It seems of late there are more and more people who look suspiciously at science.
This week will be the first of a two-part column looking at the disconnect between the public and science.
There are some obvious reasons for it, as the announced safety by science of a number of notable products has proven to be huge misses.
Thalidomide was synthesized in West Germany in 1954 by Chemie Grünenthal. It was marketed from 1957 into the early 1960’s. Thalidomide was present in at least 46 countries under many different brand names. It was a sedative that was found to be effective when given to pregnant women to combat many of the symptoms associated with morning sickness. It was not realized that thalidomide molecules could cross the placental wall affecting the foetus until it was too late. Many babies were born with deformities as a result.
PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, are industrial products or chemicals. PCB contamination is high in the Housatonic River and New Bedford Harbor in Massachusetts. PCBs were banned in the U.S. in 1979 amid suggestions that these chemicals could have unintended impacts on human and environmental health. But they were in use in many sites for years.
Asbestos is a hazard to health when the fibers are disturbed and become airborne. This means that asbestos poses health risks only when fibres are present in the air and then people breathe them into the lungs. Fibres can be released into the air when asbestos-containing products break down. Again it was widely used.
So the best science has not always been on the mark.
As a result consumers have at least some basis for questioning science.
That said the agriculture sector has always pointed to science as the most unbiased way to look at things.
When Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, struck in Canada back in 2003 many countries slammed the door on imports of live cattle and beef from this country. It was a somewhat natural reaction since BSE is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy and fatal neurodegenerative disease in cattle that may be passed to humans who have eaten infected flesh. BSE causes a spongiform degeneration of the brain and spinal cord.
But, Canadian farmers pointed to science which suggested the risk was a miniscule one.
Now the debate over the accuracy of science in terms of an important tool in agriculture and the health risks of glysophate.
International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) came out some time ago suggesting the widely used agricultural herbicide may cause cancer in humans.
To be fair though in 2011 IARC tags too much sunshine as a cancer risk and in 2011 classified radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans based on an increased risk for glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer, associated with wireless phone use.
So what does something like the IARC classification mean? I’ll take a look at just that next week.
Calvin Daniels is Editor with Yorkton This Week.
