< how to determine if data is good by routinely putting the proper checks in place>

It's called GLP (Good Laboratory Practices).  Unfortunately, it's too often lacking - too much work, too costly, etc.  Whenever there's a hot topic, everyone with a lab jumps into the fray.   Big commercial labs, industrial labs, government labs usually have GLP in place.  Unfortunately, a lot of my peers in academia can't be bothered.  (Note, I'm not talking directly about the issue in hand and the press release, I'm saying that many of the contradictory results that emerge whenever something becomes big news are confounded by bad data).






I've done GLP studies for EPA, starting on Superfund Sites.  I've done GLP studies for private companies and non-profit groups; and we adhere to the basic guidelines of GLP, even in exploratory research.  


When in 2006, our nation's scientist's, beekeepers, and public re-discovered pesticides as hazardous to bees (we went through the period from introduction of varroa until 2006 focused on varroa as the source of all problems; varroa replacing the emphasis of the 60's through the late 80's on pesticides as the biggest concern, then back to pesticides (especially the neonics)).  After 2006, I saw virtually every university bee lab 'training' students in the search for pesticides, more times than not, and this is particularly worrisome, with nobody on a graduate student's committee who was a chemist, nobody who was a toxicologist, nobody who knew GLP, providing any guidance.


To this day I remember a student working in a genetics lab, analyzing for pesticides using antiquated equipment, too poor to even get a confirmatory analysis of even one sample from a state-of-the-art lab, and who was told:  'Don't worry about GLP'.  When I met the student, I found that the student didn't even know what GLP stood for!





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