Corcoran: Junk Science -- Think What Kyoto is Based On

Sinking science: Junk science week -- Ottawa plans to ban lead fishing sinkers to save Canada's loons - though in fact the annual death toll is six Peter Shawn Taylor, June 18, 05

This year's fishing season could be the last time Canadian anglers are allowed to use those ubiquitous lead fishing sinkers. That's because the federal government is proposing to ban lead tackle and force fishermen to find more expensive alternatives. [. . . . ]

A healthy tan: Excess exposure may be hard on the skin, but the healthful effects of UV outweigh skin cancer and melanoma risks

Institutionalized lawlessness Terence Corcoran, June 14, 2005

For this, our sixth-annual Junk Science event, the theme is institutionalized lawlessness: How junk science is used to further entrench the arbitrary power and scope of governments and their agencies. Our opening example: the federal Competition Bureau, which is taking an Alberta-based owner of tanning studios to competition court for claiming that tanning may be good for you.

Junk science occurs when scientific facts are distorted, risk is exaggerated and the science is adapted and warped by politics and ideology to serve another agenda, even just to keep bureaucrats busy. The Competition Bureau's pursuit of Fabutan Sun Tan Studios of Calgary fits the mould of an agency attempting to turn official junk science into a vehicle for expanded regulatory power.

[. . . . ] The scientific focus is on vitamin D, of which the sun is a major source. Too much sun causes three melanoma deaths for each 100,000 people in the United States. But too little sun, and therefore too little vitamin D, may cause 70 deaths per 100,000 people from other forms of cancer. Dr. Edward Giovannucci, a Harvard University professor, recently published a review of evidence on exposure to sunlight. His conclusion was that higher sunlight exposure or vitamin D consumption appears to lower the risk for some cancers. "I would challenge anyone to find an area or nutrient or any other factor that has such consistent anti-cancer benefits as vitamin D," he said. [. . . . ]

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