RE: Cancer clusters

["Gibbs, S Julian" <s.julian.gibbs@vanderbilt.edu>]

Unfortunately it is not just this issue that provides studies for 

epidemiologists (Note I did not say income; most are salaried and 

get their money anyway.)  The multitudes of associations reported 

in the scientific literature and the lay press (e.g., eating peas 

of color x causes or prevents cancer in organ y).  Most of these 

studies use an alpha of 0.05.  That says that 5% of the studies are 

false positives!

Note: I am not a statistician, but am aware of how one can distort 

the truth (I did not say lie) with statistics.



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S. Julian Gibbs, DDS, PhD               Voice: 615-322-1477

Professor, Emeritus

Dept. of Radiology & Radiological Sciences

Vanderbilt University Medical Center     Home: 615-356-3615

209 Oxford House        Email:s.julian.gibbs@vanderbilt.edu

Nashville TN 37232-4245     or alias:j.gibbs@vanderbilt.edu

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