Yeah the icebucket challenge is a getting a bit boring now and we are getting inundated every day with more and more videos, but at the same time I am getting really annoyed and pissed off with people complaining about others doing a good deed (and face it, there are just as much posts slagging it off as people doing it). So as a scientist with a doctorate who has worked in scientific research and as someone who has do a LOT for charities in the past I thought I would finally give my opinion on this matter: 1. The thing is people say that you do not have to throw an ice bucket over your head to donate to charity, agreed! BUT by doing this a hell of a lot more money is being raised. Not many people will just donate if you asked them to, FACT! If we had a challenge where we just saw people filming themselves giving money to charity via paypal or a directly from a charity site, how many people would do it? Plus it is a bit of fun innit! The ice bucket challenge was initially started my ALS and was brought about to raise awareness of the motor neuron disease, as having ice over ones head was to mimic the tingling horrid sensation that ALS suffers have to put up with every day! The challenge is most definitely raising awareness!! 2. We are wasting water by doing the icebucket challenge. I am a bit tired of seeing memes of people in the third world countries carrying water and people saying that they have to walk miles for any water. YES Correct! In some under developing they still do, BUT as we live in developed countries...hasnt anyone heard of the Water Cycle? No water is wasted as such during an ice bucket challenge in developed countries where there is a lot of rain as the water evaporates from the ground back to the clouds where it condenses and falls as rain OR will run off into the drains where it will eventually be processed in a waste water treatment plant back into drink water. People use much, much more water for everyday activities than they do for the ALS ice bucket challenge. The most obvious example: you use as much water in one minute in the shower as you would use for one bucket of ice water. (The average showerhead uses about five gallons per minute, while the average bucket holds the same amount.) And most people take showers every day, for often quite a bit longer than one minute. PLUS what about all the bars that ask if you want ice in already cold drinks (bottles from the fridge)? Now THAT is wasting ice cubes on a much larger scale! We as a whole are wasting a lot of water every day as it is! However, where there is drought, this is a different matter, we should then not be wasting water on ice bucket challenges, but at the same time we should not waste water on sprinklers in over-watering gardens, taking showers every day (or sometimes 1-3 times a day), flushing the toilet more than needed. From the uswitch website: The average Briton uses the equivalent of 16 buckets worth of water a day. One third of this goes down the loo. 3. The ice bucket challenge is peer pressure making people do something they dont want to do to weak willed people who want to impress others, yes it is most definitely the case. To the stronger people amongst us you can just say, NO, simple as, and still give to charity! Also, I do find it almost offensive that charities raising money for medical research or support are getting people to dump water on their heads. They should know better! Thank goodness that no partakers have accepted the challenge and have had an adverse reaction/shock! 4. Only 27% of money raised from ice bucket challenge only goes to research. As a scientist who has worked on research, this statement does not either surprise of shock me. However, without money there would be no research at all! ALS at the moment is an incurable disease, so in a way, it is better that 32% of the money raised is going to education and 19% to patient and community services. I have put on a lot of gigs for cancer support in the past and not research, because as I see it there may not be a cure for cancer in my lifetime, but there will always be people with cancer (and their families) needing help and support! The same way of thinking for me applies to ALS and other diseases where there is no cure (at present). It is also a FACT that a lot of the money raised will go to the CEO/corporate members of the company, but to me that is life, there will always be greedy people out there taking a higher stake in money in any job from any of the big companies. As a scientist with more than 8 years study in university, if I want to work in research with direct hands on experience into looking for cures, most jobs are still only around £15-25K a year for a research scientist with a doctorate/PhD. Most of the money in pharmaceutical companies goes to the CEO/Corporate members (who can earn £80-£100K a year) and the majority of these are NOT the scientists who are doing the important research, they are businessmen! A lot of scientists that do routine laboratory work (analysis, etc) are still on the minimum wage! There is no excuse for corporate members taking large amounts of money, but this happens not only with ALS but a lot of other charities! It happens right across the board too, with the board of directors in banks, larger record companies, scientific industries, manufacturing industries etc etc getting far more money and the majority of monies accrued going to admin. So therefore, I am OK with seeing that only 27% of the monies raised go to research. I am not happy about it, but I am OK with it, as name any company (research or not) where executive members do not get a higher cut? The main worry that I have is that the ALS ice bucket challenge is a viral craze for this summer and that people are giving one off donations to a disease that may need to be researched into over a much longer period of time. I just hope that this is a reasoning with ALS that not a lot of money is going to fund research all in one go this year, but that they will be putting money aside to fund the research in later years, esp. if a breakthrough happens. I, for one, know that R&D can take many many years (with phase I to IV clinical trials), so I hope, in a way, that not all the money will be directly used up this year, and that the research will continue to be funded further down the line! This is one thing that most of us will never know! qz/257753/why-nobody-should-be-upset-that-als-foundation-only-spends-27-of-donations-on-research/
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 10:02:26 +0000
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