This research is subsequently carried out, usually under the auspices of the Department of Health, and when completed and published, is evaluated in the context of all the research available. Another outcome of a recommendation for research is an evaluation of work on the precise distribution of child cancer in England, Wales and Scotland. This will enable the incidences of childhood cancer around nuclear installations and other sources of radiation to be seen in an overall context, something that has not been possible anywhere before. Programme is shown on the web-site as are the dates of its meetings. Minutes are not published since reports of all significant activities are published in full as soon as they are completed.
Uncertainty is a fact of life common to all areas of science.
Experiments done in the laboratory can usually be designed and controlled so that the uncertainty is minimized and the results can be regarded with confidence. With epidemiology however, we are dealing with people in the real world and things are not that easy. The power of the study is a purely statistical estimate of the smallest effect that it could be expected to detect with some degree of confidence. If the numbers are too small, even in a well-designed study, there is a high probability that chance will lead to the wrong conclusion and the study cannot be relied on. Obviously, the designers try their best to overcome this, but it always seems impossible to remove bias totally.