I pit dumb science

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of human/scientific advancements and normally cheer on the advancement of human knowledge.

However, today, on every new website I was surfing they were warning me New Shower Curtain Smell May Be Hazardous! Is just one example I found on google news at the moment. :smack:

Ok, so we’ve now been warned to keep babies and children away from “New Car Smell” and “New Shower Curtain Smell” now in the past 6 months. Is this really something that we should all be concerned about and notified by major media sources?

I’m mean, there’s some things I understand kids should not be around for long periods of time. FEMA trailers, Radon basements, etc. But are we really putting a kids future/life in jeopardy from giving them a 15 minute bath where the new shower curtain isn’t even pulled across the tub?!

Who the hell even funds these studies? Who in their right mind would have a scientist walk up to them and say “I need $200,000+ so I can study whether or not shower curtains may be secretly killing us all?” and then give them $200,000+ to go find out.

God dammit! These are the same fucking people who tell us Eggs are healthy in 1960, then unhealthy in the 70’s, healthy again in the 80’s, bad again in the nineties, and I think now we’ve been told the whites are good, yolks are bad (except if you workout of something)…

I don’t even fucking know anymore. And Fuck You people who put all this stupid information in my head.

Your link doesn’t seem to work but I don’t need it because countless other examples come across every year. The problem isn’t really with the studies themselves. Scientists can study anything as long as they can secure the funds and do the best job they can based on the scientific method.

However, the media is completely at fault for reporting these things at all. I think all journalists should be required to take a 6th grade science class at a local public school and score a ‘C’ or better to keep their job. Science does not rely on single studies at all. There are literally thousands of scientific journals with tens of thousands of studies reported monthly. Only the most advanced studies that continue the path of many other studies are semi-definitive and even those can easily be found to be flawed down the road.

Some studies are submitted to crap journals by second-rate professors or graduate studies desperate to get something, anything published to put on their curriculum vitae. Journalists love to scour random journals and report findings they think are interesting which have almost no validity in academia.

Someone needs to formulate some strict guidelines on what is authoritative and what is not. Journals like Nature and Science are the most definitive at the time they are published. A journal such as Biological Shower Curtain Letters (made up) should never be reported on the mass media.

Settle down! Enjoy a nice, soothing Camel! Its good for what ails ya!

I saw that news article as well and was equally outraged. I always get angry at the fact that they report, “such chemicals may increase risk of [various diseases].” Of course they never say by what mechanism, how much the risk is increased, or even the likelihood that the chemicals are even released and in what amount. Also, I get mad that people read that and interpret it as, “such chemicals * will cause * [various diseases].” BAH!

I bought a new vinyl shower curtain the other day. The smell filled the room, and I inhaled deeply, as I like it.

I didn’t get nauseous.

I didn’t get headaches.

I didn’t get sick.

I didn’t die.

Neither did my weekend house guest.

In fact, nothing happened. In a few days, the smell went away.

Still nothing happened. After a while, nothing happened some more.

Therefore, I can only conclude that vinyl shower curtains are 100% safe, and so is chlorine, PVC, phthalates, organotins, phthalates, organotins and all the other chemicals used in their manufacture.

I can also conclude that if the quantity of chemicals used were to be increased by 1000%, they would still be safe, right? If the quantity detected in that report isn’t considered (it wasn’t), I guess ANY amount is safe. Throw me into a nice big vat of PVC so I can have a refreshing swim!

So why isn’t my testimonial and analysis as good as the ones in this report? Because I don’t look as cute as the children? Because I’m not a mom?

I’ve started just relying on my own (relatively) good sense - if it smells bad, I air it out (and don’t breathe too deeply of it). If it doesn’t taste good, I don’t eat it. I don’t eat too much of anything, but I eat everything. If the smell makes me nauseous, I don’t have it in the house. If it’s breaking down, I replace it. Seems to be working so far.

Obviously you are not a Labrador retriever,

O.K., maybe you are. :smiley:

Generally, the people who make & sell competing products.

In this case, most likely the people who make sliding glass shower doors.

And next they will be saying “new tennis ball smell” will kill you.

Must they take aways all the good smells? How about “Axe body spray smell will kill you”? That I would support! :wink:

Well, it depends on how fast it’s coming at your face.

I can get behind that. Or “all perfumes/colognes will kill you.” I could go for that, too. A world without artificially smelly people; ahh.

Even results published in reputable journals can be taken completely out of context and used to support some quacktastical notion that no real researcher would claim. The crux of the problem isn’t just that most journalists are scientifically illiterate, but so is their audience, to a point of not being able to apply any degree of critical analysis to a baseless or patently absurd claim. Journalists look for a story that scans well (i.e. simple, shocking, and at least marginally relevant to the reader) and then parse it into language that a twelve year old can understand, that being the reading comprehension level of the 10th percentile reader. This is why Popular Science sells rather better than Scientific American, even though the latter is hardly a paragon of technical discourse.

Nah, you should smoke the New Philip Morris, probably the best natural smoke you ever tasted. No filter, no foolin’, a cigarette with a taste a man can get next to, in the convenient crushproof box. My name is Stranger On A Train. The cigarette is Philip Morris. Now, back to our thread.

Stranger

Incidentally, this is why I don’t eat sauerkraut.

Which really sucks, because I’ve injured myself on those sliding shower doors on multiple occasions.

What drives me up the wall even more than the OP’s example is when advertisers try to sell their products with bullshit technical jargon that the public thinks sounds all fancy (see any new age medicine website for some good examples).

 My shampoo bottle touts the benefits of "amino proteins!" Is there any other kind?

I knew that years ago. I also know that drinking coffee every day out of a styrofoam cup will kill me. Plastics and other polystyrenes aren’t chock full of vitamins and kisses from the baby Jesus. Big whoop. On the list of things that I do that shorten my life, I ain’t sweating shower curtains.

“Please tell your doctor if you experience a sudden decrease in hearing or vision while taking ‘Bonermax’. If you find out that your girlfriend tires of your FOUR HOUR ERECTION before you do, stop taking ‘Bonermax’ and immediately tell your buddies.”

Drinking water from plastic bottles will kill you.

Drinking whiskey from lead crystal decanters will kill you .00000000000001% faster than the whiskey itself.

Screw it, enjoy yourself and leave a pretty corpse.

chacoguy, in my opinion, I think we’re just about at, “Don’t take too good care of yourself so you don’t last too long.” (The guy who introduced me to this idea called it “The Early Checkout Plan.” :smiley: )