A February 3, 2006 piece by Rosalind Lacy MacLennan gives ACSH's book America's War on "Carcinogens" a positive review:
America's War on "Carcinogens": Reassessing the Use of Animal Tests to Predict Human Cancer Risk calls for medical researchers, journalists, and lawmakers to refocus and change the rules of engagement in the war on cancer, the second-leading cause of death in the United States.
Written by a team of Ph.Ds and M.D.s for the American Council on Science and Health, this book suggests that animal research has done more damage than good. A fast read, this 150-page paperback, supported by 16 pages of references, debunks the assumption that a mega-dosed rat is a human being.
The dispute occurs when a suspected carcinogen is put on trial for violating the Delaney clause, a provision in the 1958 Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act that requires FDA approval for new food additives to be marketed:
No additive shall be deemed to be safe if it is found to induce cancer when ingested by man or laboratory animals or if it is found, after tests which are appropriate for the evaluation of the safety of food additives, to induce cancer in man or animals.
The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) experts validate the idea that, despite any supposedly good intentions, this law has not protected us from cancer. Instead, the side effects have gone too far, to the point of depriving us of food that is harmless -- if not actually good for us as part of a regular diet.
