Not anymore, according to this last piece of junk science still hot out of the (electric?) oven.

' WOMEN who cook with gas hobs and cookers may have some increased risk of respiratory diseases, according to a study of elderly people. '

So, housewives using gas stoves, begin to tremble now: asthma, emphysema, who knows, even lung cancer may be lurking around the corner of your kitchen stove… You could go electric, but some other "study" on electromagnetic radiation may show increased risk of brain tumour. What about a BBQ? My God, no, the EPA will be all over you for atmospheric pollution - it is smoke, you know? Plus, smoked food is already linked with stomach cancer! OK, let's go raw… -- WHAT? You've got to be joking: red meat is already linked with 1.3 million deaths when it is cooked, can you imagine how many people it would kill if raw?!

Naah, it is not that bad. Look, here is the key to the fraud:

' Although the link is inconclusive Dr Deborah Jarvis of King's College Hospital, London, says that because of the numbers involved, "even a small risk could have a substantial influence on public health" '.

So, keep on cooking and let them bark…

… The last sentence is one of the foundations of epidemiological frauds, by the way.

A small RR (relative risk) simply and solely means that the study COULD NOT PROVE any significant risk (that is, the study failed to prove something).

A small risk increase does NOT mean that a small risk times a large amount of people equals a big risk, because the possibilities of errors in small risks are so huge, they make the study worthless.

That little, misleading sentence is at the very core of the second hand smoke statistical frauds and at the foundation of prohibition of smoking in public and persecution of smokers.

Those are indeed huge consequences for numbers that mean nothing.

(First reported by Junkscience)