Devra Davis study on sex ratios unanimously contradicted in medical journal letters


In what I considered a bad April Fool's joke, Devra Lee Davis of the World Resources Institute and others published an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (4/1/98) titled "Reduced Ratio of Male to Female Births in Several Industrial Countries: A Sentinel Health Indicator?" Devra and crew claimed that reduced male births were a "sentinel health indicator" of environmental exposure to chemicals.

In the October 7, 1998 issue of JAMA, three letters-to-the-editor were published. Here's the gist of what they said:

What was the response of Devra and her colleagues?

It's no wonder that Sir Richard Doll, a highly regarded scientist who helped establish the link between smoking and lung cancer in the 1950s, once told Science magazine that Devra Lee Davis' work was "uninteresting," "uninformative," "boring" and "old junk."

I'm sure we could all add a few more adjectives based on her responses to her critics.

Send your suggestions (and other comments) directly to Devra Lee Davis.

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