In The Field

AAAS: Caution! Reporters in the room.

This afternoon we had a press briefing about a session called “The Father and the Fetus: Revisited”. The session discussed consequences for future offspring when men are exposed to nasty chemicals. Researchers almost always focus on mom, so there’s not a lot of data on dad yet. The ‘revisited’ in the title refers to a previous session at a 1991 AAAS meeting. Gladys Friedler of Boston University was candid about why she organized the discussion this year: the 1991 session didn’t lead to the increase in attention and, ahem, funding that she hoped, so she’s giving it another try.

Despite that stated mission, one of the talks again focused on mom. Matthew Anway of the University of Idaho presented published work showing that when pregnant rats are given whopping high doses of a commonly used fungicide called vinclozolin, their children and their children’s children and their children’s children’s children are more likely to come down with certain diseases as adults. Anway doesn’t believe that vinclozolin mutates DNA — he thinks the effects are epigenetic. (Anway’s published a ton on all of this, so just do a quick pubmed search if you want more detail.)

All very interesting, but in his brief presentation to journalists, Anway left out the ‘whopping high doses’ part. Meanwhile, some reporters clearly viewed Anway’s research as a toxicity study with implications for human health. When finally asked about the dosage, Anway readily said it was much, much higher than humans would normally encounter. And, he noted, he administered the fungicide intravenously. Around the room, news-hungry journalists sagged their shoulders. One reporter chastised Anway for not making the concentration clear from the start. Anway, looking a bit frustrated, answered that he never claimed his work had environmental significance; he was only trying to understand how alterations in fetal development may affect adult disease.

It’s a common tale with a lesson for both sides. Reporters groan that the researcher was unclear; scientists groan that the reporter missed the point. In the end, both sides have to be on the watch for hidden assumptions — including their own.

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