ACSH's President Dismisses Harvard Health Letter's Condemnation of Plastic Products as Health Risks
"I fear that you may have misled your readers, causing them needless anxiety"
By Elizabeth M. Whelan, Sc.D., M.P.H.
Publish Date : Friday, May 23, 2008
New York, NY--May 23, 2008. In a letter responding to Harvard's Dr. Claire McCarthy, Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan, President of the American Council on Science and Health, maintains that the use of plastic bottles and other plastic products pose no known hazard to human health...  Read Full >>

It’s the Food, Stupid (from National Review Online)
People don’t seem to understand how eating works.
By Elizabeth M. Whelan, Sc.D., M.P.H.
Publish Date : Wednesday, June 14, 2006
By Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. Last week an FDA-sponsored and -funded report on “Away from Home Foods” recommended ways restaurants might lend a hand in our nation’s fight against obesity. The report was based on input from a number of scientists, consumer advocates, and food-industry representatives, including members of the National Restaurant Association...  Read Full >>

The Top 10 Public Health Travesties of 2005 (from National Review Online and the Washington Times)
By Elizabeth M. Whelan, Sc.D., M.P.H.
Publish Date : Thursday, December 29, 2005
More darts than laurels should be distributed in 2005 in the fields of public health and health journalism. Here are the year's Top Ten health absurdities...  Read Full >>

Bird Flu: The Basic Facts (from the New York Post)
By Elizabeth M. Whelan, Sc.D., M.P.H.
Publish Date : Tuesday, November 8, 2005
Public awareness about the possibility of a pandemic of avian flu has soared, but so has misinformation.  Here are the top 10 things you need to know...  Read Full >>

Cure at Hand (from National Review Online)
Science has made great strides in breast-cancer treatment and prevention.
By Elizabeth M. Whelan, Sc.D., M.P.H.
Publish Date : Monday, October 24, 2005
For three decades, people festooned with pink ribbons have been walking, running, and racing for the cure for breast cancer — especially this month; October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The U.S. Postal Service has issued stamps that implore us to "fund the fight, find the cure." Dozens of national organizations, including the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, have raised hundreds of millions of dollars in search of "the cure." We "think pink," but we are led to believe that a cure   Read Full >>

A Chemical Reaction (from National Review Online)
By Elizabeth M. Whelan, Sc.D., M.P.H.
Publish Date : Friday, July 22, 2005
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has released its biannual report on the results of its National Biomonitoring Program, which measures the levels of some 148 chemicals in blood and urine taken from a large cross-section of the U.S. population. CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding expressed the hope that...  Read Full >>

To spare the pain (from The Washington Times)
By Elizabeth M. Whelan, Sc.D., M.P.H.
Publish Date : Thursday, March 31, 2005
Celebrate. Celebrate. No, that's not the return of the Celebrex TV ad with its aerobic arthritics...  Read Full >>

Second-Rate Science (from New York Post)
By Elizabeth M. Whelan, Sc.D., M.P.H.
Publish Date : Monday, March 14, 2005
Environmental activists this week brought the credibility of the noble science of epidemiology (the study of the cause of human disease) to another low...  Read Full >>

Coffee Causes Cancer! Oops, This Just In! Coffee Prevents Cancer! (from TechCentralStation)
By Elizabeth M. Whelan, Sc.D., M.P.H.
Publish Date : Friday, February 25, 2005
Recent headlines claimed that drinking coffee can reduce our risk of liver cancer. A study of some 90,000 Japanese found that people who drank coffee daily or nearly every day had half the liver cancer risk of those who never drank coffee...  Read Full >>

As 'Unnatural' As Sugar (from New York Post)
By Elizabeth M. Whelan, Sc.D., M.P.H.
Publish Date : Wednesday, February 23, 2005
The fight between the Sugar Association and McNeil Nutritionals, the distributors of the very popular sugar substitute Splenda, has also spawned some strange bedfellows...  Read Full >>