The underside of a manipulation that transforms weekly values into daily values and treat wine like a poison.
The pseudo-scientific polemic launched by the Inca and the DGS in February 2009 :
On February 17, 2009 a joint conference of the INCa (National Cancer Institute), Nacre network, and the DGS (General Directorate of Health) to launch the new program PNNS * (see note below) in the premises of the Ministry of Health in Paris, has forged a formula that has been very successful in the press and triggered a broad scientific controversy, "a glass of wine causes cancer"
Immediately, great scientists have risen to say all the evil they thought of this incredible shortcut and deliberately provocative, in a country where wine is part of a culture and a lifestyle, that many countries envy us.
The controversy between the scientists stopped when the High Committee of Public Health ( the highest health body in France) delivered its verdict and, clearly condemned both the method and the results written by the INCa, the Nacre network and the DGS, which resulted this publication PNNS.
Without going into details, which you can read by browsing Annex 1, be aware that the INCa and the network Nacre have twisted datas from serious studies to make them say something other than the truth.
Thus the figure of 168 % increase in head and neck cancers * was obtained by multiplying one data which was related to one glass per week , by 7 to obtain a daily value, while this study accounted for cancers linked to one drink per week. Also this way is a huge misleading against scientific truth: in health studies a weekly value can not be converted into daily values, the relationship is neither linear nor proportional.
Also the phrase "a glass of wine causes cancer" was false and based on biased datas !
Almost 2 years later, we wanted to do an inventory, and demonstrate in a rational way, how the INCa, the Nacre network and DGS had produced a false document and had deliberately assaulted wine and the wine makers.
This document in 2 million print for doctors and practioners, was sent to the pestle with the bold action taken by the non profit association aptly named "Honor of wine"
You will have a deeper analysis of this story later on.
Scientific debate on 17 February 2009 launched by the Inca, the DGS and the network Nacre : The underside of the manipulation
Appendix 1
Report INCA (National Cancer Institute), new insights:
At the press conference on February 17, 2009, the authors of the report stressed two manipulative things that have of course remains unmodified by Agence France Presse and all the print or broadcast media.
This generated a general outcry from many renowned scientists against the assertions of the Inca, the Nacre network and the DGS (Directorate General of Health).Among these big names include : Prof. Henri Pujol, oncologist (and former president of the League against Cancer), Professor Henri Joyeux, surgeon and oncologist, Dr. Lucien Israel, oncologist, Professor Bernard Debre, renowned surgeon and Professor Christian Cabrol, world famous heart surgeon. All have spoken out against this false assertion, which downgraded the wine to the rank of deadly poison, regardless of dozens of studies which allocated the wine a protective effect in moderate doses, against all kinds of diseases.
Two increased risks of cancer have been widely disseminated by the press following the conference of 17 February: these are the values of 168% increase in the risk of head and neck cancer (upper aero-digestive tract) and 28% for oesophagus cancer.
These assertions generated of course great noise in France and abroad since the information was echoed by several countries in the world.
These two figures of 168% and 28% are the result of manipulation, in fact :
1) the announcement of an increase of 168% of these cancers, which is published on page 16 of the document signed by the INCa, DGS and Nacre * should have been taken from page 160 of the report by the World Cancer Research Fund ( WCRF) of 2007 and Figure 4.8.2 of this report.
How this figure of 168% has be obtained, as it is not inside the WCRF report itself ?
By multiplying the increasing risk by seven !
Which value has been treated this way ?
The value of 1.24 announced by the WCRF report 2007, page 160 and Figure 4.8.2. This value corresponded to the average study outlined by the WCRF for a drink of alcohol a week.
And to obtain a daily value, the "searchers" of the network NACRE and the INCa have multiplied 1.24 x 7, and have annouced a 168% increase in risk of head and neck cancers! Simply that.
But one cannot do this, a weekly value should not be converted into daily value by multiplying it by 7: it is unscientific, because the increase is not linear, it is not proportional .
All serious statisticians and epidemiologists will tell you this : it's not scientific, it is simply not true.
2) they announced an increase of 28% of cancers of the esophagus wich underwent the same treatment, and again, they cannot, from a given weekly data draw a daily value, it is a lie to say otherwise.
Why, what interest has justified all this, is it a proof that there would be any lobby that could benefit from it ? We are still wondering who is behind that.
INCa , NACRE and theDGS announced there was no threshold and the very first glass of wine was causing cancer. How they did it ?
They took the curves from the WCRF curves between alcohol consumption and cancer and had them extrapolated to zero consumption , removing the threshold effect, which is false, unacceptable and outrageous.
Similarly Didier Houssin the General Director of Health, said in defiance of scientific truth, that there was no threshold effect, when he said during the press conference on February 17th 2009 : "on alcohol and cancer, there is no protective dose"
Finally, at the press campaign Maranchini Professor, Chair of the INCa, for the issuance of the February 18, 2009 on France Inter broadcast show "The Phone Rings" were also questioned the benefits of moderate drinking on cardiovascular disease , questioning dozens of very serious epidemiological scientific studies**, carried out in the world and thereby refuting the WHO recommendations.
On the other hand the HCSP (High Committee of Public Health) Authority standard for public health, has condemned the methods and report INCa by its Communication of July 1st 2009.
Note that following the intervention, the legal, the association "Honor of wine" two million brochures PNNS which repeated these false figures described above, were sent to the drumstick!
Almost a year after (January 2010) a French study of INSERM and the University of Angers confirms what all the studies highlighted in 20 years, the components of wine have a good protective effect against diseases cardiovascular, describing the physico-chemical reactions and by reproducing them with polyphenols produced by specialized companies. It supported a confirmation of what many scientific studies, including that of Serge Renaud the father of the French Paradox concept, had advanced.
After reading this, you may think that the people who have launched this INCa and others manipulations, have received a clear blame from the French Health Ministry ? Not at all, they are still all in the loop !
* Entitled "Nutrition and cancer prevention, the recommendations of scientific knowledge" from the French National Health and Nutrition body.
** if you want to know what we mean by very serious scientific studies clik here
Do you want to dowload the WCRF 2007 report ? OK, pour a glass of good wine and download it here
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