RE: Air Pollution deaths

["Mercado, Don" <don.mercado@lmco.com>]

Susan Gawarecki wrote:

> The following article discusses the recently published study which found
> causation of respiratory illness, heart attacks and premature deaths by
> increased particulate concentrations in air. 
> 
> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/12/
> 14/MN20422.DTL&type=science
> 
So does this article, with another point of view. And even "Health Physics"
magazine gets a plug!

Gagging on Statistical Pollution
By Steven Milloy, Fox News
December 15, 2000

"You don't have to be able to smell or see air pollution to die from it."
Or so says the Associated Press, reporting on the latest study on air
pollution. 

The study, in the December 14 New England Journal of Medicine, claims to
offer "consistent evidence that the levels of fine particulates in the air
are associated with the risk of death from all causes, and from
cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses."

"The findings should squelch criticism that earlier research at the
Environmental Protection Agency, Harvard and elsewhere was inconclusive,"
James H. Ware, dean of the Harvard School of Public Health, told the AP. 

Hardly.

The study cited relies on statistical flim-flammery, and is not as
credible as the AP would have us believe...

The full column is at http://www.foxnews.com/science/junkscience/index.sml.


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