British Chiropractic Association v Simon Singh

[Blue Wode]

Permission to Appeal judgment now online:
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2009/1154.html

[Blue Wode]

New blog post from Edzard Ernst at Pulse (registration is free):

The General Chiropractic Council and its retracted claim

12 Nov 09

Simon Perry is a well-known and relentless campaigner against pseudo-science.


Recently he complained to the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) about claims made in a patient information leaflet published by the UK General Chiropractic Council (GCC). The passage in question read as follows:

There is some evidence, though more research is needed, that you may see an improvement in some types of:

• asthma
• headaches, including migraine and
• infant colic


As a result of Perry’s action, the GCC withdrew the leaflet. It was amended and has been republished with the following wording.

A review is being carried out of the evidence as to whether chiropractic may ease some of the symptoms of some types of:

• asthma
• headaches, including migraine and
• infant colic

This move seems important in several ways. It means that the GCC probably realized that the original claims were not based on sound data – if not they would only had to provide the evidence and the ASA could have evaluated it. This tacit admission might now influence several current disputes around chiropractic.

The GCC is presently dealing with about 600 complaints against chiropractors making claims of the types listed above. Having more or less admitted that they are not supported by evidence, the GCC could have to discipline all of these 600 individuals. Similarly, it may well impact on the high-profile Simon Singh case.

I think there might be a lesson in all this. The best advice for the future is, I think, to abstain from making unsubstantiated claims in the first place. This saves all the legal hassle and – crucially – does not put patients at risk.

Editor's note
- Pulse contacted the General Chiropractic Council for its response to this column.

Margaret Coats, chief executive, confirmed that the council had 'amended the wording [of the patient information leaflet] in consultation with the ASA'.

She declined to make any comment on the council's 'regulatory business'.




http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/story.as...de=4124312&c=1

Isn't the GCC's 'regulatory business' about protecting the public?

[DrS]

There is some evidence, though more research is needed, that you may see an improvement in some types of ...

A review is being carried out of the evidence as to whether chiropractic may ease some of the symptoms of some types of ...

I wonder how differently this revised version will read in general terms. The second version still refers to "evidence", which implicitly exists otherwise how could a review be carried out. I think that to many the two versions will sound the same.

In fact, the second one could even be read as more emphatic than the first. With the first, there is just "some" evidence, and an acknowledgement that more is needed. In the second, the "evidence" is already there and a review is underway, which suggests the evidence was felt to warrant a review.

[Bob Lloyd]

You have to wonder what did the most harm to chiropractor reputations, the original article by Singh, or the absurd libel case brought by the BCA. Now that the GCC is retracting it's dodgy leaflet wording, that surely puts the BCA more and more out on a limb.

One can only imagine the anger that must be felt by the BCA members who thought that by joining a trade organisation, their business interests would be protected, and instead found that their "professional" body was actually embarrassing the hell out of them and forcing them to justify their fanciful marketing claims. With friends like that...

Maybe now the BCA will have enough sense to drop the case before they start losing all their members. Would you join a trade organisation that dropped the sticky stuff on you from a great height?

[Blue Wode]

A related development:

Zeno's response to the Pittilo Consultation on the proposed regulation of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine is a must read as it gets to the heart of the problem regarding the (lack of) protection of the public from unscrupulous practices/practitioners. He uses the UK General Chiropractic Council as an example of how "statutory regulation has spectacularly failed in the most fundamental of areas: that of protecting the public from bogus claims":
http://www.zenosblog.com/wp-content/...n-Response.pdf

Lifted from this blog post:
http://www.zenosblog.com/2009/11/reg...e-my-response/

[Bob Lloyd]

Excellent document from Zeno, though it's doubtful that any politicians will be willing to do anything to encroach on these profitable businesses, however dishonest their claims. Governments don't do anything to upset business.

They'll only fall in behind a movement of people rejecting this Woo nonsense, and then only if it's big enough to provide some political embarrassment. Zeno's campaign to report the chiropractors ironically depended on the fact that they had to be registered, otherwise he'd have had nothing to report. As he said himself, you can't regulate nonsense.

I'm looking forward to next year when Singh gets his time in court, but I suspect the BCA will looks for a settlement long before then. I wonder how Singh will react when that approach is made. We could all understand it if he just wanted the hassle to go away.

[panama]

I rather hope that Singh is a man of priciple ( the evidence suggests it) and will take this all the way.

[Blue Wode]

Under the Freedom of Information Act the Charity Commission has now handed the Guardian the complaints it received - and dismissed - over Sense about Science and Simon Singhs' legal battle:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/bl...-about-science

The link includes 11 pages of full text (which can be read on full screen) "in the interests of having the details out in the open as much as possible".

[Blue Wode]

Re the Guardian article above, when in full screen use the Zoom + icon at the foot of the page to make the document legible.

[Blue Wode]

Latest...

The General Chiropractic Council appears to be avoiding Freedom of Information Act requests:
http://adventuresinnonsense.blogspot...-requests.html

[Blue Wode]

Latest news.

ASA has administered an appropriate second slap to the GCC and it has now removed its claims for colic, etc:
http://adventuresinnonsense.blogspot...-it-again.html

BCA v. Singh: the Composition of the Court of Appeal:

It appears that the Court of Appeal is assembling a very powerful panel indeed to hear the appeal by Simon Singh of the adverse ruling on meaning by the High Court.

More...
http://jackofkent.blogspot.com/2009/...mposition.html

[Blue Wode]

A message from Simon Singh:

"It has been 18 months since I was sued for libel after publishing my article on chiropractic. I am continuing to fight my case and am prepared to defend my article for another 18 months or more if necessary. The ongoing libel case has been distracting, draining and frustrating, but it has always been heartening to receive so much support, particularly from people who realise that English libel laws need to be reformed in order to allow robust discussion of matters of public interest. Over twenty thousand people signed the statement to Keep Libel Laws out of Science, but now we need you to sign up again and add your name to the new statement.

The new statement is necessary because the campaign for libel reform is stepping up a gear and will be working on much broader base. Sense About Science has joined forces with Index on Censorship and English PEN and their goal is to reach 100,000 or more signatories in order to help politicians appreciate the level of public support for libel reform. We have already met several leading figures from all three main parties and they have all showed signs of interest. Now, however, we need a final push in order to persuade them to commit to libel reform.

Finally, I would like to make three points. First, I will stress again - please take the time to reinforce your support for libel reform by signing up at www.libelreform.org. Second, please spread the word by blogging, twittering, Facebooking and emailing in order to encourage friends, family and colleagues to sign up. Third, for those supporters who live overseas, please also add your name to the petition and encourage others to do the same; unfortunately and embarrassingly, English libel laws impact writers in the rest of the world, but now you can help change those laws by showing your support for libel reform. While I fight in my own libel battle, I hope that you will fight the bigger battle of libel reform."

Also, the case of British Chiropractic Association against Simon Singh is now likely to make legal history:
http://jackofkent.blogspot.com/2009/...l-history.html

[davidrodway]

Study pans chiropractic's "subluxation" concept.

Four scholarly chiropractors have concluded that epidemiologic
evidence does not support chiropractic's most fundamental theory.
Since its inception, the vast majority of chiropractors have
postulated that "subluxations" (misalignments) are the cause or
underlying cause of ill health and can be corrected with spinal
"adjustments." [Barrett S. Subluxation: Chiropractic's elusive
buzzword. Chirobase, May 21, 2006]
http://www.chirobase.org/01General/chirosub.html After searching the
scientific literature, the authors concluded:

"No supportive evidence is found for the chiropractic subluxation
being associated with any disease process or of creating suboptimal
health conditions requiring intervention. Regardless of popular
appeal, this leaves the subluxation construct in the realm of
unsupported speculation. This lack of supportive evidence suggests
the subluxation construct has no valid clinical applicability. [Mirtz
TA and others. An epidemiological examination of the subluxation
construct using Hill's criteria of causation." Chiropractic &
Osteopathy 2009, 17:13, 2009]

[DrS]

Have signed the petition, put it on my facebook, and on a local forum in Tenerife where there are quite a few expats.

[bindeweede]

Crispian Jago's "The Ladybird Book of Chiropractic Treatment & English Libel Law."

(Quacks and Shysters Series)

http://crispian-jago.blogspot.com/20...treatment.html

Rather good.