Background: A few years ago, reports appeared in the media linking the consumption of hot dogs with various forms of childhood cancer. Several newspaper articles declared that parents should stop feeding their children hot dogs.
However, just because the parents of the children who had cancer reported having fed them more hot dogs, this does not mean the hot dogs caused their cancer. There are third variable explanations (e.g., less than optimal general nutrition, poverty, even the mustard or yellow dye in the mustard). Also, there may be recall bias (parents whose children are tragically afflicted with cancer may be searching for a culprit to explain what caused the cancer.)
DIRECTIONS:
You are to find at least two (2) other examples of health research that they have read or heard about in the media that misleadingly suggest causation instead of correlation. You should use newspapers, magazines or commercial websites. Provide the URL of the source as well as complete bibliographic information.
And discuss why those particular items are misleading. What could be done to suggest causation?