Type I Errors Cancer

A Type I Error is a false positive where a true null hypothesis is rejected, and a Type II Error is a false negative where a false null hypothesis is accepted. In this case, a Type II Error would conclude this pesticide does not increase cancer rates when it does, a Type I Error would conclude this pesticide does increase cancer rates when it doesn’t. We would want to minimize our risk of Type II Error because this sort of error could mislead people into thinking the pesticide is safe when it is not, and the continued use of it would increase cancer rates. A Type I Error is less important because in this case, cancer rates would not rise since the pesticide would be deemed unsafe. It may cause farmers to lose millions of dollars, but that is less expensive than the lives of people and the compounded medical costs of cancer of the country.