Re: birth defects in the children of Gulf War Vets [FW] -Reply

["Lorraine Marceau-Day" <day@lsu.edu>]

Retrospective studies such as looking exclusively at an affected population
are inherently biased.  It is like going to Sloan-Kettering and visiting
the breast cancer patients to conclude that being a woman causes breast
cancer.  This is a  classical type I I statistical error.

The research groups are difficult to access:

     1.  vets who served
     2.  vets who were immunized as group 1 but were not exposed to DU
(i.e. perhaps they were in Saudi the whole time, or served on a ship)
     3.  vets who were prepped to go / but did not make the trip

The male/female susceptibility is a separate issue.  There are so many
iterations to the scenario, that DU has to be the only thing that was
different if we want to make valid comparisons.  This makes the groups
smaller than one would wish for statistically-based conclustions.

Just a couple of thoughts,

Lorraine Day PhD
day@lsu.edu




"Thomas J Savin " <tjsav@lycos.com>@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu on 02/01/2001
12:08:54 PM

Please respond to radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu

Sent by:  radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu


To:   Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
cc:    (bcc: Lorraine Marceau-Day/day/LSU)

Subject:  Re: birth defects in the children of Gulf War Vets [FW] -Reply


Scott and all,

You are correct, interviews (Or studies?) like this by their very nature
can have no valid outcomes Especially looking into DU:

1. The majority of Gulf War vets are males - For there part, the millions
of sperm that are released in each mating attempt.  The chances of an
unhealthy sperm fertilizing an egg is rare - usually the healthiest win.

2. There would have to be four groups of populations to make any sense:
male vets, female vets, male non vets, and female non vets. These would
have to be compared.  The survey is not looking at the control groups

3. Other problems - A. the amount of reporting individuals may be biased to
those who read the paper -therefore possibly under reported or over
reported (special interest groups "becoming gulf war vets")

4. You know I think I'll stop here - If he really wanted to get a great
story - he should be looking at asking Saadam's soldiers for information -
yeah - now that WOULD be a story. You think they might jump at the
chance???

Thanks Melissa for all you've done.   Tom

Tom Savin

On Thu, 1 Feb 2001 10:42:48
 Scott Siebert wrote:
>Can all of us Gulf War vets whose children DO NOT have birth defects
>also send a message?  Or are they not interested in the multitudes that
>do not prove their point???
>
>Scott Siebert
>Internal Dosimetry
>Mound, BWXT of Ohio
>
>>>> "Franta, Jaroslav" <frantaj@aecl.ca> 02/01/01 11:31am >>>
>Although DU is not mentioned specifically in this message, it has
>appeared
>in this context in the past and will no doubt feature prominently in the
>resulting media report...
>Jaro
>frantaj@aecl.ca
>
>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Betty Mekdeci [mailto:abdc@birthdefects.org]
>Sent: Tuesday January 30, 2001 10:54 AM
>To: birthdefectnews@topica.com
>Subject: Special Alert - January 30, 2001
>
>Birth Defect Research for Children
>
>Birth Defect News
>Birth Defect Research for Children
>Special Alert - January 30, 2001
>***Attention Gulf War Veterans***
>Anton Antonowicz, a chief feature writer with the Mirror, Britain's
>second
>largest daily newspaper is working on a series about birth defects in the
>children of Gulf War Veterans.  The Mirror reaches 8 million plus readers
>and is syndicated worldwide.  Mr. Antonowicz would like to interview
>Gulf
>War veteran families in the U.S. who believe that their children's birth
>defects may be related to exposures during their service.  He will be
>working with award winning photographer, Mike Moore on the story.  Mr.
>Antonowitz is a former Foreign Writer of the Year and both he and Mr.
>Moore
>are Amnesty International Press Award Winners.
>If you are interested in talking with Mr. Antonowicz, please send an
>e-mail
>to betty@birthdefects.org as soon as possible.  Include a description of
>your child's birth defects and both daytime and evening phone numbers.
>To unsubscribe from this mailing list, please send an e-mail to
>birthdefectnews-unsubscribe@topica.com
>To unsubscribe from Birth Defect News, send a blank message to
>birthdefectnews-unsubscribe@topica.com
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