Jon Entine, Marcel Bruins | October 30, 2019
Green advocacy groups, mostly based in Europe, are the single biggest impediment to sustainable agriculture, said GLP executive director Jon Entine in an interview with Marcel Bruins, editorial director of European Seed magazine and website.
CRISPR and other gene-editing and New Breeding Techniques are fast being adopted around the world, although many ‘environmental activist’ groups are doing their best to frighten the public and intimidate legislators into erecting insurmountable regulatory barriers. They’ve been largely successful in Europe, which is blocking gene-edited crops under legislation passed in the pre-CRISPR era in 2001, Entine said, but the rest of the world is more open to the innovations.
Entine was interviewed in mid-October at the annual Euroseeds Congress 2019, held in Stockholm............To Read More.........
Thursday, October 31, 2019
Saturday, October 19, 2019
When Experts Make Mistakes: 3 Ways to Spot Junk in Science Journals
By Cameron English — October 11, 2019
The popular press regularly botches its science reporting. Not a week goes by without an exaggerated headline about the so-called “vaping epidemic” or a news story erroneously warning that an innocuous pesticide causes cancer.
Fact checking the media's sloppy science journalism is one of my favorite pastimes, but it also prompts an important question: why does the press bungle its science coverage so frequently? Sometimes it's because reporters are gullible, ideological, or have no particular interest in or knowledge of the topic they're covering. But another serious problem is that universities, science journals, and individual experts often get things wrong. The scientific community knows this all too well, as cancer epidemiologist Geoffrey Kabat recently explained:
Please support the work of the American Council on Science and Health, Your Donations to ACSH Will Be Doubled!
The popular press regularly botches its science reporting. Not a week goes by without an exaggerated headline about the so-called “vaping epidemic” or a news story erroneously warning that an innocuous pesticide causes cancer.
Fact checking the media's sloppy science journalism is one of my favorite pastimes, but it also prompts an important question: why does the press bungle its science coverage so frequently? Sometimes it's because reporters are gullible, ideological, or have no particular interest in or knowledge of the topic they're covering. But another serious problem is that universities, science journals, and individual experts often get things wrong. The scientific community knows this all too well, as cancer epidemiologist Geoffrey Kabat recently explained:
[T]he public and journalists – the consumers of information about health – need to be aware of something that researchers know well – there is no [study] that is so dreadful that it cannot be published somewhere.If you're a consumer of science news, or just a curious person looking for information on nutrition or medicine, you have to learn how to spot junk science in sources that are typically reliable and evaluate claims made by people who are usually trustworthy. So here are a few guidelines that have helped me separate sound research from misinformation, as both a science writer and a consumer..............To Read More...
Please support the work of the American Council on Science and Health, Your Donations to ACSH Will Be Doubled!
Friday, October 11, 2019
Your Donations to ACSH Will Be Doubled!
Request From the American Council on Science and Health
Many years ago, a friend asked: "Why do you do what you do?" The reply was simple: "To make a difference." That's why Elizabeth Whelan, Norman Borlaug and Frederick Stare founded ACSH 41 years ago. The American public was getting bad information. Those three set out to change that.
And of late, we've been making quite a difference. Dr. Josh Bloom got the U.S. Surgeon General to walk-back an erroneous statement, equating Tylenol and IV-morphine. Dr. Alex Berezow worked with an ACSH science advisor, who's an AMA board member, to stop the AMA from declaring glyphosate unsafe.
But we can't do this important work without funding.
We have to pay rent and to keep the lights on. You can help by donating today. And if you give this week your gift will have twice the impact. As you probably know, an ACSH donor has pledged to DOUBLE our online gifts, and we're 76 percent of the way to our goal. But we need to hit that worthy target within the next two weeks. So please give: JUST CLICK HERE
Many years ago, a friend asked: "Why do you do what you do?" The reply was simple: "To make a difference." That's why Elizabeth Whelan, Norman Borlaug and Frederick Stare founded ACSH 41 years ago. The American public was getting bad information. Those three set out to change that.
And of late, we've been making quite a difference. Dr. Josh Bloom got the U.S. Surgeon General to walk-back an erroneous statement, equating Tylenol and IV-morphine. Dr. Alex Berezow worked with an ACSH science advisor, who's an AMA board member, to stop the AMA from declaring glyphosate unsafe.
But we can't do this important work without funding.
We have to pay rent and to keep the lights on. You can help by donating today. And if you give this week your gift will have twice the impact. As you probably know, an ACSH donor has pledged to DOUBLE our online gifts, and we're 76 percent of the way to our goal. But we need to hit that worthy target within the next two weeks. So please give: JUST CLICK HERE
Thursday, October 10, 2019
The Green 'New' Deal is the Old Agenda 21
October 9, 2019 By Daniel John Sobieski
Greta Thunberg became the poster child for climate hysteria and fraud by sailing across the Atlantic in a supposedly “zero-carbon” yacht, the Malizia II, which in fact was made out of petroleum products from stem to stern, as pointed out by CFACT:..........
........Agenda 21, as Investor’s Business Daily (IBD) noted in a June 7, 2012 editorial, was a fundamental assault on the rights our Founding Fathers fought for, the basis for the freedoms and democracy that we enjoy. It is all for surrendering those rights on the altar of “social justice” and planetary salvation:
Greta Thunberg became the poster child for climate hysteria and fraud by sailing across the Atlantic in a supposedly “zero-carbon” yacht, the Malizia II, which in fact was made out of petroleum products from stem to stern, as pointed out by CFACT:..........
........Agenda 21, as Investor’s Business Daily (IBD) noted in a June 7, 2012 editorial, was a fundamental assault on the rights our Founding Fathers fought for, the basis for the freedoms and democracy that we enjoy. It is all for surrendering those rights on the altar of “social justice” and planetary salvation:
One of those is property rights. "Land... cannot be treated as an ordinary asset, controlled by individuals and subject to the pressures and inefficiencies of the market," Agenda 21 says. "Private land ownership is also a principal instrument of accumulation and concentration of wealth and therefore contributes to social injustice; if unchecked, it may become a major obstacle in the planning and implementation of development schemes."............Something wicked this way comes and it is called the Green New Deal. The direct descendant of Agenda 21 and Agenda 2030, it will, if fully implemented, complete President Obama’s promised fundamental transformation of America from the land of the free to the home of the impoverished and enslaved..............To Read More.....
Saturday, October 5, 2019
Can Nuclear Waste Be Safely Transported?
By Josh Bloom — October 3, 2019 @ American Council on Science and Health
The anti-nuclear crowd uses an assortment of scares to turn public opinion against the use of nuclear power, one of them being the risk of an accident when spent nuclear fuel is transported to where it is to be disposed of. Are they right? Or is it possible to safely move nuclear waste around?
Yesterday I learned quite a bit about this when I visited the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History near Albuquerque New Mexico. It's a fascinating museum full of amazing exhibits – a must-see for anyone in the area.
One exhibit demonstrates the conditions in which the containers used to transport nuclear waste must withstand without breaking open or exploding.
Containers are burned for 30 minutes in a pool of jet fuel at a temperature of 1425°F.
They are submerged in 50 feet of water (21 psi).
Additionally, a 2016 report issued by the US Department of Energy Nuclear Fuels Storage and Transportation Planning Project concluded that "The quantity of [spent nuclear fuel] shipped worldwide to date is at least 87,000 metric tons of heavy metal" and "Review of the data sources shows that all of these shipments were undertaken without any injury or loss of life caused by the radioactive nature of the material transported. In general, there have been few transportation accidents worldwide in the history of transporting SNF, and none have had significant radiological consequences."
Given the current emphasis on fuels and their environmental impact, the public should be aware of the real risks and track record of transporting nuclear waste. Barrels of spent uranium will not fall off the back of a truck and burst open in the middle of a city, nor will they explode or leak in a fire.
ACSH has maintained for years that nuclear energy is clean and, with rare exceptions, safe. And it is now safer. (See my colleague Alex Berezow's companion piece on a new proposal for nuclear waste storage.)
Neither wind nor sun is capable of meeting the world's energy needs. Dismissing the use of nuclear energy because of false or overhyped scares helps no one except the activists.
 |
The National Museum of Nuclear Science
& History near Albuquerque New Mexico.
Don't Miss It.
|
Yesterday I learned quite a bit about this when I visited the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History near Albuquerque New Mexico. It's a fascinating museum full of amazing exhibits – a must-see for anyone in the area.
One exhibit demonstrates the conditions in which the containers used to transport nuclear waste must withstand without breaking open or exploding.
 |
| A nuclear waste container. The plexiglass window is not part of the container; it enables people to view the contents of the container. |
There are different types of nuclear waste with very different levels of radiation; the precautions for medical nuclear waste are less stringent than those for spent fuel from reactors. The containers used for the latter must withstand conditions that look like they might come from a Road Runner cartoon. Here are some of them. |
| Falls and punctures |
- Containers are cooled to -20°F.
- They are dropped (in multiple orientations) from 30 feet onto an unyielding reinforced steel plate.
- They are dropped multiple times onto 30 feet steel puncture bars.
 |
| Fire and pressure |
- The container itself, as well as its contents, are tested to ensure that they are "leak-tight" according to criteria developed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Additionally, a 2016 report issued by the US Department of Energy Nuclear Fuels Storage and Transportation Planning Project concluded that "The quantity of [spent nuclear fuel] shipped worldwide to date is at least 87,000 metric tons of heavy metal" and "Review of the data sources shows that all of these shipments were undertaken without any injury or loss of life caused by the radioactive nature of the material transported. In general, there have been few transportation accidents worldwide in the history of transporting SNF, and none have had significant radiological consequences."
Given the current emphasis on fuels and their environmental impact, the public should be aware of the real risks and track record of transporting nuclear waste. Barrels of spent uranium will not fall off the back of a truck and burst open in the middle of a city, nor will they explode or leak in a fire.
ACSH has maintained for years that nuclear energy is clean and, with rare exceptions, safe. And it is now safer. (See my colleague Alex Berezow's companion piece on a new proposal for nuclear waste storage.)
Neither wind nor sun is capable of meeting the world's energy needs. Dismissing the use of nuclear energy because of false or overhyped scares helps no one except the activists.
Thursday, October 3, 2019
Mann, Hayhoe try to erase the Medieval warm period
Climate alarmists Michael Mann and Katharine Hayhoe have been caught using dubious, revisionist temperature data in their attempt, as one Climategate email author put it, to “deal a mortal blow” to the extensively documented Medieval Warm Period.
Before climate change became a political issue, it was scientifically well-established that a significant global warming event occurred between approximately 900 AD and 1200 AD. For example, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) First Assessment Report presented a temperature history and visual graph documenting that the Medieval Warm Period existed and that it brought temperatures at least as warm as today (at pg. 7). Multiple peer-reviewed studies provided additional confirmation of the Medieval Warm Period.
The warming climate of the Medieval Warm Period spurred abundant crop production, fewer extreme droughts and floods, growing human population, and improving living standards. The Little Ice Age terminated the Medieval Warm Period and brought devastating weather extremes, widespread crop failures, famines, plagues like the Black Death, and a contracting human population. (For a good summary of the extensive benefits of the Medieval Warm Period and the devastating harms of the Little Ice Age, see the excellent book, “In the Wake of the Plage: The Black Death and the World It Created.”).........To Read More....
Before climate change became a political issue, it was scientifically well-established that a significant global warming event occurred between approximately 900 AD and 1200 AD. For example, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) First Assessment Report presented a temperature history and visual graph documenting that the Medieval Warm Period existed and that it brought temperatures at least as warm as today (at pg. 7). Multiple peer-reviewed studies provided additional confirmation of the Medieval Warm Period.
The warming climate of the Medieval Warm Period spurred abundant crop production, fewer extreme droughts and floods, growing human population, and improving living standards. The Little Ice Age terminated the Medieval Warm Period and brought devastating weather extremes, widespread crop failures, famines, plagues like the Black Death, and a contracting human population. (For a good summary of the extensive benefits of the Medieval Warm Period and the devastating harms of the Little Ice Age, see the excellent book, “In the Wake of the Plage: The Black Death and the World It Created.”).........To Read More....
The Climate Cult
By October 2nd, 2019 @ CFACT
It is a phenomenon of modern life that as membership in the old established religions wane, cults continue to sprout up like toadstools. Most of them have a very limited number of adherents and unless 75 people are killed at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, or 900 are killed or commit suicide at Jonestown, Guyana, we don’t hear about cult leaders like David Koresh or Jim Jones.
It is a phenomenon of modern life that as membership in the old established religions wane, cults continue to sprout up like toadstools. Most of them have a very limited number of adherents and unless 75 people are killed at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, or 900 are killed or commit suicide at Jonestown, Guyana, we don’t hear about cult leaders like David Koresh or Jim Jones.
Occasionally, a smaller cult manages to make the news when they commit mass suicide in order to board a spaceship that will take them to Cloud Cuckooland.
But when it comes to sheer numbers and influence, there’s nothing to match the doomsday cult that has sprung up in the wake of Al Gore’s warning us about the imminent threat of global extinction. What makes the longevity of this cult so remarkable is that Gore’s “imminent” has turned into “eventual” and none of the true believers is questioning the ever-changing timetable. The cause of addressing climate change has become the modern world’s version of a secular religion.
There has long been a church of environmentalism having many of the characteristics of its ecclesiastical forerunners. One of course is the apocalypse that will consume us all if we do not follow the rules. The rules involve making penance for our original sin of unleashing the earth’s carbon dioxide emitting fuels from the Earth’s crust, and more recent transgressions involving plastic straws and cross country airline flights. But repentance is near. Salvation lies in eliminating our “carbon footprint”, using reusable shopping bags, and supporting MacDonald’ new meatless hamburgers.
The folks who espouse the climate change gospel know little more about the science of climatology and the greenhouse effect, than the average medieval villager knew why crops may fail or the sun and moon become eclipsed. And in complete symmetry of past religions, children are being used as effective role models in propagating faith. Millions left school to urge adults to battle this modern scourge, or perhaps they just enjoyed a day off school to speak the lines they were taught.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal on September 21, 2019.Gerald Baker wrote”the testimony of a guileless child is a powerful weapon against skepticism.” Sixteen year old Greta Thunberg has become the poster child for the religious fervor among climate change activists growing fanaticism.
Recently, A O-C and a few of the dimwits running for the Democratic nomination warned us that 2030 is absolutely the last day that this planet will be able to sustain human life. We bet confidently that by 2025, they’ll move the deadline to 2040.
Even Gore was something of a late bloomer. Starting around 1974, all the experts at the U.N., NASA, the New York Times, the AP, Time and Newsweek, were warning us of a coming Ice Age or fretting about a disappearing ozone layer or something really scary-sounding they called acid rain.
But, then, almost overnight, they regrouped and started keeping us up nights by screaming that the planet was in immediate danger of being incinerated.
When neither of those calamitous changes in the weather took place, the same folks decided to settle for a changing climate. The fact that they never explained what would be so terrible about things cooling down a little in the San Fernando Valley in California in July or warming up a bit in Fargo North Dakota in December should tell people all they really need to know about these cheap hustlers, who are in it for money, power and attention
Gore warned of melting icebergs and rising ocean levels, which simply proved that he didn’t even remember his high school science. If you fill a glass with water and ice to the very top, when the ice melts, not a drop of water will rise above the rim.
It’s now twenty years later, the ice at the North Pole and South Poles haven’t vanished. If anything, they have expanded. As has Al Gore, if you’ve seen him lately.
BBC caught spreading lies about climate change, Vietnam crop production
James Taylor September 30th, 2019 General Information 8 Comments
Unbelievable, simply freakin’ unbelievable. Alarmist deception and lies know no bounds. Here is the lede from a BBC News article, titled “Climate change in Vietnam ‘destroying family life,’ published September 30 :
Oh, the horrors! Crop yields per acre in Vietnam (and the rest of the world) have been dramatically rising for decades. The past six years were the six highest crop yields per acre in Vietnam history. And you can say the same about the past 10 years, the past 15 years, and the past 20 years, etc. Yet people read climate alarmist garbage published by BBC and the rest of the media and simply believe it at face value............To Read More.....
Unbelievable, simply freakin’ unbelievable. Alarmist deception and lies know no bounds. Here is the lede from a BBC News article, titled “Climate change in Vietnam ‘destroying family life,’ published September 30 :
“Vietnam is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change. It’s already having a huge impact on the lives of those in the Mekong Delta, the agricultural heartland of the country and home to 20% of the country’s population.”Climate change is having a “huge impact” on Vietnam’s agricultural heartland? Well, actually, it is. Here is a chart from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization regarding crop production in Vietnam.
Oh, the horrors! Crop yields per acre in Vietnam (and the rest of the world) have been dramatically rising for decades. The past six years were the six highest crop yields per acre in Vietnam history. And you can say the same about the past 10 years, the past 15 years, and the past 20 years, etc. Yet people read climate alarmist garbage published by BBC and the rest of the media and simply believe it at face value............To Read More.....
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
The EPA Grows A Pair And Takes A Stand On Glyphosate
By Josh Bloom — August 13, 2019 @ American Council on Science and Health
You might as well get pissed off in advance because if you don't much care for scientific evidence you're not going to enjoy this a whole lot. Sorry, but facts are facts, and in this case, the US EPA has them right while the State of California has them wrong.
By any measure, California's Proposition 65 is an exercise in madness.
The law, which is officially titled "The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986," was well-intended at the time it was written – to stop pollutants from being discharged into water. Now it has nothing to do with water; it is merely an excuse for predatory trial lawyers, to file lawsuits against companies, small and large, with the laughable goal of "protecting the public" by suing companies that fail to "warn the public" about harmless products like purses, shoes, Tiffany lamps, and bird feeders, as well as hotel rooms, and amusement parks.
How, did these evil companies – many being small family businesses – fail to adequately warn us? By not putting an immensely stupid label on things that cannot possibly hurt you. (See Should California Put A Warning Label On Your Penis?). So it should not be surprising that California wants a Prop 65 label put on the controversial herbicide glyphosate.
How, did these evil companies – many being small family businesses – fail to adequately warn us? By not putting an immensely stupid label on things that cannot possibly hurt you. (See Should California Put A Warning Label On Your Penis?). So it should not be surprising that California wants a Prop 65 label put on the controversial herbicide glyphosate.
Except, the EPA doesn't see it that way when it comes to glyphosate (1). The agency recently announced that it would not permit California to put a cancer label on the chemical. And rightly so.
Some will write off the EPA's recent decision to reject a cancer warning label for glyphosate as partisan politics or big money influencing a government agency. It is neither. Instead, we are seeing a rare case of honesty that is based on scientific evidence, not nonsense. The EPAs decision is scientifically sound on every level.
"We will not allow California's flawed program to dictate federal policy,"
EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler
Good for him. Wheeler is dead-on. The "evidence" supporting the carcinogenicity of the chemical is not only flimsy; it is a product of fraudulent research by the International Agency on Cancer Research (IARC). Here is an excerpt from my colleague Dr. Alex Berezow's complete annihilation of IARC and its findings:
"We now have an answer... The Times reports that Christopher Portier, a key IARC advisor who lobbied to have glyphosate listed as a carcinogen, accepted $160,000 from trial lawyers representing cancer patients who stood to profit handsomely by suing glyphosate manufacturers. Mr. Portier's failure to disclose such an obvious conflict of interest has exploded into a textbook case of scientific fraud."
Dr. Alex Berezow, Glyphosate-Gate: IARC's Scientific Fraud, October 2017
IARC's "evidence," such as it is, was the lone culprit in designating glyphosate as a carcinogen. Epidemiological studies have found no connection between cancer industrial workers who routinely handle the stuff. Biochemical assays that are suggestive of DNA damage or mutation all come up negative. Aside from IARC's made-up baloney, there are no valid animal studies that show that it causes cancer. Regulatory agencies from the US, Canada, the EU, France, Germany, Switzerland, New Zealand, Brazil, Japan, Australia, and Korea all state that glyphosate does not pose a risk of toxicity or carcinogenicity.
Yet, California, based on IARC's phony findings wanted to slap an incorrect label on it based on the findings of a corrupt group.
A rare win for science and a loss for faulty activism. How refreshing.
NOTE:
(1) This week's announcement was not the first time that EPA has objected to the cancer label. In 2017 the agency released the Glyphosate Human Health Risk Assessment, which was a basis for the 2019 decision.
No, Fluoride Doesn't Lower IQ. It Fails to Satisfy Hill's Criteria of Causality
By Alex Berezow — August 19, 2019 @ American Council on Science and Health
Because Americans have a conspiracy theory about everything, of course there's a conspiracy involving drinking water. Didn't you know that fluoride, which is added to our drinking water to keep our teeth healthy (and is considered one of the greatest public health triumphs of all time), is actually a nefarious mind control scheme?
Well, the media just handed these conspiracy theorists a gift on a giant silver platter: Multiple outlets are reporting that pregnant women who consume too much fluoride produce children with lower IQs. The reports are based on an extremely controversial study just published in JAMA Pediatrics. Are the study's conclusions true? It's doubtful.
To illustrate why, let's examine the authors' findings in the context of Hill's Criteria of Causality, a series of benchmarks devised by epidemiologist Austin Bradford Hill meant to tease apart correlation from causation. There are nine criteria:
(1) Strength of association;
(2) Consistency;
(3) Specificity;
(4) Temporality;
(5) Biological gradient (dose-response);
(6) Plausibility;
(7) Coherence;
(8) Experiment;
(9) Analogy.
(See this article for explanations of each criterion.)
While it is rarely possible for any claim to meet every single criterion, there shouldn't be any blatant violations. How does the "fluoride causes lower IQ" claim stack up? It violates several of Hill's Criteria:
Strength of association. The link between fluoride and IQ is not particularly strong. As Dr. John Ioannidis (a professional junk debunker who shook the world of biomedical science by showing why most published papers are wrong) told the Washington Post, "The results are very borderline in terms of statistical significance." Indeed, the reported drop in IQ for boys was about 4.5 points, but the confidence interval (-8.38 to -0.60) almost included zero. (In statistics, if a confidence interval includes zero, it means "nothing to see here.")
Consistency. The paper is not consistent with other data on the topic. While it is true that extremely high doses of fluoride harm the brain, people are not exposed to those levels by drinking water. Also, the American Academy of Pediatrics explains that as water fluoridation has become more widespread over the past several decades, Americans' IQ has increased. (This IQ increase is known as the Flynn effect, which is perhaps due to better nutrition, public health, and education.)
Coherence. While the authors conclude that a 1-mg increase in fluoride detected in the mother's urine is linked to an IQ drop of about 4.5 points in boys, there is no statistically significant IQ difference among girls. (Actually, it's worse than that. The point estimate shows an IQ increase of 2.4 points for girls.) Obviously, that is incoherent. There is no sensible biochemical reason for why fluoride would harm the brains of boys but not those of girls.
Finally, it's worth pointing out that the 4.5-point lower IQ score among boys is for every 1 mg increase in the mother's urine fluoride levels. But women didn't really have that much of a difference in fluoride levels. The expected difference between the "high fluoride" and "low fluoride" groups was 0.29 mg, which would translate into an IQ drop of 1.3 points. (That is, 4.5 x 0.29.)
So, are the authors wrong? Probably. To be certain, it wouldn't be a bad idea to do a larger study examining the issue, just in case.
Thankfully, the authors didn't make any grand, sweeping conclusions. They simply advise, "These findings indicate the possible need to reduce fluoride intake during pregnancy." Unfortunately, this sort of nuance will be lost on conspiracy theorists and much of the media.
I recommend reading The Fluoride Wars: How a Modest Public Health Measure Became America's Longest-Running Political Melodrama 1st Edition by R. Allan Freeze (Author), Jay H. Lehr (Author
Because Americans have a conspiracy theory about everything, of course there's a conspiracy involving drinking water. Didn't you know that fluoride, which is added to our drinking water to keep our teeth healthy (and is considered one of the greatest public health triumphs of all time), is actually a nefarious mind control scheme?
Well, the media just handed these conspiracy theorists a gift on a giant silver platter: Multiple outlets are reporting that pregnant women who consume too much fluoride produce children with lower IQs. The reports are based on an extremely controversial study just published in JAMA Pediatrics. Are the study's conclusions true? It's doubtful.
To illustrate why, let's examine the authors' findings in the context of Hill's Criteria of Causality, a series of benchmarks devised by epidemiologist Austin Bradford Hill meant to tease apart correlation from causation. There are nine criteria:
(1) Strength of association;
(2) Consistency;
(3) Specificity;
(4) Temporality;
(5) Biological gradient (dose-response);
(6) Plausibility;
(7) Coherence;
(8) Experiment;
(9) Analogy.
(See this article for explanations of each criterion.)
While it is rarely possible for any claim to meet every single criterion, there shouldn't be any blatant violations. How does the "fluoride causes lower IQ" claim stack up? It violates several of Hill's Criteria:
Strength of association. The link between fluoride and IQ is not particularly strong. As Dr. John Ioannidis (a professional junk debunker who shook the world of biomedical science by showing why most published papers are wrong) told the Washington Post, "The results are very borderline in terms of statistical significance." Indeed, the reported drop in IQ for boys was about 4.5 points, but the confidence interval (-8.38 to -0.60) almost included zero. (In statistics, if a confidence interval includes zero, it means "nothing to see here.")
Consistency. The paper is not consistent with other data on the topic. While it is true that extremely high doses of fluoride harm the brain, people are not exposed to those levels by drinking water. Also, the American Academy of Pediatrics explains that as water fluoridation has become more widespread over the past several decades, Americans' IQ has increased. (This IQ increase is known as the Flynn effect, which is perhaps due to better nutrition, public health, and education.)
Coherence. While the authors conclude that a 1-mg increase in fluoride detected in the mother's urine is linked to an IQ drop of about 4.5 points in boys, there is no statistically significant IQ difference among girls. (Actually, it's worse than that. The point estimate shows an IQ increase of 2.4 points for girls.) Obviously, that is incoherent. There is no sensible biochemical reason for why fluoride would harm the brains of boys but not those of girls.
Finally, it's worth pointing out that the 4.5-point lower IQ score among boys is for every 1 mg increase in the mother's urine fluoride levels. But women didn't really have that much of a difference in fluoride levels. The expected difference between the "high fluoride" and "low fluoride" groups was 0.29 mg, which would translate into an IQ drop of 1.3 points. (That is, 4.5 x 0.29.)
So, are the authors wrong? Probably. To be certain, it wouldn't be a bad idea to do a larger study examining the issue, just in case.
Thankfully, the authors didn't make any grand, sweeping conclusions. They simply advise, "These findings indicate the possible need to reduce fluoride intake during pregnancy." Unfortunately, this sort of nuance will be lost on conspiracy theorists and much of the media.
I recommend reading The Fluoride Wars: How a Modest Public Health Measure Became America's Longest-Running Political Melodrama 1st Edition by R. Allan Freeze (Author), Jay H. Lehr (Author
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Energy & Environmental Newsletter: September 30, 2019
By John Droz, Jr. -- September 30, 2019 @Energy and Environmental Newsletter
The Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) is an informal coalition of individuals and organizations interested in improving national, state, and local energy and environmental policies. Our premise is that technical matters like these should be addressed by using Real Science (please consult WiseEnergy.org for more information).
A key element of AWED’s efforts is public education. Towards that end, every three weeks we put together a newsletter to balance what is found in the mainstream media about energy and the environment. We appreciate MasterResource for their assistance in publishing this information.
Some of the more important articles in this issue are:
Wind turbine infrasound articles became too hot for the Sierra Club to handle
Study: No significant reduction in infrasound damage until 9+ miles from wind turbines
Short video: RN Testifies About Apparent Local Turbine Health Consequences
Climate and the Money Trail
Climate change: the Hoax that Costs Us $4 Billion a Day
US Wind Developers Rush to Secure Tax Credits
Green Energy Policies (esp Wind Energy) That Kill Bats
Study: Bats dying due to wind farms
North American bird population has dropped by 3 billion (29%) since 1970
U.S. nuclear plants to produce carbon-free hydrogen
Electricity in the realm of the Lion King
A beginner’s guide to the debate over nuclear power and climate
Renewables May Make Us Feel Good, But Realistically They Just Don’t Work
Congressional Testimony: Sources and Uses of Minerals for a Clean Energy Economy
Going green is nothing but a scam
Why 100% Renewable Energy Is Less Realistic Than a Unicorn
Expert discusses possible RADAR impacts from proposed wind energy project
The climate crusade marches across America!
50 Years of Failed Eco-pocalyptic Predictions
A Climate Modeler Spills the Beans
How Climate Change Really Isn’t About the Climate
Scientists Write To UN: There Is No Climate Emergency
Understanding the climate movement: the impotence of science
Climatologist: “IPCC Is To Deceive People’, Hockey Stick Graph A Fake”
The UN’s Climate Agenda is So Extreme Its Own Analysts Can’t Defend It
Short video: ‘Facts don’t matter’ with global warming
The only solution to climate change is world socialism
Doug Casey and E.B. Tucker on the Climate Change Hoax
Climate activist hypocrisies exposed
Greed Energy Economics:Climate and the Money Trail
Climate change: the Hoax that Costs Us $4 Billion a Day
Germany On Economic Suicide Watch
US Wind Developers Rush to Secure Tax Credits
The Electric Vehicle Free Lunch is Coming to an End
Energy Subsidy Confusion
Merkel Unable To Ease Green Protest, Despite Astronomical Virtue Signaling
Wind turbine maker Vestas cuts 600 staff in Denmark and Germany
Turbine Health Matters:Wind turbine infrasound articles became too hot for the Sierra Club to handle
Study: No significant reduction in infrasound damage until 9+ miles from wind turbines
Short video: RN Testifies About Apparent Local Turbine Health Consequences
Video: Wind Turbine Illness Chautauqua County NY
Study: Implementation Of The Wind Turbine Infrasound Noise Issue
The EEE Virus
Renewable Energy Destroying Ecosystems:Green Energy Policies (esp Wind Energy) That Kill Bats
Study: Bats dying due to wind farms
North American bird population has dropped by 3 billion (29%) since 1970
Bats decline amid wind turbine expansion
USF&W approves wildlife killings for Hawaii wind projects
Wyoming Landfill begins burying turbine blades
Nuclear Energy:U.S. nuclear plants to produce carbon-free hydrogen
Electricity in the realm of the Lion King
A beginner’s guide to the debate over nuclear power and climate
No Nukes is Bad News for Climate
‘Impossible’ to Reduce ‘Carbon Emissions’ Without ‘Nuclear Energy’
Major molten salt nuclear fuel test completed
Film: Nobody’s Fuel (an Engineer’s Guide to Saving the Planet)
Miscellaneous Energy News:Renewables May Make Us Feel Good, But Realistically They Just Don’t Work
Short video: Renewable Portfolio Standard Scam (Part 1)
Congressional Testimony: Sources and Uses of Minerals for a Clean Energy Economy
Going green is nothing but a scam
Why 100% Renewable Energy Is Less Realistic Than a Unicorn
The Limits of “Clean” Energy
Expert discusses possible RADAR impacts from proposed wind energy project
Why today’s renewables cannot power modern civilization
The Green Paradox: Why Europe’s Climate Policies Increase Global CO2 Emissions
World owes thanks to American oil production in wake of Saudi Arabia attacks
AEA National Energy Scorecard
EIA Projects 50%± Increase In World Energy Usage by 2050
An independent Global Energy Forecast to 2050: wind and solar
US Energy Independence: The Charts That Tell Us Everything
German Study: Natural Gas is Green Energy’s Better Half
Leading countries blocked from speaking at UN climate summit
Texas Wind Power Not So Reliable
NY activists want to undermine local government to ease things for wind developers
NY Senator Jacobs proposes moratorium on Great Lakes wind turbines
What New York’s new climate law means for the Adirondack Park
In Massachusetts, debate emerges over where to build new solar projects
California Delegates its Environmental Stewardship to Others
Norway’s public backlash against onshore wind threatens sector growth
Report: Electricity in Australia – Turning Success into Failure
More buckets of icy cold energy reality
GE engineer shares reasons for multiple turbine failures
Power grid issues, and ‘wind fatigue’
Canadian Wind Turbines Decommissioning to begin Oct. 15
Global Warming & Youths:Video: Greta’s UN Speech
A Line-By-Line Response to Greta Thunberg’s UN Speech
Short video from an anti-Greta young girl
Short video: Thunberg is ‘not the messiah, she is an extremely anxious girl’
Short Video: A Letter to Greta Thunberg
If You Can’t Sell Your Hysteria To Adults, Try Kids
Meet Greta spiritual precursor: The 12-year-old who ‘silenced the world’
World’s Leaders Turn On Greta After She Sues France And Germany
My solution to our children’s climate terror – a nice thick steak
When the young are brainwashed by the climate hoax
Fact Checking Alarmist Kids’ False Claims at Climate Hearing
Rising numbers of children are being treated for “eco-anxiety”
Nothing Blissful About Kids’ Ignorance of Science, History
Young climate activists do not speak for their generation
The Trouble With Climate Strike And Doomsday Prophesying
Greta Thunberg compared to Nazi propaganda girl by US commentator
End the Children’s Climate Crusade
The ‘Climate Strike’ is a crock that exploits kids
UN climate summit flops despite the children’s rent-a-crowd crusade
A reasonable Global Warming Quiz
Manmade Global Warming Articles:The climate crusade marches across America!
50 Years of Failed Eco-pocalyptic Predictions
A Climate Modeler Spills the Beans
How Climate Change Really Isn’t About the Climate
The Extinction of Reason
Scientists Write To UN: There Is No Climate Emergency
Understanding the climate movement: the impotence of science
Study: The Earth’s physical parameters, distributed in space and time
Climatologist: “IPCC Is To Deceive People’, Hockey Stick Graph A Fake”
The UN’s Climate Agenda is So Extreme Its Own Analysts Can’t Defend It
Short video: ‘Facts don’t matter’ with global warming
The only solution to climate change is world socialism
Doug Casey and E.B. Tucker on the Climate Change Hoax
Climate activist hypocrisies exposed
New Website: My Climate Pledge
Doomsdays that didn’t happen
Senator Inhofe: Three big UN failures America should pay attention to
Top-level climate modeler goes rogue
China & India Demand $100 Billion On Eve Of UN Climate Summit
Canadian feds scrapped 100 years of data on climate change
You Will Not Believe This New Liberal Religion
Global decarbonization efforts ‘stall’, pushing climate goals out of reach
Global Climate Intelligence Group (CLINTEL) founded
How Climate Change Pseudoscience Became Publicly Accepted
Short video about Dr Mann: Fake Nobel Prize – Fake Hockey Stick
Short Tony Heller Video: My Gift To Climate Alarmists
Short video: Global Warming is now a Big Religion
10,500 Steaks at Democrat Steak Fry Despite Their Climate Change Concerns
Study: A new look at current climate science and carbon dioxide
The climate theory casting new light on the history of Chinese civilization
Leftists Do Not Have The Right Solutions For The Environment
A Clean Kill of the Carbon Dioxide-Driven Climate Change Hypothesis?
Surprise! Climate Activists Declare UN New York Climate Conference a Failure
Is climate alarmism tearing itself apart?
The hypocrisy of climate change warriors
Why “Settled Science” Won’t Get Us Anywhere
The trouble with the political push for climate change activism
NASA Study: Human Activity in China and India Dominates the Greening of Earth
Science, Education, Politics, and Miscellaneous Related Articles:Short video: Goodbye America
Video: President Trump’s full UN speech
The Washington Post’s Effort to Divide America
It’s Time to Stand Up to the Left
90% of Plastic Waste in the Ocean Comes from China and Africa…
The Mess of Federal Funds Is Changing Universities
See Prior AWED Newsletters
A key element of AWED’s efforts is public education. Towards that end, every three weeks we put together a newsletter to balance what is found in the mainstream media about energy and the environment. We appreciate MasterResource for their assistance in publishing this information.
Some of the more important articles in this issue are:
Wind turbine infrasound articles became too hot for the Sierra Club to handle
Study: No significant reduction in infrasound damage until 9+ miles from wind turbines
Short video: RN Testifies About Apparent Local Turbine Health Consequences
Climate and the Money Trail
Climate change: the Hoax that Costs Us $4 Billion a Day
US Wind Developers Rush to Secure Tax Credits
Green Energy Policies (esp Wind Energy) That Kill Bats
Study: Bats dying due to wind farms
North American bird population has dropped by 3 billion (29%) since 1970
U.S. nuclear plants to produce carbon-free hydrogen
Electricity in the realm of the Lion King
A beginner’s guide to the debate over nuclear power and climate
Renewables May Make Us Feel Good, But Realistically They Just Don’t Work
Congressional Testimony: Sources and Uses of Minerals for a Clean Energy Economy
Going green is nothing but a scam
Why 100% Renewable Energy Is Less Realistic Than a Unicorn
Expert discusses possible RADAR impacts from proposed wind energy project
The climate crusade marches across America!
50 Years of Failed Eco-pocalyptic Predictions
A Climate Modeler Spills the Beans
How Climate Change Really Isn’t About the Climate
Scientists Write To UN: There Is No Climate Emergency
Understanding the climate movement: the impotence of science
Climatologist: “IPCC Is To Deceive People’, Hockey Stick Graph A Fake”
The UN’s Climate Agenda is So Extreme Its Own Analysts Can’t Defend It
Short video: ‘Facts don’t matter’ with global warming
The only solution to climate change is world socialism
Doug Casey and E.B. Tucker on the Climate Change Hoax
Climate activist hypocrisies exposed
Greed Energy Economics:Climate and the Money Trail
Climate change: the Hoax that Costs Us $4 Billion a Day
Germany On Economic Suicide Watch
US Wind Developers Rush to Secure Tax Credits
The Electric Vehicle Free Lunch is Coming to an End
Energy Subsidy Confusion
Merkel Unable To Ease Green Protest, Despite Astronomical Virtue Signaling
Wind turbine maker Vestas cuts 600 staff in Denmark and Germany
Turbine Health Matters:Wind turbine infrasound articles became too hot for the Sierra Club to handle
Study: No significant reduction in infrasound damage until 9+ miles from wind turbines
Short video: RN Testifies About Apparent Local Turbine Health Consequences
Video: Wind Turbine Illness Chautauqua County NY
Study: Implementation Of The Wind Turbine Infrasound Noise Issue
The EEE Virus
Renewable Energy Destroying Ecosystems:Green Energy Policies (esp Wind Energy) That Kill Bats
Study: Bats dying due to wind farms
North American bird population has dropped by 3 billion (29%) since 1970
Bats decline amid wind turbine expansion
USF&W approves wildlife killings for Hawaii wind projects
Wyoming Landfill begins burying turbine blades
Nuclear Energy:U.S. nuclear plants to produce carbon-free hydrogen
Electricity in the realm of the Lion King
A beginner’s guide to the debate over nuclear power and climate
No Nukes is Bad News for Climate
‘Impossible’ to Reduce ‘Carbon Emissions’ Without ‘Nuclear Energy’
Major molten salt nuclear fuel test completed
Film: Nobody’s Fuel (an Engineer’s Guide to Saving the Planet)
Miscellaneous Energy News:Renewables May Make Us Feel Good, But Realistically They Just Don’t Work
Short video: Renewable Portfolio Standard Scam (Part 1)
Congressional Testimony: Sources and Uses of Minerals for a Clean Energy Economy
Going green is nothing but a scam
Why 100% Renewable Energy Is Less Realistic Than a Unicorn
The Limits of “Clean” Energy
Expert discusses possible RADAR impacts from proposed wind energy project
Why today’s renewables cannot power modern civilization
The Green Paradox: Why Europe’s Climate Policies Increase Global CO2 Emissions
World owes thanks to American oil production in wake of Saudi Arabia attacks
AEA National Energy Scorecard
EIA Projects 50%± Increase In World Energy Usage by 2050
An independent Global Energy Forecast to 2050: wind and solar
US Energy Independence: The Charts That Tell Us Everything
German Study: Natural Gas is Green Energy’s Better Half
Leading countries blocked from speaking at UN climate summit
Texas Wind Power Not So Reliable
NY activists want to undermine local government to ease things for wind developers
NY Senator Jacobs proposes moratorium on Great Lakes wind turbines
What New York’s new climate law means for the Adirondack Park
In Massachusetts, debate emerges over where to build new solar projects
California Delegates its Environmental Stewardship to Others
Norway’s public backlash against onshore wind threatens sector growth
Report: Electricity in Australia – Turning Success into Failure
More buckets of icy cold energy reality
GE engineer shares reasons for multiple turbine failures
Power grid issues, and ‘wind fatigue’
Canadian Wind Turbines Decommissioning to begin Oct. 15
Global Warming & Youths:Video: Greta’s UN Speech
A Line-By-Line Response to Greta Thunberg’s UN Speech
Short video from an anti-Greta young girl
Short video: Thunberg is ‘not the messiah, she is an extremely anxious girl’
Short Video: A Letter to Greta Thunberg
If You Can’t Sell Your Hysteria To Adults, Try Kids
Meet Greta spiritual precursor: The 12-year-old who ‘silenced the world’
World’s Leaders Turn On Greta After She Sues France And Germany
My solution to our children’s climate terror – a nice thick steak
When the young are brainwashed by the climate hoax
Fact Checking Alarmist Kids’ False Claims at Climate Hearing
Rising numbers of children are being treated for “eco-anxiety”
Nothing Blissful About Kids’ Ignorance of Science, History
Young climate activists do not speak for their generation
The Trouble With Climate Strike And Doomsday Prophesying
Greta Thunberg compared to Nazi propaganda girl by US commentator
End the Children’s Climate Crusade
The ‘Climate Strike’ is a crock that exploits kids
UN climate summit flops despite the children’s rent-a-crowd crusade
A reasonable Global Warming Quiz
Manmade Global Warming Articles:The climate crusade marches across America!
50 Years of Failed Eco-pocalyptic Predictions
A Climate Modeler Spills the Beans
How Climate Change Really Isn’t About the Climate
The Extinction of Reason
Scientists Write To UN: There Is No Climate Emergency
Understanding the climate movement: the impotence of science
Study: The Earth’s physical parameters, distributed in space and time
Climatologist: “IPCC Is To Deceive People’, Hockey Stick Graph A Fake”
The UN’s Climate Agenda is So Extreme Its Own Analysts Can’t Defend It
Short video: ‘Facts don’t matter’ with global warming
The only solution to climate change is world socialism
Doug Casey and E.B. Tucker on the Climate Change Hoax
Climate activist hypocrisies exposed
New Website: My Climate Pledge
Doomsdays that didn’t happen
Senator Inhofe: Three big UN failures America should pay attention to
Top-level climate modeler goes rogue
China & India Demand $100 Billion On Eve Of UN Climate Summit
Canadian feds scrapped 100 years of data on climate change
You Will Not Believe This New Liberal Religion
Global decarbonization efforts ‘stall’, pushing climate goals out of reach
Global Climate Intelligence Group (CLINTEL) founded
How Climate Change Pseudoscience Became Publicly Accepted
Short video about Dr Mann: Fake Nobel Prize – Fake Hockey Stick
Short Tony Heller Video: My Gift To Climate Alarmists
Short video: Global Warming is now a Big Religion
10,500 Steaks at Democrat Steak Fry Despite Their Climate Change Concerns
Study: A new look at current climate science and carbon dioxide
The climate theory casting new light on the history of Chinese civilization
Leftists Do Not Have The Right Solutions For The Environment
A Clean Kill of the Carbon Dioxide-Driven Climate Change Hypothesis?
Surprise! Climate Activists Declare UN New York Climate Conference a Failure
Is climate alarmism tearing itself apart?
The hypocrisy of climate change warriors
Why “Settled Science” Won’t Get Us Anywhere
The trouble with the political push for climate change activism
NASA Study: Human Activity in China and India Dominates the Greening of Earth
Science, Education, Politics, and Miscellaneous Related Articles:Short video: Goodbye America
Video: President Trump’s full UN speech
The Washington Post’s Effort to Divide America
It’s Time to Stand Up to the Left
90% of Plastic Waste in the Ocean Comes from China and Africa…
The Mess of Federal Funds Is Changing Universities
See Prior AWED Newsletters
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