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Ben Goldacre Bad Science

The Sunday Express published an article claiming a link between suicides of young people in Bridgend, Wales and nearby mobile phone masts based on the findings of Dr. Roger Coghill. However, when investigated, Dr. Coghill had not published any study, could not provide data to assess his evidence, and had actually lost the figures he relied on. Therefore, the scientific claim made in the Sunday Express article was found to be unjustified.

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344 views1 page

Ben Goldacre Bad Science

The Sunday Express published an article claiming a link between suicides of young people in Bridgend, Wales and nearby mobile phone masts based on the findings of Dr. Roger Coghill. However, when investigated, Dr. Coghill had not published any study, could not provide data to assess his evidence, and had actually lost the figures he relied on. Therefore, the scientific claim made in the Sunday Express article was found to be unjustified.

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apieko
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2.1. Bad science We often come across news articles making unjustified scientific/medical claims.

For example, in June 2008 the Sunday Express published an article about the link between suicides and phone masts:
The spate of deaths among young people in Britains suicide capital could be linked to radio waves from dozens of mobile phone transmitter masts near the victims homes. Dr Roger Coghill, who sits on a Government advisory committee on mobile radiation, has discovered that all 22 youngsters who have killed themselves in Bridgend, South Wales, over the past 18 months lived far closer than average to a mast. (Johnston 2008)

Ben Goldacre, a medical doctor and author of the weekly Bad Science column in the Guardian, investigated the claim made by the Sunday Express article and found out the following:
I contacted Dr Coghill, since his work is now a matter of great public concern, and it is vital his evidence can be properly assessed. He was unable to give me the data. No paper has been published. He himself would not describe the work as a study. There are no statistics presented on it, and I cannot see the raw figures. In fact Dr Coghill tells me he has lost the figures. Despite its potentially massive public health importance, Dr Coghill is sadly unable to make his material assessable. (Goldacre 2008)

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