Research Studies and SASD (Short Attention Span Syndrome)

Posted on April 23, 2007
Filed Under Public Policy |

This from a recent report about health risks due to wireless technology:

A recent authoritative Finnish study has found that people who have used mobiles for more than ten years are 40 per cent more likely to get a brain tumour on the same side of the head as they hold their handset; Swedish research suggests that the risk is almost four times as great. And further research from Sweden claims that the radiation kills off brain cells, which could lead to today’s younger generation going senile in their forties and fifties.

The real risk is that the media reports these research studies as fact without actually adding additional information on the study criteria and opposing commentary. More significantly, these reports don’t ask the obvious questions, such as "mobile wireless technology has been widely available for 10 years, has there been a marked increase in brain tumor reports?".

Research studies attempt to create a model based on observed conditions that result in statistical data accumulation for the purposes of proving or disproving a hypothesis. It is often the case that in our 15 second soundbite mass media marketplace these research studies are reported as fact and that is an incredible disservice to everyone. Indeed, the reporting of these stories as fact could be a greater risk to the public than the underlying subject itself.

Witness the recent "honey bees are being killed off by wireless signals" story that made the rounds a couple of weeks ago. I did not see a single report on tv news that suggested anything other than it was accepted fact that there was a honey bee pandemic due to wireless device proliferation. Indeed, look at this news story as evidence to make my case:

Radiation from cellphones appears to affect the bees’ homing abilities and disrupt their ability to communicate with each other, according to recent studies. There are other theories (from mites to global warming) for the sudden demise of the bee populations, but the fact remains that up to 90 per cent of the bees in some areas have disappeared.

Up to 90% of bees in some areas have disappeared, so anywhere from 1% to 90% and only in some areas. "Recent studies"? Actually, there was one study done in Germany and it involved putting a 1900 mhz base station with peak power output of 250 mW inside a honey bee hive. Not exactly your average bee setup. More to the point, even the researchers themselves acknowledge that they are not attempting to explain what causes Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in honey bees and a quick search of the web turned up authoritative material that suggests that the research study is questionable at best:

Apparently, the peer review group selected for the "International Institute for Advanced Studies in Systems Research and Cybernetics" (where these papers have been either submitted or published) does not include beekeepers, entomologists, or even intelligent 12-year olds who have read a few books about bees.

To summarize, the press reporting was pure speculation by reporters who neglected to ask even basic questions of the authors of the cited papers, and was based upon "science" that would not even get past the editor of one’s local beekeeper association newsletter.

However, none of this prevented every news story I saw on this from reporting basically the same storyline: 1) honey bees are disappearing, 2) people are at fault, 3) we’re all doomed.

Be(e) skeptical, ask questions, don’t believe most of what you read in the press or view on television.

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