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More or Less: Behind the Stats

Electric vehicles, 600 million bottles and does oral sex cause cancer?

More or Less: Behind the Stats

BBC

Business, Mathematics, Science, News Commentary, News

4.63.5K Ratings

🗓️ 14 June 2023

⏱️ 32 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

There's been a lot of coverage about the risks electric cars may pose to infrastructure like bridges and car parks. We look at how much heavier EVs are. Plus we look at a new study that suggests a link between breastfeeding and improved grades at GCSE level. Also is throat cancer now primarily caused by a sexually transmitted disease - and are 600 million bottles going to litter Scotland because of disagreements with the UK government over the new Deposit Return Scheme?

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts

0:04.8

Hello and welcome to more or less your tenacious guide to the numbers all around us in the news and in life.

0:12.0

This week is Throat Cancer now primarily caused by a sexually transmitted disease.

0:18.0

Are the nation's bridges about to collapse under the collective weight of electric cars?

0:23.0

Is breastfeeding the key to exam success?

0:26.0

And are 600 million glass bottles poised and ready to litter the beaches of Scotland?

0:32.0

Spoiler alert, the answer to some of these questions is no, but we'll get to that.

0:37.0

So let's begin.

0:39.0

Are you, like me, apparent, anxiously and somewhat helplessly watching your 16-year-old offspring

0:46.0

enduring a summer of GCSE exams?

0:49.0

Don't you wish you could do more to help them out?

0:52.0

Well, if you believe the newspapers, there's an easy solution.

0:56.0

Simply travel back in time 16 years and breastfeed your baby for as long as you possibly can.

1:02.0

Breastfeeding for longer may be linked to better exam results.

1:06.0

Kids breastfed for at least a year, a 38% more likely to get A's in exams, study finds.

1:12.0

That's a big number. But what on earth should we make of it?

1:17.0

These headlines relate to a study by researchers at Oxford University.

1:22.0

They looked at the link between being breastfed as a baby and pass rates in GCSE, English and maths.

1:29.0

The study concluded that a longer breastfeeding duration was associated with what it called

1:34.0

modest improvements in educational outcomes at age 16.

1:39.0

But 38% doesn't sound like a modest improvement to me and what do they mean by associated anyway.

1:46.0

Such questions also occurred to loyal listener Claire, who emailed more or less at bbc.co.uk to say...

...

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