Re: The Ethics Issue Continued

[mgoldman@ucdavis.edu (Dr. Marvin Goldman)]

>With respect to providing information to the public about the effects of low
>levels of radiation, the American Council on Science and Health Special
>Report on Nutrition Accuracy in Popular Magazines (1992-1994) sparked a
>thought that we might wish to use.  That document contains the statement "As
>judge Manfred Kroger remarked, 'The public should always be informed that
>the proportion of the scientific community these groups actually represent
>is nominal.'"  The judge is talking about advocacy groups.
>It would seem to me a good thing if, whenever an advocate for a particular
>group states a position, that someone ask the question: "What percent of the
>scientific community holds that position?"  The public would benefit from
>the answer in many cases.  What does the RADSAFE community think of such an
>idea?  Al Tschaeche xat@inel.gov
>Al  Tschaeche xat@inel.gov phone: 208-526-3383, fax: 208-526-7291
While a poll on what percentage of the scientific community thinks about an
issue may be of some interst, most of the scientists, and the public, may
know little about the issue and their opinion will have little scientific
importance, but......what fraction of the scientific community has studied
an issue, is knowledgeable about the uncertainties and can then develop an
informwed opinion...that's another issue.  And who is to do the informing
and who is to judge if it is all there?
However in a democratic society, at least the "pollpublicity" is an
invitation for more to become knowledgeable.  I don't think there are
simple statistics like political polling that mean as much to me as the
considered opinion of a special working group from the relavant society
making a position statement which included the pros and cons.  Any
comments?
Marvin Goldman