Defending Good Science

September, 2004

Junk Science & Fish Tales II

You have to give credit where it is due... and lately, that means crediting activist groups who, with sheer perseverance, are making up for what they lack in scientific credibility.

Case in point - a resurrection of the "Farmed Salmon are Polluting the Environment with PCBs" story.  This storyline claims farmed salmon have PCBs in them and are polluting our health and environment.

Sadly, despite ample scientific evidence that clearly says otherwise, this story continues to resurrect itself with a perseverance that would put an Olympic marathon runner to shame. The latest versions to hit consumers says, "The same toxic pollutant found in farmed salmon from B.C. has also turned up in blubber samples from endangered killer whales on the West Coast." 

Let's count the junk science indicators here:

1) Lack of Numbers
At no point does the reporter offer any quantifiable numbers. In fact, the closest he (or she) gets is discovering the endangered whales "have detectable levels of a new generation of flame retardants – PBDEs – similar to PCBs..." 

Unfortunately, due to the miracles of modern technology, you can detect just about anything, anywhere. But without hard numbers, there is no way to know for a concerned reader to know whether guidelines were exceeded, or by how much, if at all.

2) Lack of Neutrality
The story has no comment from a health or fisheries official.  There is a comment from a Health Canada scientist, but he was the one who actually created the study.  There's no way of determining whether a neutral third party has reason to be concerned.

3) Lack of Industry Response
Whether this is intentional or an oversight, the fact that the 'farmed salmon' industry is being slighted (again) without opportunity for response is either shoddy journalism or shoddy responsiveness by the industry.  Which is further exacerbated by:

4) Comments from Activists
The "People for Puget Sound" managed to get comment space in the article.  Which means they're either really good at responding to media inquiries, or, more likely, they initiated the actual story in question.

5) Vagaries re clean up plans
The activists are claiming "clean up plans are in place" in "other" jurisdictions and that the Federal Government is considering action.  But without specifics, again, we don't know the seriousness or legitimacy of any of these claims.

So - are farmed salmon going out and needlessly poisoning Orca Whales?  I don't know.  But I'm certainly led to believe so.  Is it shoddy journalism?  Absolutely... but ultimately, the responsibility to ensure a proper message is the onus of the communicator.  In other words - blaming the media may be fun but it doesn’t get you anywhere.

Industry can claim unfair treatment, demand retractions or issue follow up comments all they want - but the fact is, damage is done.  And damage is largely done because the farmed salmon industry was asleep at the switch. 

This is an industry used to being attacked - in fact this very newsletter highlighted a similar attack on the aquaculture industry in February.  Yet, despite being stung once already, industry wasn't here to answer the bell for round two.

Lies left unanswered become the truth, and perceptions are reality.  Too many stories like this one, and there may not be a farmed salmon industry to respond to round three.

Link of the Month - follow up

The organization dedicated to fighting junk science in the media... they've been highlighted before in this column, but they're doing such a good job that I thought it was worth mentioning them again: Canstats.

One of their latest projects was debunking a story put out by teachers unions, claiming that three percent of teachers in Quebec have suicidal thoughts. Canstats pointed out that, of course, nearly four percent of the general population does too.

http://www.canstats.org/

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