Dodgy Chiropractic Advertising and the ASA

A common criticism I come across (from my girlfriend especially) about skeptics is that the majority of us do not play an active roll, that we simply absorb skeptical material as entertainment and talk about it rather than getting up and doing something about it (I think I agree with this overall). Of course, Simon Perry is the obvious example we should all think about when considering what each of us can easily do to make a difference.

When I came across some dodgy advertising for a local chiropractic clinic in Sheffield I saw this as an excellent opportunity to become more active.

The poster I saw was shown in a public place and therefore comes under the remit of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

Usual stuff really, apart from the paragraph 'Chiropractic has been shown to help with a vast array of musculoskeletal promlems, in almost every part of the body, not just the spine and neck'. This claim jumped out at me.

I reported this to the ASA (unfortunately I didnt keep a copy of the complaint, I'll try and get a copy to add on here).

The general gist of my argument referred to the General Chiropractic Council who are the body established by parliament to regulate the profession. Fairly recently they published the 'Effectiveness of manual therapies: the UK evidence report' which 'intends to be a comprehensive summary of the scientific evidence regarding the effectiveness of manual treatment for the management of a variety of musculoskeletal and non-musculoskeletal conditions'.

The GCC wrote [PDF] to the UK's chiropractors in March 2010 advising them to refer to this report when advertising their services.

In summary, the report concludes that there is only one treatment with a high level of positive evidence (chronic low back pain), the remainder are moderate or inconclusive. In the 'extremity - musculoskeletal' conditions reviewed, 12 had inconclusive evidence and 8 had moderate evidence (with a mix of favourable and un-favourable). The conclusions on non-musculoskeletal conditions were even worse. This seemed to be in direct contradiction to the advertising and didn't follow the advice given to the chiropractor by their regulatory body.

The ASA seemed to agree and I received the following response;

A job well done I think!

If you fancy submitting your own complaint then check if it falls within their remit and fill in the online form, it only took me 20 minutes.

Quote of the Week

Nature composes some of her loveliest poems for the microscope and the telescope.
- Theodore Roszak, Where the Wasteland Ends, 1972

Why Do Atheists Care What Other People Believe?

The title of this post is a quote from an article by Kelly McParland on nationalpost.com.

He refers to the atheist bus campaign in Canada and wonders

Why do atheists care what other people believe?

Well, Kelly, atheists care what other people believe when it affects us. And when it affects other people too.

We care what other people believe when creationists attempt to impose their religious beliefs into science education.

We care what other people believe when religious organisations are given special treatment (tax breaks, exemptions from non-discrimination laws for example) for no other reason that they are religious.

We care what other people believe when supposed faith healers dupe innocent believers out of their money and steer them away from appropriate medical treatment, often treatment which could make their life much more comfortable and even save it.

We care what other people believe when the religious attempt to ban things of which they do not approve or that they consider an insult to their beliefs.

We care what other people believe when innocent children are harmed or even die because of their parent's beliefs.

We care what other people believe when the requirement of empirical evidence is substituted by belief.

And we care about all this without fearing an all-powerful Big Brother bully figure who will punish us if we don't act like good little creations and reward us if we do nice stuff.

That is why we care what other people believe.