Epilogue of the Health-Pollution Conference

Abstract

One of the most significant assessments of the effects of environmental pollutants on human health was made at the Sixth Berkeley Symposium on Mathematical Statistics and Probability at the University of California in July 1971. Participants sought to establish a realistic cross-section of contemporary statistical thinking about the effects of pollution on health.This was a task of no mean proportions. Where large populations are exposed to relatively low levels of pollution and clinical data are masked or ambiguous, the health effects must be determined by statistical analysis. The Berkeley Symposium was designed to shed some light on the present state of the art of making these determinations—as a basis for governmental action.In this review of the Symposium, Jerzy Neyman, a mathematician in the Department of Statistics at the University of California, suggests that the state of the art is less than adequate. In fact, he says, present information of health effects of pollutants is so fragmental that a b...