Pease, C.M. and J.J. Bull. Science for Business, Law and Journalism. Chapter 22. Conflict and the corruption of science. Deliberate bias: Conflict creates bad science.
Myers, G. 2003. Statement to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. July 29, 2003.
Myers, G. et al. 2003. Prenatal methylmercury exposure from ocean fish consumption in the Seychelles child development study. The Lancet 361: 1686-1692.
Various authors. 2003. Correspondence on the Myers et al. paper. The Lancet.
2. In the previous class, we identified and discussed the confounding factors that might have influenced the Grandjean et al. (1998) study. Repeat this analysis for Myers et al. (2003). What confounding factors did Myers not control for? Which factors did he control for? What factors did Myers control for that Grandjean did not? And vice versa? Is one study stronger than the other?
3. How did Myers et al. (2003) measure exposure to methylmercury? Is this measure any better or worse than the measure of exposure used by Grandjean et al. (1998)?
4. Why did Myers et al. (2003) come to a different conclusion than did Grandjean et al. (1998)? Make a list of all of the potential explanations for this difference, and then state the evidence for and against each potential explanation.