Part.3 - How the EU ensures the safety of plastics
06.
Not a day goes by without a press article, a TV show or a social network publication reporting on a new study questioning the safety of an officially approved product.
This is easily understandable:
- A lot of news is based on single exploratory or epidemiological studies, without explaining the limitations of such specific works, nor putting their results into perspective with all other available data.
- Academic research teams tend to only publish studies showing effects. This phenomenon is called publication bias, and is linked to the process of research funding and allowance of grants.
For example, observing effects on animals exposed to doses over 10000 times higher than real life exposure should not be considered as a direct proof of the existence of a risk for humans.
Consumers wonder about the safety of chemicals in products because they mostly are confronted with articles drawing conclusions about single studies which do not reflect the entire scientific knowledge.
There is an essential rule in science: a single recently-published study does not eclipse the weight of the already existing evidence.
01. Why do we see so many contradictory studies
06.
Not a day goes by without a press article, a TV show or a social network publication reporting on a new study questioning the safety of an officially approved product.
This is easily understandable:
- A lot of news is based on single exploratory or epidemiological studies, without explaining the limitations of such specific works, nor putting their results into perspective with all other available data.
- Academic research teams tend to only publish studies showing effects. This phenomenon is called publication bias, and is linked to the process of research funding and allowance of grants.
For example, observing effects on animals exposed to doses over 10000 times higher than real life exposure should not be considered as a direct proof of the existence of a risk for humans.
Consumers wonder about the safety of chemicals in products because they mostly are confronted with articles drawing conclusions about single studies which do not reflect the entire scientific knowledge.
There is an essential rule in science: a single recently-published study does not eclipse the weight of the already existing evidence.
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