Junk Science

Junk Science

By Joe Renna

Dow Corning built a business based on silicon chemistry. They manufacture 10,000 products, most notably of which are breast implants. Claims that Silicon implants can cause disease so devastated the company that they were forced to file Chapter 11.

Dow Corning has spent millions on reach and the courts concluded that there is insufficient evidence to support the claims. Yet the company will be paying out $4.4 billion in a settlement plan to resolve the controversy. The case which will drag through the legal system ad nauseum is the epitome of junk science. Claims, conclusions and convictions are rendered in the media and state houses without any assistance from randomized controlled studies.

The health care industry in America is unrelenting when it comes to testing theories. Junk science undermined the essense of this conviction. Media hype produces a shark frenzy around hot issues that feeds a variety of special interests except for the one that may result in health and safety. News organizations, politicians, and the legal community seem to rise to this occasion - and it seems the medical community is always the goat.

There is a legitimate need to express concerns and if an injustice or hazard exists - it can be corrected. If there is no evidence of any malady, that finding should be respected.

There's usually a payday fueling the bogus cause. The more sensational, the bigger the payoff. There is also power and fame to be gained. Organizations with pithy acronymns spring up and start raising money. An industry arises around theories that become fact. Medical journals and health professionals are not all innocent. Some make great livings as expert witnesses to the highest bidder.

Cluster cancer cases of breast cancer on Long Island, NY or cancer in children in Toms River, NJ may just be random. The majority of cancer clusters are surprisingly caused by chance. It was right to be concerned when 90 children were diagnosed with cancer over a 15 year period. The average in New Jersey is 67, but you can see that it is not too outrageous if the studies are inconclusive. There's no big conspiracy to protect the two companies being accused of polluting the water. In fact, the companies are the ones who foot the bill for the studies. The results are not all in, but to date, the water in Toms River is no different than the rest of South Jersey.

It's possible for a young soldier to return home from the Gulf War and experience stress brought on by a stained marriage, mounting bills and unemployment. To categorize it as a disease is ludicrous, and to further claim that a spouse or child contracted it is off-the-charts absurd.

Yes, I am the bad guy for even suggesting that, maybe, there is no one to blame but yourself. Through their behavior, the population of women with implants was found to be at high risk for the diseases they claimed were caused by the implants. There's no relation between the occurrence of the diseases and having huge knockers.