4 ms·
Nice example of Betteridge's law[0] here. While as a biologist, I am supremely aware that plausible biological mechanism alone shouldn't be sufficient to drive
by CreRecombinase 12y ago
Nice example of Betteridge's law[0] here. While as a biologist, I am supremely aware that plausible biological mechanism alone shouldn't be sufficient to drive public policy, UV induced DNA damage causing melanoma is one of the better understood mechanisms for oncogenesis. The real question to me is not whether sunscreen works at preventing UV damage, and thus skin cancer, but to what extent acute, high dose UV exposure, especially at a young age, can do to lifetime cancer risk. If it is the case that one or two bad sunburns can dramatically increase risk of skin cancer, it will be very difficult to design a randomized clinical trial to demonstrate the effectiveness of sunscreen in adults.
[0]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge's_law_of_headlines http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge's_law_of_headlines
- Symmetry 12y agoIt's worth noting that sunscreen in countries other than the US does more to prevent skin cancer, so the balance might be different in different places. http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/2014/03/20/be85a288-a9fc-11e3-9e82-8064fcd31b5b_story.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/2014/0...
- dllthomas 12y ago"Nice example of Betteridge's law[0] here." "Is sunscreen a lifesaver or a poison?" "No." ...
- bunderbunder 12y agoI know you're trying to make a joke about it not being a yes-or-no question, but really it's a pretty fair and straightforward characterization of what the article said: "No, there's not strong data to say it's a lifesaver. No, the evidence doesn't say it's a poison either."
- lazugod 12y agoWhat Betteridge's law really means is "Questions in headlines have boring answers."
- dllthomas 12y agoThat's a reasonable generalization, but certainly isn't the original form.