I wasn't going to bother

But I was sent articles reporting this study from 2 3 (now) different people from 2 3 different places (Thanks Steph and Aunt Wendy--glad to know I have the crazy BPA girl rep down). The Reuters article is much more level than the consumerist post (surprise, surprise). BPA is still hot. I suppose the scientific community likes how easy it is to attract media attention just by releasing a BPA study. This new one decided study health problems in relation to BPA. If you look hard enough for some sort of relation, I betcha one will pop out at you.

The study tested urine samples for BPA, and it found that the people with higher concentrations of BPA in their urine had higher risks of heart disease and diabetes. Sounds scary, right? It's the 'had higher risks of.' That phrase implies causality--that BPA gives people a higher risk of heart disease and diabetes ... oops

It reminds me of a study done a few years ago that found that people who drank diet soda were at a higher risk for being overweight or obese. My local news (not your station, Patrick) reported it just like that, and then afterward the newslady said "so you may want to think twice before drinking those diet sodas." I couldn't believe she said that. I also couldn't believe this was news. If I were overweight or obese, I would probably drink diet soda, also. Doesn't sound so scary when I say it that way, does it? If you read the article linked above, it's actually a fairly balanced account of the study, that is if you read all of it and don't stop after the first couple of paragraphs (way to go WebMD, btw. The link I previously posted that presented all the sides of the BPA story pretty fairly was also from WebMD) Higher risk is also a deceptive term. It makes one think that if they drink diet soda, they are more likely (at a higher risk) to gain weight, when what it actually means is the average health of the people in the study who drank diet sodas was such that they would probably gain weight or had gained weight. AKA overweight people drink diet soda, and most people I know who drink diet soda do so to keep from drinking regular soda which would make them gain more weight. I know that's not as exiciting as the irony of diet sodas actually encouraging weight gain (irony check, Alisha!), but it's the statement that is not fabricated to stop at nothing to get you to watch the news every night ...

Another common misleading word used in the Reuters article is 'linked.' "Common Plastics Chemical Linked to Human Disease" It's not linked! It'snotlinked, it'snotlinked, it'snotlinked. Ok, well, maybe it's linked: the same way that I'm linked to anyone else in the world possibly through 6 degrees of separation--possibly not. Correlation does not imply causation. Who knows what causes the correlation. It could be that things that people who tend to have diabetes and heart disease consume often have containers which incorporate a polymer that uses BPA. It could be a complete coincidence! There's no way to know .... so don't freak out.

Information travels so fast on the Internet that anything can become viral. Except apparently logic and critical thinking ...