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'Toxic' Water Bottles Take Top Spot in Dubious Data Awards

Statisticians take on 2007's scariest headlines

January 1, 2008

Dubious Data

Consumers are bombarded daily by stories reporting new health, environmental and product safety hazards. But many of those stories are exaggerated or just plain wrong, says the non-profit Statistical Assessment Service (STATS).

In this year's "Dubious Data Awards," STATS, which is affiliated with George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., picked stories about plastic water bottles, toxic iPhones and "killer mattresss," among others. It also questioned reports of widespread injuries from "exploding" Pyrex and other glass crockery.

"The annual Dubious Data Awards... highlights the top-ten abuses of science and statistics in the media," said spokesman Don Rieck. He said the awards are part of the group's attempt to "correct scientific misinformation in the media resulting from bad science, politics, or a simple lack of information or knowledge."

This year's picks:

Battles of the Bottles

• FDA Not Worried About BPA but Critics Demand Moratorium • Wal-Mart Bans BPA, Other Retailers Likely to Follow • War on Plastic Toys Escalates • Plastic War Hits The Toy Industry • Groups Warn Baby Bottles Leach Toxic Substance • Study Warns Chemical In Baby Shampoo May Cause Harm • 'Toxic' Water Bottles Take Top Spot in Dubious Data Awards • Group Hits Apple Over 'Toxic' iPhone • California Bans Plastic-Softening Chemical in Toys • Group Warns of Polluted Air Inside Cars • Watch Out for Hidden Toy Hazards

Reacting to media reports in the San Francisco Chronicle and elsewhere, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome banned plastic water bottles because they contained “toxic” phthalates. What the Mayor and the media missed was that plastic bottles are made with a different chemical that happens to have a similar sounding name -- polyethylene terephthalate, which STATS said is a harmless polyester.

Perhaps a Refresher Course in Puberty?
In a September 24 article, “How Fresh Is Air Freshener?” Time Magazine altered the course of human biology by claiming that inhaling phthalates from air fresheners could decrease sperm levels in infants.

Clearly no one on the copy desk remembered that boys don’t start producing sperm until puberty, STATS said.

U.S. PIRG has been campaigning for more awareness of phthalates, a class of chemicals used to soften plastic toys and teethers, among many other uses. U.S. PIRG says phthalates have been linked to a range of health effects, including reproductive defects and early-onset puberty.

iFear Apple
Greenpeace generated an avalanche of negative publicity about Apple by claiming that iPhones and Macintosh computers contained toxic fire retardants and other dangerous chemicals (for example, ABC News’ October 15, 2007 report “Greenpeace Slams iPhone”, and theWashington Post’s October 16, 2007 article “Green Peace Slams iPhone on Environment”).

But STATS said most media accounts failed to note that Greenpeace didn’t actually measure how much of these chemicals were in Apple’s products, and how much actually leached out. Meanwhile, based on a 10- year risk assessment, the European Union concluded that the most widely used flame-retardant in consumer products (deca-BDE) posed no health risk.

Nevertheless, in October, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the "Toxic Toys Bill," which bans phthalates in toys and other children's products.

“We must take this action to protect our children,” Schwarzenegger said in a statement. “These chemicals threaten the health and safety of our children at critical stages of their development.”

Attack of the Killer Mattresses
In July the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CSPC) imposed new fire safety standards for mattresses in order to slow down flashover, a leading cause of fatal house fires.

But the media, such as Chicago CBS2 in their September 25 report “Could Mattress Safety Measures Make You Sick?” began running stories citing a consumer group, “People for Clean Beds,” which claimed that sleeping on the new CSPC-approved beds could pose all manner of toxic risks.

STATS said that what the stories failed to make clear was that “People for Clean Beds” was mainly a “person for clean beds” – namely Mark Strobel, who manufactures mattresses which are exempt from the standards and can only be bought with a doctor’s prescription.

Strobel argues that the new fire safety standard might end up harming or killing 300 million people – which would make mattresses more dangerous than epidemics ranging from the Black Plague of Medieval times to current-day AIDS.

Hot Air on ‘Fresh Air’
On NPR’s “Fresh Air,” investigative journalist Mark Shapiro told host Terry Gross that exposure to everyday chemicals could be behind “spikes” in the incidence of breast cancer, declining sperm counts, reproductive problems, and mutations in young children.

But this confuses correlation with causation, STATS said, and claimed that these problems can be explained much more easily by other factors.

For example, overall breast cancer rates are falling, and the spikes can be explained by known factors such as increases in fertility treatments and hormone replacement therapy, alcohol consumption, and increased numbers of women having mammograms, STATS said.

Most doctors believe that the rise in fertility issues is a matter of greater reporting and more intervention, especially in the marketing of high-end fertility treatments. Birth defect rates are also stable - and the methods behind the claims for declining sperm counts have been widely derided, STATS claimed.

Left at the Altar by Statistics
In June, Time Out New York sent a wave of panic through the city’s wannabe brides with a cover story claiming that there are 185,000 more single women than men in New York City.

But the excess number of single women is due to the fact that men tend to die at younger ages than women do, STATS noted. In most younger age groups, there are significantly more men. For example, there are 211,590 18 and 19-year old men in the NY Metro area compared to 201,282 women.

A “Minor” Marriage Problem
A January 16 front-page article in The New York Times read, “For what experts say is probably the first time, more American women are living without a husband than with one.”

The claim could only be supported by counting women between the ages of 15 and 17, 90 percent of whom live at home with their parents, STATS said.

On February 11, the Times Public Editor concluded there were “several journalistic lapses” in the original article, not the least of which being that 15-17 year olds cannot have husbands in the majority of U.S. states. The Times’s response to their Public Editor’s critique? “The essence of the article remains accurate.”

Molotov Crockery
Philadelphia FOX affiliate WFTX-TV, told viewers in a March 7 report that using Pyrex dishes was like playing “Russian Roulette,” because they might explode. Anchor Kerri-Lee Halkett warned ominously that “nothing is worse than being betrayed by an old friend, especially in the kitchen.”

But STATS noted that, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s electronic database of hospital admissions in the U.S., there were exactly two reported cases of glass bakeware shattering when not dropped in 2005, the most recent year for which data exists.

Nevertheless, hundreds of consumers have complained to ConsumerAffairs.com that their Pyrex cookware unexpectedly came apart at inopportune times.

"This Christmas I was baking in 3 Pyrex dishes in my oven. One of the three dishes EXPLODED after being in the oven for 45 minutes. It was not chipped, cracked or exposed to a variance in temperature," said Brandi of Paradise, Calif., in a Dec. 27 complaint.

As of this writing, ConsumerAffairs.com has received more than 250 similar reports. While most consumers did not complain of serious injuries, many suffered economic and property losses, not to mention the inconvenience of losing their dinner.

"I prepared baked lasagna in a Pyrex rectangular dish as I have done for the past 20 years, but this time it exploded in my oven rendering my Christmas dinner useless," said Gail of Woburn, Mass.

Rieck said his group would look into the reports.

Second Generation Diversity only, Please.
A March 6 Washington Post article reported on a new study finding that while 13 percent of the U.S. black population is foreign-born, 27 percent of blacks in American universities were “elite foreigners.”

The only problem is that American-born children of black immigrants were counted as "elite foreigners" who gained college admissions over American blacks, despite the fact that they are, uh, American. The study didn’t explain what percentage of the “elite foreigners” were actually American citizens, STATS said.

The Avandia Nightmare
Thousands of diabetics stopped taking their medicine after news reports on an article in a medical journal that claimed the drug Avandia increased their risk of heart attack by 43 percent.

The study’s author told ABC News on May 30 that “The potential number of deaths related to a drug like Avandia dwarfs the events of 9/11.”

Unfortunately many of the heart attack cases came from a sample in which diabetic participants already had congestive heart disease. Moreover, studies that reported no heart attacks were excluded.

Several medical journal articles later criticized this study’s methods but were ignored by the media -- scary is news, safety isn’t.

Meanwhile, GlaxoSmithKlein, maker of Avadia, has agreed to add new information to the existing boxed warning in the drug's labeling about potential increased risk for heart attacks.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says people with type 2 diabetes who have underlying heart disease or who are at high risk of heart attack should talk with their doctor about the revised warning as they evaluate treatment options. FDA advises doctors to closely monitor patients who take Avandia for cardiovascular risks.

About STATS

STATS says its goals are to correct scientific misinformation in the media and to act as a resource for journalists and policy makers on major scientific issues and controversies.

STATS President Dr S. Robert Lichter serves as Professor of Communication and Faculty Scholar on the Center for Health and Risk Communication. STATS Director of Research, Dr. Rebecca Goldin, is Associate Professor of Mathematical Sciences at George Mason University and is recipient of the first annual Ruth I. Michler Memorial Prize from the Association of Women in Mathematics

STATS is governed by a board of directors consisting of David Gergen, Robert Lichter, Dodie McCracken, Newton Minow, Nell Minow, Paul Mongerson, Donald Rieck, and Robert Stuart. In addition to receiving support from George Mason University, STATS is funded by private foundations including the Robert D. Stuart Foundation, Randolph Foundation, Earhart Foundation and William H. Donner Foundation. STATS does not accept funding from industry, it said.

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