Evaluating the Effectiveness of Antibacterial Soap (continued)
Step 2. Determining Fact from Fiction
Please read the following story.
Suppose a salesperson comes to your door and tells you about his amazing antibacterial soap that kills 99.9% of the bacteria on your hands. He shows you colourful graphs that appear to demonstrate that the antibacterial soap kills more bacteria than regular hand soap. He also has a list of doctors who have written glowing reports about the effectiveness of antibacterial soap. When asked about the safety of the antibacterial soap, the salesman did say that only 0.01% of the people who use his soap regularly become infected with the flesh-eating disease.
Here are some examples of questions you might ask in order to test the claims of the salesperson:
- Is the person making the claim an expert in that particular area of science?
- Does the product work the way it is supposed to?
- How do you know the product works safely?
- Did the evidence being presented come from scientific experiments that support the product, or just from personal testimonials?
