Miriam Garland, J. Steven Maoris, Graham Colditz, Meir Stampfer, Victoria Spate, Connie K. Baskett, Bernard Rosner, Frank Speizer, Walter Willett, and David J. Hunter
Associations between toenail levels of five trace elements (arsenic, chromium, copper, iron and zinc) and breast cancer were examined among a group of 62,641 U.S. women who were free of breast cancer in 1982. After four years of follow-up, 433 cases of breast cancer were identified.
No statistically significant increases in breast cancer were observed among women whose toenails had the highest levels of these trace elements as compared with women whose toenails had the lowest levels.
And our esteemed researchers concluded that these results provided no evidence that arsenic, copper, chromium, iron or zinc had an important effect on breast cancer. This should not have been an unexpected result given that (as acknowledged by the resesrachers) none of these elements has previously been linked with increased breast cancer risk.
As toenail clipper manufacturers breathe a collective sigh of relief, can you imagine what might have happened if this study had gone the other way?
Let's see. To diagnose breast cancer risk you need toenail clippings. To get toenail clippings you need a toenail clipper -- making the toenail clipper diagnostic medical equipment? And the FDA regulates--and not always very reasonably -- diagnostic medial equipment.
For example, would the FDA have taken years to approve the toenail clipper for home use -- like it did for the home HIV test kit? Or would the FDA have disapproved home use of the toenail clipper altogether -- like it recently did for the home drug test kit?
Oh... and what would the implications have been for fingernail biters?