A cautionary tale of sorts and an urgent plea to Irish politicians to check their sources before they go and make asinine claims and set bad policy on matters of science of health ...
There are certain topics I write about that generate howling letters of disapproval. Topics like abortion, climate change, secularism, gay rights, nuclear power, and homeopathy have all garnered me angry tweets, emails and in some more disturbing cases long rambling letters with vague threats. I accept this as an occupational hazard - the more prominent your forum, the more likely you are to get projectiles lobbed at you and while that's never justified I accept it for what it is - I'm extremely privileged to be both lucky and ostensibly articulate enough to get the odd say in two prominent papers, and hopefully have been able to sway some people towards an evidence-based approach to certain topics, which has always been my primary goal in writing for a mainstream audience. I am no shrinking violet and usually laugh off the odd unhinged e-mail or tweet that some eijit decides to send me - the kind of emails that have have sections WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS and a grasp of logic so tenuous that you stand dazzled and almost impressed by their brave refusal to be a confined to anything even remotely resembling reality.
Yet of all the contentious issues I've tackled, the vitriol I've garnered for water fluoridation is both impressive and admittedly baffling. It is also a subject that showcases the combined scientific ignorance of many of our elected representatives, and for that reason I wish to revisit it and ram this point home.
Read the rest of this thoughtful post here: Three men make a tiger: Health policy must be formed on the basis of evidence, not scaremongering..
