Date published: 2008/02/19
The BBC says:
Sperm defects caused by exposure to environmental toxins can be passed down the generations, research suggests.
Scientists say fathers who smoke and drink should be aware they are potentially not just damaging themselves, but also their heirs.
Tests on rats showed sperm damage caused by exposure to garden chemicals remained up to four generations later.
It suggests that a father's health plays a greater role in the health of future generations than has been thought.
A team from the University of Idaho in Moscow tested the effects of a hormone-disrupting fungicide chemical called vinclozolin on embryonic rats.
The chemical altered genes in the sperm, including a number associated with human prostate cancer.
Rats exposed to it show signs of damage and overgrowth of the prostate, infertility and kidney problems.
The defects were also present in animals four generations on.
The scientists admitted that the rats were exposed to very high levels of vinclozolin.
Another poor BBC article on health. First we get the hysterical headline, including the implicit claim in the second paragraph that the research shows that "fathers who smoke and drink" are "damaging ... their heirs". Well, the academic middle class have been running a vitriolic campaign against smoking and drinking (and obesity) for quite some time, so perhaps the BBC thinks that no matter what the research is about, one has to mention smoking and drinking. (Somehow they left off obesity.)
The third paragraph is not much better, mentioning "garden chemicals" are also causing "damage ... up to four generations later". Which garden chemicals? Well the BBC is implying all of them of course, since the academic middle class also hate all chemicals (no doubt including the seriously dangerous H2O). So no matter what the research is about, one has to mention all chemicals in a sweeping statement.
It is only in the fifth paragraph that we find out that the research is only about one specific chemical, vinclozolin. And it was only tested on rats. Well obviously that means we can extrapolate to all garden chemicals and also smoking and drinking, and to humans willy nilly. Because according to the BBC, if one chemical is bad in one context, they are all bad in all contexts.
Then, even worse, we find out in the ninth paragraph that (surprise) "the rats were exposed to very high levels of vinclozolin". Unfortunately this is the standard way to text toxicity. If 100 times the normal does causes an X% problem, then of course a normal dose causes an X/100% problem. Only that only holds if the response is linear, which it almost certainly isn't. This is a fundamental flaw in the way all drugs are tested, but nobody likes to mention it.
All in all this is not a very important piece of research. And unfortunately the BBC has turned it into some kind of grand anti-chemical, anti-smoking, anti-drinking philosophical statement.
(The BBC does spend most of the rest of the article quoting two anti-smoking and anti-drinking scientists who say that yes, any man who smokes or drinks is causing the exact same sort of problems. Perhaps the reporter was desperate to write an anti-smoking and anti-drinking article but only had research about vinclozolin to report, so hey presto, just mix the two into one and hope nobody notices.)
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