>>> I have to wonder at what a "statistically significant" increase in
>>> stinging deaths would be?

>>Well any increase in the existing pattern of incidents that does not
>> seem, after proper measurement and statistical analysis, to be
>> attributable to chance.

> I agree that we should challenge the "common knowledge" that AHB
> leads to an increase in stinging deaths.  However, I don't hold out
> much hope for a study proving it one way or the other.

Here is a follow-up.  I spoke to Justin Schmidt the other day.  He has done
work on serious bee stinging incidents in the USA up to 2004.  I asked him
if there has been any change in the pattern and number of deaths over the
period that AHB has spread, and he said, that, curiously, there is not --
that he could see to that point, although one should think there should be.

I gather that one problem is that such incidents are sufficiently rare,
unique, and distributed geographically, that there are not enough samples to
establish patterns above the noise.

allen

History is more or less bunk.
            -- Henry Ford

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