article in Woman's Day Aug 2, 2005

[Guest guest]

Hi. I just finished reading an article entitled " Are you at

Risk " " When You Need to Worry and When you Don't " in Woman's Day

and I am really ticked. Here is what part of the article says:

" Remember: Heart-wrenching stories aren't proof. Wait for hard

scientific evidence to come in before you buy into any health

scare. " For example, everybody just " knows " that silicone breast

implants cause illness, " says University of Delaware sociologist

Best, Ph.d., author of Damned lies and statistics. " Weve all

seen a woman on Oprah saying " I had breast implants and I feel

lousy. " Then we've seen some lawyer saying, " no, doubt about it.

The implants are making her sick. " Trouble is , when research on

breast implants was finally published, scientists couldn't find any

evidence it was true. " If you take 10000 women with implants, some

of them are going to get sick, not because they have breast

implants, but because they are people. " The scientific question to

ask is this: Do women with implants get sick more often than women

without implants? When the scientific evidence came in, the answer

was no. "

Since this magazine doesn't have a forum where they print letters

from readers, anybody have any suggestions? I hate to let this go

unchallenged. It makes me so angry. Perhaps the author of Damned

Lies and statistics should have seen our recent newspaper article

about researchers and

how many from prestigious places like Harvard lie about research---

making up data and changing facts so that they can get research

grants. apparently it is becoming a big problem. Some of these

well respected drs made up entire case studies--the people were

fictitious! How's that for some " damned lies and statistics! "

kathy