Risk Controversy Series 3 Misconceptions about the Causes of Cancer Lois Swirsky Gold Thomas H. Slone Neela B. Manley and Bruce N. Ames The Fraser Institute Centre for Studies in Risk, Regulation and Environment Vancouver British Columbia Canada 2002 About the Fraser Institute The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian economic and social research and educational organization. It has as its objec- tive the redirection of public attention to the role of competitive markets in providing for the well-being of Canadians. Where mar- kets work, the Institute’s interest lies in trying to discover pros- pects for improvement. Where markets do not work, its interest lies in fi nding the reasons. Where competitive markets have been replaced by government control, the interest of the Institute lies in documenting objectively the nature of the improvement or deterio- ration resulting from government intervention. 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Publication Editing and design by Kristin Common Misconceptions about Evolution Common Misconceptions about Evolution Bởi: OpenStaxCollege Although the theory of evolution initially generated some controversy, by 20 years after the publication of On the Origin of Species it was almost universally accepted by biologists, particularly younger biologists Nevertheless, the theory of evolution is a difficult concept and misconceptions about how it works abound In addition, there are those that reject it as an explanation for the diversity of life Concept in Action This website addresses some of the main misconceptions associated with the theory of evolution Evolution Is Just a Theory Critics of the theory of evolution dismiss its importance by purposefully confounding the everyday usage of the word “theory” with the way scientists use the word In science, a “theory” is understood to be a concept that has been extensively tested and supported over time We have a theory of the atom, a theory of gravity, and the theory of relativity, each of which describes what scientists understand to be facts about the world In the same way, the theory of evolution describes facts about the living world As such, a theory in science has survived significant efforts to discredit it by scientists, who are naturally skeptical While theories can sometimes be overturned or revised, this does not lessen their weight but simply reflects the constantly evolving state of scientific knowledge In contrast, a “theory” in common vernacular means a guess or suggested explanation for something This meaning is more akin to the concept of a “hypothesis” used by scientists, which is a tentative explanation for something that is proposed to 1/7 Common Misconceptions about Evolution either be supported or disproved When critics of evolution say evolution is “just a theory,” they are implying that there is little evidence supporting it and that it is still in the process of being rigorously tested This is a mischaracterization If this were the case, geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky would not have said that “nothing in biology makes sense, except in the light of evolution.” Theodosius Dobzhansky “Biology, Molecular and Organismic.” American Zoologist 4, no (1964): 449 Individuals Evolve An individual is born with the genes it has—these not change as the individual ages Therefore, an individual cannot evolve or adapt through natural selection Evolution is the change in genetic composition of a population over time, specifically over generations, resulting from differential reproduction of individuals with certain alleles Individuals change over their lifetime, but this is called development; it involves changes programmed by the set of genes the individual acquired at birth in coordination with the individual’s environment When thinking about the evolution of a characteristic, it is probably best to think about the change of the average value of the characteristic in the population over time For example, when natural selection leads to bill-size change in medium ground finches in the Galápagos, this does not mean that individual bills on the finches are changing If one measures the average bill size among all individuals in the population at one time, and then measures the average bill size in the population several years later after there has been a strong selective pressure, this average value may be different as a result of evolution Although some individuals may survive from the first time to the second, those individuals will still have the same bill size However, there may be enough new individuals with different bill sizes to change the average bill size Evolution Explains the Origin of Life It is a common misunderstanding that evolution includes an explanation of life’s origins Conversely, some of the theory’s critics complain that it cannot explain the origin of life The theory does not try to explain the origin of life The theory of evolution explains how populations change over time and how life diversifies—the origin of species It does not shed light on the beginnings of life including the origins of the first cells, which is how life is defined The mechanisms of the origin of life on Earth are a particularly difficult problem because it occurred a very long time ago, over a very long time, and presumably just occurred once Importantly, biologists believe that the presence of life on Earth precludes the possibility that the events that led to life on Earth can be repeated because the intermediate stages would immediately become food for existing living things The early stages of life included the formation of organic molecules such as carbohydrates, amino acids, or nucleotides If these were formed from inorganic 2/7 Common Misconceptions about Evolution precursors today, they would simply be broken down by living things The early stages of life also probably included more complex aggregations of molecules into enclosed structures with an internal environment, a boundary layer of ...[...]... Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Center, University of California, Berkeley He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and was on their Commission on Life Sciences He was a member of the National Cancer Advisory Board of the National Cancer Institute (1976-82) His many awards include: the General Motors Cancer. .. reflecting the views of the National Center for Policy Analysis or as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of any bill before Congress Misconceptions About Environmental Pollution, Pesticides and the Cause of Cancer APPENDIX TABLE I Review of Epidemiological Studies on Cancer Showing Protection by Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables86 Cancer site Fraction of Studies Showing Significant Cancer Protection... 1997 for the U.S Senate Hearing on Environmental Risk Factors for Cancer and FASEB J Vol 11, 1997 This work was supported by the National Cancer Institute Outstanding Investigator Grant CA39910 to B.N.A., the Director, Office of Energy Research, Office of Health and Environmental Research of the U.S Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC03-76SF00098 to L.S.G., and the National Institute of Environmental. .. cause of cancer or of reproductive abnormalities, especially when compared to the natural background.75 In addition, it has not been shown convincingly that sperm counts are declining,76 and even if they were, there are many more likely causes, such as smoking and diet Misconceptions About Environmental Pollution, Pesticides and the Cause of Cancer 11 Misconception #10: Regulation of Low, Hypothetical.. .Misconceptions About Environmental Pollution, Pesticides and the Cause of Cancer 9 a) Humans have many natural defenses that buffer against normal exposures to toxins,67 and these are usually general, rather than tailored for each specific chemical Thus they work against both natural and synthetic chemicals Examples of general defenses include the continuous shedding of cells exposed to toxins — the. .. J (1969) Journal of the National Cancer Institute 42, 1101-14 91 Davies, T S & Monro, A (1995) Journal of the American College of Toxicology 14, 90-107 92 Contrera, 93 Gold J., Jacobs, A & DeGeorge, J (1997) Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology 25, 130-45 et al (1997) in Gold & Zeiger, eds Misconceptions About Environmental Pollution, Pesticides and the Cause of Cancer 23 About the Authors Dr Bruce... were positive However, these tests, which were only in mice with few animals per group, lacked the power of modern tests Of the 34 Innes negative chemicals that have been retested using modern protocols: 16 were positive c Davies and Monro.91 d Contrera et al.92 140 drugs are in both the FDA and PDR databases Misconceptions About Environmental Pollution, Pesticides and the Cause of Cancer 17 APPENDIX... cancer prevention, interspecies extrapolation and In: Human and Environmental Risk Assessment: Theory and Practice D. Paustenbach, ed., New York: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 1415-1460 (2002) Misconceptions About the Causes of Cancer Lois Swirsky Gold 1,2 , Bruce N. Ames 1,3 , and Thomas H. Slone 1 1 Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California Berkeley, California 94720 2 Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720 3 Children’s Hospital of Oakland Research Institute, Oakland, CA 94609 Summary The major causes of cancer are: 1) smoking, which accounts for 31% of U.S. cancer deaths and 87% of lung cancer deaths; 2) dietary imbalances which account for about another third, e.g., lack of sufficient amounts of dietary fruits and vegetables. 3) chronic infections, mostly in devel- oping countries; and 4) hormonal factors, which are influenced primarily by lifestyle. There is no cancer epidemic except for cancer of the lung due to smoking. Cancer mortality rates have de- clined 19% since 1950 (excluding lung cancer). Regulatory policy that focuses on traces of syn- thetic chemicals is based on misconceptions about animal cancer tests. Recent research indicates that rodent carcinogens are not rare. Half of all chemicals tested in standard high-dose animal cancer tests, whether occurring naturally or produced synthetically, are “carcinogens”; there are high-dose effects in rodent cancer tests that are not relevant to low-dose human exposures and which contribute to the high proportion of chemicals that test positive. The focus of regulatory policy is on synthetic chemicals, although 99.9% of the chemicals humans ingest are natural. More than 1000 chemicals have been described in coffee: 30 have been tested and 21 are rodent carcinogens. Plants in the human diet contain thousands of natural “pesticides” produced by plants to protect themselves from insects and other predators: 71 have been tested and 37 are ro- dent carcinogens. There is no convincing evidence that synthetic chemical pollutants are important as a cause of human cancer. Regulations targeted to eliminate low levels of synthetic chemicals are expensive. The Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that environmental regulations cost society $140 billion/year. Others have estimated that the median toxic control program costs 146 times more per hypothetical life-year saved than the median medical intervention. Attempting to re- duce tiny hypothetical risks has other costs as well: if reducing synthetic pesticides makes fruits and vegetables more expensive, thereby decreasing consumption, then the cancer rate will in- crease, especially for the poor. The prevention of cancer will come from knowledge obtained from biomedical research, education of the public, and lifestyle changes made by individuals. A re-examination of priorities in cancer prevention, both public and private, seems called for. In this chapter we highlight nine misconceptions about pollution, pesticides, and the causes of cancer. We briefly present the scientific evidence that undermines each misconception. — 2 — Misconception #1: Cancer rates are soaring. Overall cancer death rates in the U.S. (excluding lung cancer due to smoking) have declined 19% since 1950 (1). The types of cancer deaths that have decreased since 1950 are primarily stom- ach, cervical, uterine, and colorectal. Those that have increased are primarily lung cancer (87% is due to smoking, as are 31% of all cancer deaths in the U.S. (2)), melanoma D 0018-9162/99/$10.00 © 1999 IEEE June 1999 29 Misconceptions About Real-Time Databases atabases have become an integral part of many com- puter systems—ranging from complex systems that control air traffic, plant operations, and stock mar- ket transactions to general-purpose computing sys- tems that run audio and video applications. Increasingly, computer systems—even general-pur- pose systems—are requiring real-time support, so it’s not surprising to hear more about real-time databases. Unfortunately, there are many misconceptions about the real-time aspects of databases. Ironically, the state of confusion that exists today about real-time databases parallels the confusion that existed a decade ago surrounding the differences between real-time and general-purpose computing. 1 We believe that a careful definition of real-time databases will help dispel these misconceptions and will encourage research efforts similar to those that have advanced real-time systems over this past decade. REAL-TIME DATABASES: SOME DEFINITIONS We must first note that a system using real-time data, such as sensor data, does not in itself constitute a real- time database system. Because a real-time database is by definition a database system, it has queries, schemas, transactions, commit protocols, concurrency control support, and storage management. In a real-time database system, timing constraints are associated with transactions, and data are valid for spe- cific time intervals. 2,3 The transaction timing constraints can be completion deadlines, start times, periodic invo- cations, and so on. It is not necessary that every trans- action have a timing constraint, only that some do. In addition to transaction timing requirements, data has time semantics as well. Data such as sensor data, stock market prices, and locations of moving objects all have semantics indicating that the recorded values are valid only for a certain time interval. A real-time database makes this validity interval explicit as part of its database schema. We can define transaction correctness as a transaction meeting its timing constraints and using data that is absolutely and relatively timing-consistent. Absolute time consistency means that individual data items used by a transaction are still temporally valid and reflect the true state of the world to an acceptable degree of accuracy. Relative time consistency means that multiple data items used by a transaction are updated (sensed) within a specified time interval of each other. For exam- ple, if a transaction uses temperature and pressure data to make a decision regarding a chemical process, these two data values must correlate closely in time or the computation will likely make no sense. Cybersquare Some database users think “real-time” databases just need to be fast and that conventional databases are adequate for real-time applications. Real-time database designers don’t agree. John A. Stankovic and Sang Hyuk Son University of Virginia, Charlottesville Jorgen Hansson University of Skovde, Sweden 30 Computer Using these definitions, we can better explain some common misconceptions about real-time databases. SOME MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT REAL-TIME DATABASES We present nine common misconceptions about real-time databases. The first three mistakenly argue that real-time systems are synonymous with speed. The next three argue that current database technol- ogy can be used in real-time database systems. These two groups of misconceptions are based on some com- mon assumptions, but it is instructive to distinguish between them. Finally, we examine three fallacies about real-time database properties: temporality, pre- dictability, and specialization. Part of the confusion over real-time database systems stems from the work of two communities coming together. Quite a controversial title I hear you say :) We know some of the larger subliminal messaging companies are not going to be happy about us publishing the information in this eBook. The hype, and the exaggeration of what is possible with subliminal messages is quite good for business. However, we want to give you the truth about subliminal messages, without the fairy icing, without the Hollywood spin, without the corporate sales pitch. We want you to approach subliminal messaging with a strong knowledge of what it is, and what exactly is and isn't possible. With this knowledge we believe you will get a better result, and hopefully see how you can use subliminal messages to pursue various goals as you move through life. Without further delay, finally, here is the truth about subliminal messaging! Brought to you by SubliminalMp3s.com - Hundreds of Life Changing Subliminal Messages 7 Common Misconceptions about Subliminal Messaging (and the truth behind them) 1. 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They are dangerous: Although it is true that they are banned from within advertising due to the potential to manipulate people against their will, the label of them being "dangerous" is irrelevant when .. .Common Misconceptions about Evolution either be supported or disproved When critics of evolution say evolution is “just a theory,” they are implying... included, are described as the “pinnacle” of evolution, or “perfected” by evolution What characteristics evolve in 3/7 Common Misconceptions about Evolution a species are a function of the variation... suppressed by the science establishment B 6/7 Common Misconceptions about Evolution Free Response How does the scientific meaning of “theory” differ from the common, everyday meaning of the word? In