November 9, 1998
Mr. Bob Anderson & Ms. Lisa Maranpos
Producers, 60 Minutes
524 West 57th Street
New York, NY 10019Dear Mr. Anderson and Ms. Maranpos:
Last night's report on smoking and impotence was factually off-base.
First, the report cited a 1994 study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claiming that smokers had twice the risk of impotence as nonsmokers.
That study did not report such a result.
In fact, once the crude study results were adjusted for other impotence risk factors, including vascular disease, psychiatric disease, hormonal factors, substance abuse, marital status, race and age, no statistically significant association between smoking and impotence remained.
The study authors also noted that "Neither years smoked nor cigarettes smoked daily were significant predictors of impotence in current smokers."
Your report also claimed that secondhand smokers had about the same risk of impotence as smokers. This is obviously nonsensical. Smokers are exposed to their own secondhand smoke. If there was a causal effect between cigarette smoke and impotence, smokers should have a higher rate of impotence since they more exposure.
Amid the anti-smoking industry's frantic efforts to scare people about smoking, journalists should be wary of using impotent science.
Sincerely,
Steven J. Milloy
Publisher, The Junk Science Home Page
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