Sounding like Arthur Fonzarelli (aka "the Fonz" from the 1970s TV series about 1950s teenagers, Happy Days) after he advised 17-year old Ralph Malph to join the U.S. Marines, public health researchers are finally admitting they were
wr-wr-wr-wr-wr-wr-wr-wr-ong about the environmental and occupational cancer hysteria of the last 35 years.
The only difference is that the Fonz readily recognized that he was "wrong." He just couldn't say it. Until now, the public health community has had trouble with the very concept of being "wrong."
According to the BNA report, "members of the National Toxicology Program's science advisory board Dec. 13 urged NTP to increase its research on health effects other than cancer..."
In response to comments from Samuel Wilson, deputy director of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, about future research on the link between genetic damage and disease development (i.e., cancer) , former OSHA head Eula Bingham said that a large percentage of occupational diseases have relatively little to do with genetics.
Carol Henry of the Department of Energy agreed, stating
It appears to me cancer is not the problem. Well, it took only 35 years and billions of dollars to come to this conclusion!
Our public health research community will likely never admit they were "wrong," but at least they've accepted the concept. And so...
...these happy days are your and mine...happy days! Material presented on this home page constitutes opinion of the author.
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