1 Institute for Social Sciences and Philosophy and Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan, Republic of China
2 Institute of Epidemiology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China and Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan, Republic of China
3 Department of Biostatistics, School of Hygiene and Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
We are grateful to Steven Koehler for his comments on our study on sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and air pollution in Taiwan.1 The criticism focuses on the autopsy rate and the new, but well-referenced finding, that in Taiwan, and probably other Asian countries, the majority of classic SIDS is coded as suffocation. Following is an itemized reply to the issues raised. SIDS has been assumed to be a phenomenon of western countries. In China and Hong Kong it is thought to be virtually nonexistent2,3 Japan and Taiwan have officially published rates that are extremely low.4,5