Just a note to the associated press:
According to state records, employees at a business next door to Parkway Cleaners saw a worker from the dry cleaning business dump chemicals out a rear window directly onto the ground several times before it closed in the 1980s. The latest results from test wells on the Parkway Cleaners site show the PCE level in the groundwater is at 14,000 parts per billion, 2,800 percent above the state’s accepted level of 5 parts per billion.
14,000 is not 2,800% above 5. It 2,800 times five, but it’s not 2,800% above it. It is, in fact, 280,000% [279,900%: see comments –julie] above it. Either way, this is pretty serious, but still…
So: note to reporters and editors: math is not irrelevant, and it would be nice if you could do some that extends beyond fifth grade.
… to say that it is 279,900% above it, and that it is 280,000% OF it?
Percentage is a silly unit for this kind of measurement anyway. Even putting aside the ambiguity of percentage increaase vs. percentage of, it’s not appropriately sized.
Percentages tend to be tricky anyway, since it’s often not stated very well what the baseline (“100%”) is. At least this article didn’t have that flaw.
“2,800 times the limit” is a much clearer way to present this statistic.
with that “anti-business” attitude
it’s not like they put the stuff in your maple syrup…