The media has a responsibility to present information that is both pertinent and based on empirical data. Unfortunately, the media frequently reports health information that piques mainstream interest but diverts attention away from issues of genuine significance. Take the piece called "The Unhealthy 10," which appeared in the April 14, 2004 Star-Ledger, New Jersey's largest newspaper. Meg Nugent gives readers a list of the "Top 10 dopey, unhealthy things we do that damage our health." Ultimately, it is the list that is dopey. Nugent, unaware of Americans' state of anxiety over health matters, fails to rationally prioritize the health risks she describes and risks stoking greater anxiety.
In her list of top health priorities, Nugent includes the following: failure to floss daily, failure to get enough sleep, failure to notice the color of our urine (to assure proper hydration), the over-wearing of contact lenses, and eating a big dinner late at night. This is not to say that awareness of these things should not be high on our list of healthful priorities. There is ample peer-reviewed scientific evidence that they should. What is troublesome about this "Unhealthy 10," however, is the absence of behaviors that have been proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt, to be the most deleterious to our health and personal wellbeing.
Are we to believe, for example, that the color of our urine is deserving of more attention than, say, smoking, alcohol abuse, or not buckling our seatbelts? As noted in the American Council on Science and Health's publication "Resolutions 2003," of the one million preventable U.S. deaths yearly, 500,000 are due to tobacco use and 100,000 to the misuse/abuse of alcohol. The others are due to poor diet, obesity, over-exposure to sunlight, infrequent medical exams or screening tests (e.g., for hypertension or early-stage cancer), risky lifestyle factors such as unprotected sex or intravenous drug use, and failure to use lifesaving devices such as seatbelts, smoke detectors, and bicycle helmets. Is the media's system of risk evaluation so distorted that it places flossing daily and getting enough sleep which are undeniably healthy routines above AIDS prevention and regular immunizations?
Equally disconcerting is that the heating of food in plastic containers has made this master list of offenses. Ms. Nugent states that "plastic subjected to high heat can become cancerous [sic]," cause early puberty, and induce other anxiety-producing yet scientifically unsupported health problems. This claim is based on erroneous warnings given in 2002 by Edward Fujimoto, manager and doctor of public health at the Castle Center for Wellness and Lifestyle Medicine in Hawaii. The Food and Drug Administration, as well as the overwhelming body of scientific literature, has found no evidence to support his findings. When pressed, due to the media frenzy and subsequent global upset incited by his claim, Fujimoto was unable to provide relevant research information. The truth is, as writer Nada Mangialetti puts it in the FactsAndFears piece "Perilous Plastic," "If you decide to avoid microwaving even those containers labeled 'microwave safe,' realize that, at this point in time, you are doing this more for your own peace of mind than for any scientifically valid reason."
The failure to adequately prioritize health dangers while also pandering to alarmist health scares makes this Top 10 list itself unhealthy to its readers. It is irresponsible to have left such well-documented dangers as smoking out while including lesser or unproven ones. It is in keeping with the trend in the popular press but falls short of journalistic responsibility.
Aubrey Stimola is a research intern at the American Council on Science and Health.
