Oiling the Wheels of Industry

Dr. Ben Goldacre writes a weekly column in The Guardian on the subject of "Bad Science".  He also has a blog of the same name. Recently, he’s been digging into a story about Durham Council introducing, at taxpayers’ expense, fish oil food supplements into the local schools. The council claims that the supplements have proven to be effective in improving the children’s performance at school.

 

Goldacre has repeatedly asked to see the evidence for these claims, and surprise, surprise, the data has not been forthcoming. In fact, Durham Council have been stonewalling. One might almost think that they might have something to hide.

 

Now, Goldacre has taken the step of asking other people to request the data from the council under the Freedom of Information Act. The response has been most gratifying. I await developments with interest.