From the ASH website today:
You read that correctly. The figures are not based on any research. So they are, in fact, completely groundless.
And, to be fair to Gilmore and her team, they were not quoted as saying the heart rate fell by 10%. In fact, no figures were quoted by anyone at all.
So what's going on here? Has Sunday Times' journalist Jonathan Leake made the whole thing up? Is the 10% a figment of his imagination or is it a case of whispered conversations with an anonymous source? Leakes' article explicitly states:
But, as Dr Siegel* has pointed out, there is no study and will not be for quite some time. No one is prepared to go on record with this mysterious 10% figure. Now it transpires that the research has not even been conducted yet!
Bear in mind that this article has gone around the world. It was copied virtually word for word by The Daily Mail, Metro and The Telegraph. It has appeared in The Australian and The Times of India. And yet the story is so shaky that even anti-smoking groups are distancing themselves from it.
Correction: Heart attacks plummet after smoking ban
We have heard that the figures reported in the Sunday Times yesterday (and now circulating elsewhere) are not based on any research conducted to date.
The impact of the smokefree legislation on heart attacks is being analysed by Anna Gilmore and team at Bath but they have no final results yet.
And, to be fair to Gilmore and her team, they were not quoted as saying the heart rate fell by 10%. In fact, no figures were quoted by anyone at all.
So what's going on here? Has Sunday Times' journalist Jonathan Leake made the whole thing up? Is the 10% a figment of his imagination or is it a case of whispered conversations with an anonymous source? Leakes' article explicitly states:
The ban on public smoking has caused a fall in heart attack rates of about 10%, a study has found.
But, as Dr Siegel* has pointed out, there is no study and will not be for quite some time. No one is prepared to go on record with this mysterious 10% figure. Now it transpires that the research has not even been conducted yet!
Bear in mind that this article has gone around the world. It was copied virtually word for word by The Daily Mail, Metro and The Telegraph. It has appeared in The Australian and The Times of India. And yet the story is so shaky that even anti-smoking groups are distancing themselves from it.
Science by press release is bad enough. This story doesn't even seem to have a press release to back it up.
This really is a new low.
* The good doctor has the low-down on yet another heart miracle here.
