Comment by msteffen

2 hours ago

My understanding was that they take issue with the word "attributable". They don't attempt to propose a mechanism by which living near Costco causes cancer (the most strongly associated of the landmarks they measured). Rather, the implication is that it doesn't. Like I think it's a lot of words arguing that "correlation doesn't prove causation" could be restated "association doesn't prove attribution."

Attributable risk is a specific term in epi, the FDA uses it, and it doesn't imply causality.