Posted by Dale on Jan 29, 2002 at 10:10
159.arc1.il-decatur1.fgi.net (204.212.222.67)
A Michigan State University study indicating that men with higher levels of PCBs in their bodies are more likely to father boys than girls is more evidence of the effects environmental contaminants can have on the human body.The study, using data from three separate studies in which PCB levels were measured in the bodies of men who ate fish taken from Lake Michigan, found that of the 208 children born to those men, more than 57 percent were boys.
"However," Karmaus said, "we did not detect that the PCB levels of mothers affected the number of boys or girls."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/01/020129073314.htm
Junk science or real statistical significance? At this point I vote the former. There are MANY factors that could produce such a result that have nothing to do with PCBs. The fact that PCB levels in mothers has no effect points strongly to another explanation. Where did the men with high levels of PCB get that PCB? They got it by eating more Lake Michigan fish than those with lower levels. And where how were those fish caught? Most were caught by the men who ate them. There is no significant commercial fishery in Lake Michigan. There is a large sports fishery. The men with lower PCB levels didn’t catch as many fish. So outdoors type men who like fishing have more boys. I wonder if there was a statistical significance of outdoors loving mothers to boys? I bet there was. But we didn’t measure that because this was a study of PCB levels and we wanted to find how PCB was detrimental to human health. We found what we were looking for. And not only did we find what we were looking for, we totally ignored other likely correlations even though the evidence was screaming for further study.
Interesting bobbapink 29/1 12:01
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