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Motherhood in Western Europe

Insights from Western European Mothers

The changing face of motherhood — Western Europe

The accompanying reports combine a review of existing literature with an analysis of original quantitative data derived from a poll of 9,582 mothers from 12 countries in Western Europe, making it one of the largest studies of this kind ever conducted

Child Obesity and Health

An analysis of the latest available data from the Health Survey for England (HSE)

Child Obesity and Health — download the full report in pdf format

In this ‘National Childhood Obesity Week’, the SIRC report, Children, obesity and heath: Recent trends, holds up a true mirror, accurately reflecting the trend towards slimmer, healthier children. more

The Future of Freemasonry

An examination of the role of Freemasonry in the 21st century

Freemasonry

This report is, as far as we know, an account of the first ever study that has been commissioned by Freemasons from a non-Masonic body. None of the SIRC members involved in the project are Freemasons, a fact that evoked surprise and welcome in equal measure from the Lodge members we met. more

The Changing Face of Motherhood

Insights from three generations of mothers

Motherhood

The report seeks to answer some specific questions about the changing face of motherhood and determine the extent to which modern ‘solutions’ to motherhood are more or less beneficial than the solutions of the past. more

Pride, prejudice and pylons

Sir Richard Doll's exhaustive study has now finally confirmed that, in the UK at least, there is no causal link between electricity pylons and childhood cancers – discrediting the scares published in every newspaper on Thursday, December 02. (BBC, Guardian). Reason would now suggest that we start devoting time and research resources to looking for other possible causes, and treatments.

The problem is that the issue is no longer one of reason, or science, or even concern for children with cancer, but of vested interests. The scientists whose findings were reported yesterday have staked their reputations (and prospects of future research funding) on the notion that pylons are a cancer risk, and will not lightly give up their cause, even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. We can expect to hear repeated attempts to show that the Doll study is not 'definitive' – indeed, some were trying to make this pre-emptive claim on Thursday, before the Doll findings were published – and yet more resources devoted to research and publications on pylons, which could have been used to find real causes and possible cures. When pride, prejudices and careers are at stake, dying children can wait.