Geoffrey Kabat

Geoffrey C. Kabat is an American epidemiologist and cancer researcher. He is a senior epidemiologist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine's Department of Epidemiology and Population Health.[1]

Scientific work

In 2003, Kabat, who then worked at the State University of New York, Stony Brook,[2] co-authored a study in BMJ examining the association between passive smoking and tobacco-related mortality. The study concluded that its results "do not support a causal relation between environmental tobacco smoke and tobacco related mortality."[3][4] The study was partly funded by the tobacco industry and was heavily publicized by it,[5][6] and was criticized for using a dataset that did not include an "unexposed" group.[7] In his book Hyping Health Risks, Kabat describes the criticism of this study as scientific McCarthyism.[8]

In 2011, Kabat authored a study which found an association between high blood sugar levels and an increased risk of colon cancer.[9][10] In 2013, Kabat published a study which found that taller women were at an increased risk of developing all types of cancer after menopause.[11][12] Kabat and the other authors of this study noted that height should not be viewed as a risk factor for cancer but rather as a marker for exposures that increase the risk of cancer.[13]

Writings about environmental health

Hyping Health Risks

Kabat is the author of the book Hyping Health Risks, published in 2008 by Columbia University Press. The book examines several alleged environmental health risks, such as the proposed link between artificial chemicals and cancer, and concludes that these risks have been distorted.[14] In the book, Kabat also discusses the science relating to the adverse health effects of passive smoking, arguing that anti-smoking activists have manipulated the results of scientific studies to justify increasingly stringent anti-smoking regulations.[15]

David A. Savitz reviewed the book and wrote "For the most part, the story of truth and misrepresentation of evidence on health risks [in the book] was engaging".[16] It was also reviewed in the New England Journal of Medicine, where Barbara Gastel wrote that "Kabat is at his best in the chapters in which he presents the case studies," but she criticized the book's first chapter, entitled "Introduction: Toward a Sociology of Health Hazards in Daily Life".[17] In a more negative review, Neil Pearce wrote in the International Journal of Epidemiology that he "became more frustrated and less impressed as [he] worked [his] way through the book" and criticized the book for what he called its "lack of balance".[18]

Columns

Kabat contributes a column to Forbes magazine, described as being about "the science and politics of health risks".[19] In a 2009 article in Spiked, Kabat criticized promoters of a link between cell phone use and cancer for what he said was the "astoundingly selective and slanted presentation they give of the relevant evidence."[20]

References

  1. ↑ "Geoffrey C. Kabat, PhD, MS". Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  2. ↑ Pearson, Helen (16 May 2003). "All in a puff over passive smoking". Nature. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
  3. ↑ Enstrom, J. E (15 May 2003). "Environmental tobacco smoke and tobacco related mortality in a prospective study of Californians, 1960–98". BMJ. 326 (7398): 1057–0. doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7398.1057. PMC 155687Freely accessible. PMID 12750205.
  4. ↑ Sullum, Jacob (16 May 2003). "Weak Link". Reason. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  5. ↑ Bhattacharya, Shaoni (16 May 2003). "Controversy over passive smoking danger". New Scientist. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  6. ↑ Tong, E. K.; Glantz, S. A. (16 October 2007). "Tobacco Industry Efforts Undermining Evidence Linking Secondhand Smoke With Cardiovascular Disease". Circulation. 116 (16): 1845–1854. doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.107.715888. PMID 17938301.
  7. ↑ Bero, LA; Glantz, S; Hong, MK (April 2005). "The limits of competing interest disclosures.". Tobacco control. 14 (2): 118–26. PMID 15791022.
  8. ↑ Hines, Terence (July–August 2009). "When Science Gets Distorted for Nonscientific Reasons". Skeptical Inquirer. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  9. ↑ Kabat, G C; Kim, M Y; Strickler, H D; Shikany, J M; Lane, D; Luo, J; Ning, Y; Gunter, M J; Rohan, T E (29 November 2011). "A longitudinal study of serum insulin and glucose levels in relation to colorectal cancer risk among postmenopausal women". British Journal of Cancer. 106 (1): 227–232. doi:10.1038/bjc.2011.512.
  10. ↑ "High Blood Sugar Seems to Invite Colon Cancer". Fox News Channel. 30 November 2011. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  11. ↑ Kabat, G. C.; Anderson, M. L.; Heo, M.; Hosgood, H. D.; Kamensky, V.; Bea, J. W.; Hou, L.; Lane, D. S.; Wactawski-Wende, J.; Manson, J. E.; Rohan, T. E. (25 July 2013). "Adult Stature and Risk of Cancer at Different Anatomic Sites in a Cohort of Postmenopausal Women". Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention. 22 (8): 1353–1363. doi:10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-13-0305. PMID 23887996.
  12. ↑ Zuckerman, Laura (25 July 2013). "Study finds link between women's height and cancer risk". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  13. ↑ Morin, Monte (25 July 2013). "Tall women have higher cancer risk; are smoking, drinking to blame?". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  14. ↑ Bailey, Ronald (11 August 2008). "Scared Senseless". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  15. ↑ Fitzpatrick, Michael (30 October 2009). "The anti-smoking 'truth regime' that cannot be questioned". Spiked. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  16. ↑ Savitz, D. A. (3 March 2009). "Hyping Health Risks: Environmental Hazards in Daily Life and the Science of Epidemiology: By Geoffrey C. Kabat". American Journal of Epidemiology. 169 (8): 1039–1041. doi:10.1093/aje/kwp013.
  17. ↑ Gastel, Barbara (29 January 2009). "Book Review Hyping Health Risks: Environmental Hazards in Daily Life and the Science of Epidemiology By Geoffrey C. Kabat. 250 pp. New York, Columbia University Press, 2008. $27.95. 978-0-231-14148-2". New England Journal of Medicine. 360 (5): 548–549. doi:10.1056/NEJMbkrev0807040.
  18. ↑ Pearce, N. (18 September 2008). "Hyping Health Risks: Environmental Hazards in Daily Life and the Science of Epidemiology. Kabat GC.". International Journal of Epidemiology. 38 (6): 1746–1748. doi:10.1093/ije/dyn198.
  19. ↑ Geoffrey Kabat. "Most Cancers May Simply Be Due To Bad Luck". Forbes. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  20. ↑ Kabat, Geoffrey (15 September 2009). "The hard cell". Spiked. Retrieved 6 February 2015.

External links

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