In which New Scientist are bastards

[brixtonbrood]

I am partial to a bacon sandwich or three.
I am also, unfortunately aware of the existence of research suggesting that there is no safe dose for bacon, and regular consumption is hazardous to your health.

Hence I was excited to see New Scientist's headline this week

Telling When Numbers Lie
The Myth of The Killer Bacon Sandwich

Not irrationally, I was led to believe that the aformentioned research had been debunked.

What it actually said was "a daily bacon sandwich raises the likelihood of bowel cancer by 20 per cent..[which] translates to an absolute increase in risk from 5 per cent to 6 per cent..big enough not to ignore but less of a deterrent to those who like their daily bacon sandwich."

They have raised and then dashed my hopes, and are bastards.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Depends. In terms of absolute risk from a single variable - then OK, be careful about your exposure. However, looking wider than the single toxic bacon sarnie, your risk of developing a cancer of some sort is high anyway, be it lung cancer from breathing the hydrocarbon soup of modern life, skin cancer, or a brain/reproductive system/digestive system tumour/ lymphoma that arrives through plain old age or simple genetic bad luck.

In other words, life's too short, you get what you get, and I'm sticking to the bacon sarnies. With a sausage. Maybe two. I'd put my life expectancy at mere hours as a result...

[drpete.livejournal.com]

Sorry - that was me. I'd been mysteriously logged out!

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's not a huge risk, by comparison with smoking (mind you, nothing is) and I have already made my peace with the risk reward payoff (mmmm, bacon), but having been geared up for a story that was going to tell me it was essentially risk free (give or take obesity implications) I was genuinely pissed off to see a significant risk figure which in other contexts would be used to justify a load of faffing around with seat belts and sunscreen.