QUESTION 6

Assuming the premises in the following argument are true, do they support the causal conclusion? Explain your answer.

(10 marks)

Recent research suggests that air pollution may be a contributing cause of ADHD. Researchers compared rates of ADHD diagnosis and pollution in councils around Australia. They had each council building fitted with an airborne particulate detector and recorded the average particulates in the air each day during the year. They also got all health practitioners who were qualified to diagnose ADHD to send counts of these diagnoses to the council at the end of the year. Results showed that that the more pollution in a council's average day, the more diagnoses of ADHD there were per year in that council. The researchers imply that the relationship may be due to reduced oxygen available for uptake by the brain.