A) Provide an informal analysis of the following passage; orB) in analyzing the passage, do the following:a. Identify the causal hypothesis at issue.b. Identify what kind of study it is.c. Describe the control and experimental groups.d. State the difference in effect (or cause) between control and experimental groups.e. Identify any problems in either the study or the report of it, including but not necessarily limited to uncontrolled variables.f. State the conclusion you think is warranted by the report.A study of 546 men in New Zealand who were identified as leukemia patients between 1979 and 1983 suggests that electrical workers are at increased risk of developing this cancer. Each man was matched with four other men from New Zealand's cancer registry. The study found a significant

Question

excess of leukemias among those electrical workers who had been employed as electronic equipment assemblers (4 cases, where only 0.5 would have been expected) and radio and television repairers (7 cases, where only 1.5 would have been expected). The study was conducted by N. E. Pearce and his colleagues at the Department of Community Health, Wellington Clinical School, and National Health Statistics Centre in Wellington, New Zealand.In a second study, Washington State epidemiologist Samuel Milham, Jr., obtained the death certificates for 95 percent of the 296 deceased Washington members of the American Radio Relay League (amateur radio operators) and 86 percent of the 1,642 deceased California members. Twenty-four of the deaths were due to leukemia; 16 of these were of the myeloid class-nearly triple the 5.7 deaths that would have been expected from this type of leukemia. Milham acknowledges that the difference might be attributable to chance but points out that three other studies have revealed a tendency toward a relative increase in the acute myelogenous type of leukemia in electrical workers.-Adapted from Science News

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The first investigation, a retrospective observational study, suggests that something associated with working with electronics is a causal factor for leukemia in humans. The second, a prospective observational study, does not support the same thesis. But given the other studies mentioned, we would not think that further investigation of a possible link between leukemia and electrical work would be a waste of money.