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TOPIC: ARGUMENT35 - The following appeared in the summary of a study on headaches suffered by the residents of Mentia.
"Salicylates are members of the same chemical family as aspirin, a medicine used to treat headaches. Although many foods are naturally rich in salicylates, for the past several decades food-processing companies have also been adding salicylates to foods as preservatives. This rise in the commercial use of salicylates has been found to correlate with a steady decline in the average number of headaches reported by participants in our twenty-year study. Recently, food-processing companies have found that salicylates can also be used as flavor additives for foods. With this new use for salicylates, we can expect a continued steady decline in the number of headaches suffered by the average citizen of Mentia."
WORDS: 362 (449)
TIME: :30 + 10
DATE: 2009-7-6 20:48:52
The author, in the argument, predicts a steady declining trend of the numbers of headaches suffered by the residents of Mentia. The arguer, deduces the prediction based on three prerequsites: First, salicylates belong to a medicine to treat headaches; Second, one study reveals that rising commercial use of salicylates is correlated with the falling number of headaches of the participants; Third, salicylates can be used as flavor additives for foods according to findings of food-processing companies. However, both the relied foundations and corresponding deductions are fraught with flaws and thus unconvincing.
To begin with, it is uncertain what medical quality salicylates have. This medicine is just mentioned in the same chemical family as aspirin, while aspirin is a anti-biotic medicine to kill virus of many diseases. Without precise definition of salicylates as a headache-killer, it is naturally meaningless to do some studies around the function against headache. Furthermore, headaches can be classified into chronicle or acute, which needs different treatment and medical prescriptions. Unless unveil the obscurity of salicylates function, it is groundless to go further.
In addition, the study itself is not overall thus problematic. For one thing, it did not give the information of the quantity and information of participants. If only two patients were studied, and each had chronicle or acute headache, the trend exhibited in the study can reflect little. For another thing, correlation of soaring use of salicylates and decreasing number of headaches does not mean that the former necessarily causes the latter. Even if the former seems to lead to the latter, it is equally possible that the subjects have taken other medicines to cure their headaches. Meanwhile, other ingredients in the food they have taken have not been ruled out as impossible to cause the declination of headache number.
Finally, new use as flavor additives can not guarantee the steady decline in the number of headaches, since it is up to the consumers' tastes and choices of what to eat. They may not like the flavor of salicylates thus they do not buy and consume, or they may happen to suffer acute headaches because of a spasm of climatic change or pressure of financial crises. Without eliminating these possibilities, the author can not convince me of this necessity.
In all, the conclusion reached in this argument is hasty and fallacious. If accurate details of salicylates are given as to the treatment of which kind of headache, if adequate information in the study is offered to identify the causal relationship between use of salicylates and steady declination of headaches, if salicylates as flavor additives can really appeal to residents of Mentia, these can at large bolster and corroborate the presumption in this argument. |
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