Most pesticide stories concern barely measurable and, despite the alarm, essentially harmless amounts on food or in water. But asbestos comes from the bowels of the earth and pesticides from the hand of man, and therein lies the difference. In short, environmental is understood too narrowly. The air you breathe, the culture you live in, the agricultural habits of your community, the social cultural habits, the social pressures, the physical chemicals . . . Sometimes, but rarely.
Scientists are none too happy about their findings being misconstrued for the public.
In only three of 11 cancer-causing categories tobacco, sunlight and radon do at least half the scientists surveyed believe that the media's presentation of cancer risks and causes is fair. Not surprisingly, these are all natural carcinogens. Scientists' doubts differ according to the news source, too. Seventy-two percent found the New England Journal of Medicine highly reliable, but less than a fourth felt that way about the New York Times . Still, the Times fared more than twice as well as the weekly news magazines.