Earlier this year, Dubrova et al. reported that children of parents who lived in the heavily polluted areas of Belarus after the Chernobyl accident had twice the DNA mutation rates as control children from the United Kingdom. Dubrova et al. concluded that radiation from the Chernobyl accident was responsible for the higher mutation rates.
Satoh and Kodaira responded that Dubrova et al. did not match cases and controls well, particulary on parental age, and genetic and environmental factors. And they stated that
Before it is possible to conclude that the observed increase of the mutation rate in Belarus was caused by parental radiation exposure, it will be necessary to select new control Belarus families...
Dubrova et al. responded that
We discussed in our paper the difficulty of obtaining these controls, which forced us to use families from the United Kingdom as a control.
Dubrova was "forced" to use the U.K. controls? Sounds like the only thing "forced" was the conclusion of Dubrova et al.
Watch out for desperate scientists who are "forced" to do desperate things.
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