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February 14, 2008
Some journalistic balance -- almost
Generally speaking, the higher one climbs in the media hierarchy, the more accurate and careful the copy. A recent article in Newsweek seems to support that observation. In discussing phthalates, it does not mention the Shanna Swan study, which myriad news stories have cited (erroneously) as showing some evidence of damage to infant males from maternal phthalate. Could it be that the Newsweek reporter did her homework and discovered just how much criticism there has been of that dubious and unreplicated study, and decided to leave it out? One can hope.
The article does mention the oft-quoted work of two Harvard researchers suggesting a link between phthalate exposure and sperm damage. But it is the first article I’ve seen that also mentions a more thorough and arguably better study that directly counters the Harvardians. And it added this positively gratifying sentence: “These are all association studies—which by definition cannot prove cause and effect.” Bravo.
But once again, what is left out of the story tips the scales out of balance. In discussing phthalates in toys, why does the story fail to mention that exhaustive scientific reviews conducted both in Europe and in the United States found no reason to ban them? The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission found “no demonstrated health risk” from phthalates in toys. The EU’s review found that the primary phthalate used in toys was “unlikely to pose a risk to consumers (adults, infants and newborns).” It wasn’t because the reporter didn’t know about those two risk assessments, because I told her. It is extremely rare to see this easily verified information in print.
Posted by Marian at 6:50 PM | Comments (0)