A little bored

Well, crap.

I am a little bored.

I'm getting so many manuscripts off my plate lately I am running out of projects to work on. I guess I could work on CCL (Complicated Cover Letter) for a faculty position I am considering applying for. But that seems like a giant pain.

I'd ask my mentor to hand over PHAP (Potentially Huge and Awesome Project) but he'll say, oh, did you finish with SPCP (Stupid Pointless Crap Project)? and I will be forced to say no. But I don't WANNA work on SPCP, it's pointless! But I guess I should.

What do these things have in common: War, Natural Disasters, Poverty, Crappy Governments, Lack of Education, and the Suppression of Women

They cause disease.

The current issue of the MMWR (don't look for it online until next week) reports that polio cases are up by 26% in 2008.

When I was in an small alley in the filthiest of all Indian cities, I saw a Rotary International worker providing polio drops to infants held in the arms of their older siblings (by older I mean between 4-7 years old). I was so happy I could have cried.

This disease has got to go. Polio should be part of our past but instead, it is a sad reminder of how we have failed the most vulnerable.

On the same note, I went to a lecture by HUGE UNIVERSITY FIGURE (HUF) yesterday. The talk was focused on postdoctoral scholars responsibility to the global community. HUF laid out the greatest global challenges, which included (among other things) poverty, human health, aging/growing population, environment/sustainability, & clean water. Yay, I actually agree with these things. Unfortunately, the final message of the day was that FANCY UNIVERSITY (FU) was investing heavily in training us, the next great generation of scholars in the U.S. (many of us are not from the U.S.), and expects a return on their investment...in the U.S. HUF presented "amazing achievements" benefiting "the world" from FU's alumni/trainees .... and they were all, each and every one of them, advancements benefiting THE RICH DEVELOPED WORLD TECHNOLOGICAL/MILITARY COMPLEX. When asked what we could do to advance scholarship and training of the booming new generation of scientists from India and China.....HUF told us to stay home in the U.S. and work for Boeing. (I paraphrase.)

Mobile Phone Use and Cancer: BAD RESEARCH

I recently was forwarded an online report stating that a recent study determined that mobile phones are more dangerous than smoking. I have seen the author,Vini Gautam Khurana, M.D. referred online as a "cancer expert" Well, hello internet! I too consider myself a cancer expert. And I would tell you right here and now that you need to stop smoking...but I'm currently on my cell phone.

If I wasn't currently working on my dissertation and coming up on my final weeks(!) in my program, I might turn around and change my topic to the media and cancer sensationalism and mythology.

For my due diligence and soapbox needs, I will point out a few things about this "study:"

1. It is not a peer reviewed study. I found it online, and in anything near it's current form, it is NOT going to pass muster for publication in any quality medical journal.

2. The author is a neurosurgeon. Learning how to poke in someone's brain doesn't mean he's ever been taught how to conduct, understand, or report epidemiologic or population-based research or systematic reviews. For example, the author is clearly unfamiliar with current
standards for conducting or writing systematic reviews of the scientific and medical literature.

3. Smoking is really really bad for you. Actual expert organizations like NIH and NCI and peer-reviewed research science has demonstrated smoking to be the leading preventable cause of premature death in the U.S. One of every five deaths can be linked to tobacco-related disease. This is not the case with mobile (cell) phones. While they are linked to road injuries for example, research to date does not demonstrate that cell phones cause cancer.

4. n.b.--This is not new or original research. It is a misinterpretation of existing research.

5. Remember, in the world of risk perception, things we don't clearly understand and are invisible to the eye, like radiation, tend to scare us more than our everyday, prosaic risks (e.g. cigarettes or automobiles) that are far more dangerous.

6. A note to other scientists: just because you're writing for the lay public doesn't mean you should purposefully obscure your scientific methods and fail to discuss your research limitations.

7. The internet is filled with bullshit, lots and lots of incorrect information that is not fact checked or discussed objectively by actual experts. Cancer epidemiology is complex, our bodies are complex and we don't fully understand how they work. Be wary of ANY health information that makes strong claims. Subject any source about the "causes" or "cures" of cancer to suspicion and critique.

For legitimate and trustworthy information on cancer risk and risk factors, including cell phones and cigarette smoking, turn to the National Cancer Institute, International Agency for Research on Cancer, or the American Cancer Society.

Question of the Day

Question of the day:

"What if the fetus you were going to abort would grow up to be a soldier bringing democracy to a godless dictatorship?"

Wow, I never thought of it like that before.

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