Those of you who follow the science policy wars - the question of how you determine where the science is on controversial policy questions - might be interested in a story by Annette Cary in the Tri-City Herald (reg. req.) Friday about litigation over whether the Hanford nuclear plant made people sick.
Cary does a good job of laying out the dilemmas in what could be a classic case study. You've got a Big Science consensus, in this case represented by a CDC study saying, essentially, "no harm."
"The best science that money can buy suggests no link between emissions and thyroid disease," said defense attorney Randy Squires in a earlier motion hearing.
"The one well-established risk factor for thyroid cancer is radiation," downwinder attorney Brian Depew told the judge as about 20 downwinders and their family members listened in a Spokane courtroom.