“The [Radiation and Public Health Project] “Tooth Fairy Project” “..grew out of the work of Dr. Jay Gould, Director of the Radiation and Public Health Project and author of The Enemy Within: The High Cost of Living Near Nuclear Reactors. By analyzing 50 years of US National Cancer Institute data, Dr. Gould proved that.of the 3,000-odd counties in the United States, women living in about 1,300 nuclear counties (located within 100 miles of a reactor) are at the greatest risk of dying of breast cancer..”"
-Flyby News
(about halfway down the page, under Campaigns*Actions*Events)
The “Tooth Fairy Project” is a total joke of a study–without control groups, a set sample, basic procedures to prevent data tampering, a uniform method for collecting data, and with many uncontrolled variables going as far back as the origin of the sample. See the September 30 Quote of the Day for my commentary on it, as well as an interesting comment from an anti-nuclear activist at the end.
Economist Jay Gould’s epidemiology study is different, but still run by the Radiation and Public Health Project, and the result is almost as weird. One would expect (here’s another anti-nuclear activist who doesn’t know what an average is), since there are 3,000 counties, that 1,500 would be above average. My guess is he’s talking about average. He’s not very specific about what “greatest risk” means, but even if it was a tenfold increase in cancer rates, this is misleading.
What he does not say is that there is no relationship between the distance between the county and the reactor and cancer rates. Some instances show the county where the plant is having lower cancer rates and the ones surrounding it having higher ones. So what gets distributed? “Counties around nuclear power plant show higher cancer rates.” True, but meaningless. Other instances have the reactor’s county having higher cancer rates, but none surrounding, or the predictable 50% of counties are above average, or the ones with higher rates are at the edge of the zone, etc., etc…
Lake Antinuke: where all the opponents are bribed, all the citizens are right, and all the cancer rates are above average.
Filed under Anti-Nuclear Quote of the Day, Crackpots, Environment, Fun With Statistics, Health, Radiation, Scientific Method
Posted on October 31, 2005 by Stewart Peterson |
