A new study from the Environmental Protection Agency and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says air pollution causes SIDS and other postneonatal mortality. But the question is do they mean sudden-infant-death syndrome or science-is-dead syndrome?
The EPA/CDC researchers says they examined 4 million infants born between 1989 and 1991 and found infants in areas with the most particulate air pollution had 26 percent more SIDS than the lowest polluted areas.
But inquiring minds want to know:
- Why study outdoor air quality and SIDS? If SIDS is caused by something in the air, isn't it likely that indoor air quality is more relevant? Isn't that where infants spend most of their time?
- Isn't that 26 percent increase in SIDS a weak statistical association? I seem to remember the National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society and many others saying that weak statistical associations (i.e., less than 100 percent increases in risk) are unreliable. (Oh yeah, that was just limited to the politically incorrect abortion-breast cancer studies).
- How come there's no exposure data? The researchers assumed infants were exposed to particulate matter at levels equal to measurements taken by outdoor monitors. But isn't that somewhat unreliable? Especially since infants spend the vast majority of their time inside?
- Could it make a difference that the study excluded infants from California, Indiana, Louisiana, Nebraska, New York, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Washington? Could it make a difference that the study excluded infants born in counties with populations less than 100,000?
- Why limit the study to the years 1989 - 1991? What happens if you look at say 1988 - 1991? Or 1989 -1992? Or any other combination of years? Perhaps the statistical association goes away? Isn't it likely that use of random time periods may produce random results?
- Isn't it true that no one really knows what causes SIDS? Doesn't that make it hard to rule out confounding variables?
Given all the holes in this study combined with the timing of its release (right before decision time on EPA's proposed air quality standards for particulate matter and ozone), "inquiring minds" conclude air pollution indeed causes SIDS — i.e., science-is-dead syndrome.
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