Chron editors misrepresent unreleased study
In a staff editorial today, the Chronicle endorses the smoking ban that has been proposed by Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs.
One can't help but think that the city ought to be considering more important issues than a smoking ban and a $2 million giveaway for an African-American museum, especially given the current manpower shortage at HPD, municipal pension plans that still have underfunded liabilities and will require the issuance of bonds, and ongoing controversies at the HPD crime lab.
There are two sides to the smoking debate, of course, and HoustonSmokingBan.org promises to be a repository of information on the topic. Given the Chronicle's infamous rail-memo controversy, they'll have to pardon us for not trusting them to provide balanced coverage on this issue they've just adopted.
To wit, this sentence from the Chronicle editorial:
A team of researchers at the University of Pittsburg discovered that a single exposure to tobacco smoke can cause the sort of DNA damage that, after repeated exposure, leads to mutations and cancer.
First, that's Pittsburgh. With an H.
Second, the editors are apparently reporting from a press release about the study, which isn't scheduled to be released until October 5. Further, the press release reports that the study involved exposing cells to condensate obtained by burning cigarettes. While that's useful for scientists studying cell mutation and cancer, the results aren't necessarily analagous to a person exposed to secondhand smoke, and it's a stretch for the Chronicle to conclude that any exposure to secondhand smoke causes DNA damage that can lead to cancer based on this press release.
The Chronicle editors have misrepresented the results of a study that hasn't even been released yet, and seem to have read the associated press release in a fairly self-serving fashion.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/03/04 02:56 PM | Print |
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