive-smoking scientific advisory board. He admitted to me that the EPA had put its thumb on the evidentiary scales to come to its conclusion. He had lent his name to this process because, he said, he wanted "to remain relevant to the policy process." Naturally, he didn't want to appear on TV contradicting the EPA.

The corruption of Science.

[neverdem]

bump & a ping

[Gabz]

Nanny State PING..............

This type nonsense has been going on for years, but the MSM refuse to call these activists out on it.

Dr. Kabat knows exactly what he is talking about.

[patton]

BTTT

[djsherin]

Of course they won’t cover it. People who ignore the “science” behind global warming are bought out by big business they’re morally equivalent to holocaust deniers. Get with the program. /s

[metmom]

This sort of thing is what happened with the Nalgene bottles, which are now scarcer than hens teeth.

There’s this big broohaha about bisphenol-A leaching from polycarbonate, but according to the study done, water kept in a Nalgene bottle at room temperature had no bisphenol-A in it. The only time it showed up at 5 ppb, was in baby bottles kept at 170 degrees for 24 hours. Like anyone keeps baby bottles at that temperature for that period of time.

I need to ask mr. mm where he read of that study, but we certainly are not giving up our nalgene bottles or any other polycarbonate. The short time of exposure that our drinks have to polycarbonate the few times we use them does not expose us to any level of risk that we feel is significant.

I’m probably much more likely to get hit by a car crossing the street or get struck by lightning that suffer any side effects from the bisphenol-A that hasn’t leached into my room temperature Nalgene bottle that held my water for 3 hours.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[beckysueb]

I got into a discussion with my 17 year old grandaughter yesterday about these things. She doesn’t really believe in the global warming scam but she is absolutely convinced about SHS. I couldn’t talk her out of it. I told her smoking would make her stink and it is a bloody inconvienience these days cause you are treated like a leper and can’t smoke anywhere anyway so don’t even start.

[SunkenCiv]

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[Fred Nerks]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20080605.shtml

TROFIM LYSENKO

Find out more about this subject by using our research page

In 1928, as America heads towards the Wall Street Crash, Joseph Stalin reveals his master plan - nature is to be conquered by science, Russia to be made brutally, glitteringly modern and the world transformed by communist endeavour.

Into the heart of this vision stepped Trofim Lysenko, a self-taught geneticist who promised to turn Russian wasteland into a grain-laden Garden of Eden.

Today, Lysenko is a byword for fraud but in Stalin’s Russia his ideas became law. They reveal a world of science distorted by ideology, where ideas were literally a matter of life and death. To disagree with Lysenko risked the gulag and yet he damaged, perhaps irreparably, the Soviet Union’s capacity to fight and win the Cold War.

(The USSR’s very own AL GORE?)

[grey_whiskers]

He admitted to me that the EPA had put its thumb on the evidentiary scales to come to its conclusion. He had lent his name to this process because, he said, he wanted "to remain relevant to the policy process."

"We must join with him, Gandalf."
"We must join with Sauron."

Cheers!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Great. Now you’ve done it! Here’s tomorrow’s headline:

“Scientists Discover Getting Hit By a Car Bad for Your Health” ;)

I work with a guy whose wife is a total EnviroNatzie. She has him jumping through hoops because she wears the pants in the family to start with, but she’s got him terrified of EVERY little health scare that comes along.

When this plastics scare came out, he started drinking water (he drinks gallons a day for some unknown reason) from a mason jar. It looks like he’s drinking Moonshine all day long.

These people are nuts. How on Earth did our ancestors manage to survive REAL threats like Saber-toothed Tigers, natural wildfires, floods, famine and the like? *SMIRK*

[Joya]

Interesting. Thanks.

[SunkenCiv]

Ping!

[Rurudyne]

Thanks ... loved another forumite’s earlier post about Russia’s own Algore. May ours be much less successful!