18 Jul 2006
Another Study in Stupidity, with Media Distortion

This one goes into my general 'Musings' category rather than 'Humor', because it's not all that funny and it shows clearly the distortions applied to these bad studies by the media. Here's a more factual representation of the study from EurekAlert!:

Number of indoor swimming pools per capita linked to rise in childhood asthma across Europe

The prevalence of childhood asthma and wheeze rises around 2 to 3 percent for every indoor swimming pool per 100,000 of the population across Europe, indicates research published ahead of print in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.The researchers analysed the rates of wheezing, asthma, hay fever, allergic rhinitis and atopic eczema, reported in the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC), by video or written questionnaire.  (link)

Note that no connection was made between individual child asthma sufferers and indoor swimming: the study was strictly based on the number of indoor pools per capita. Which also indicates relative wealth, among other things.

Of course, the chlorine in the pools may be a factor, but this study certainly didn't address that issue at all, even indirectly. It's like a study showing the number of cases of syphilis is higher in countries with active volcanoes: it may be true, but so what? Which is what makes this a "Study in Stupidity".

But now look what the BBC does with this information:

Swimming pool 'link to asthma'

Children who use an indoor swimming pool may be at increased risk of developing asthma, research suggests. (link)

How do you spell "jumping to conclusions"? A complete lack of critical analysis, and an utter disregard (at least in the headline) for the actual contents of the study.

This is the reason that folks tend to get suspicious of the media - wild eyed spewing of "facts" with no context or background whatsoever is what passes for "journalism" these days.

Kinda makes you wonder about a lot of other stories reported by the MSM, eh?

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