Two situations:
— I haven’t seen any of those ill-effects in myself or anyone I know, so I believe the official say-so that ill-effects are statistically insignificant.
— I have seen ill-effects up close and personal with people I know, and that contradicts the official say-so, so I’ll believe them over the official line.
Why does there have to be a firefight over that? Live and let live, blah blah blah… Kumbaya.
One similar personal example I have is with cat-treats. My cats are rather finicky, so I wanted to get some treats to maybe bribe them into eating, whatever. Oh, you thought catnip was like cat-crack, those treats are like crystal meth. Mine climb over me, knock me down, and rifle through my pockets looking for ’em.
Before I even read anything about them, I noticed that since I’ve been giving them any, they’ve gotten unusually aggressive to each other and even to me. They used to play, chase each other around, run around the house, bitch-slap each other but no claws, but while one might swat at the other, they never got into any knock-down-drag-out fights. Since the treats, I’ve been yelling at them to break it up, and tossing crumpled-up paper at them to get their attention, even physically getting between them to get ’em apart. One gets a bug up his ass about something, and they both go at it.
Then, I was reading reviews on the treats, and whaddya know, some cats get aggressive! Those things are sold left’n’right, cats love ‘em, and people are generally happy. But I’ve seen both cats (not just one), get itchin’ for a fight. Even when I go to scritch one, out of nowhere… swat!… with claws out.
I’m weaning ’em off the treats, giving some to the outside cats (hopefully not so much that they go killing each other), but once this jug is gone, that’s it. No more.
I don’t want anyone arguing with me about whether/not those treats “make” cats aggressive. I don’t care if you have 20 cats who make whole meals of those treats and still hold hands and sing the Meow Mix™ song together. All I care about is what I personally observed in my cats. I’ll respect your opinion and observations, and I expect the same in return.