Hyping Health Risks
Some people make a living trying to scare you. In fact, if you aren't scared, they haven't done their jobs. I'm not talking about Wes Craven or Quentin Tarantino, whose films I enjoy. I'm talking about people who basically have a malevolent approach to life. A lot of them get exposed in a new book by epidemiologist Geoffrey Kabat, reviewed in the Wall Street Journal by Ron Bailey.
Here's the bottom line: Do worry about tobacco smoking and exposure to vinyl chloride and asbestos. On these risks, the scientists did a good job. Do not worry about the following:
- There is no evidence that synthetic chemicals, including DDEs and PCBs, are causing breast cancer.
- There is no way that electromagnetic fields from power lines and home appliances can cause cancer, including in children.
- 90% of the lung cancer cases the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) attributed to radon gas were actually associated with smoking.
- The EPA also rigged the results on passive smoking; it's an irritant to bystanders, not a death sentence.
