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This piece first appeared in the September 28, 2007 New York Post.
It's flu-shot season again. The good news is that we've got plenty of vaccine this year; the bad news is that far too many Americans will skip their shots.

The annual number of new HIV infections in young men who have sex with men has increased dramatically over the last five years, according to an article in the New York Times. This increase was particularly significant in blacks and Hispanics.

Keeping a positive attitude after a cancer diagnosis has no bearing on longevity, according to a recent study in the December issue of Cancer, the journal of the American Cancer Society. Media hype has gotten patients, as well as medical professionals, to buy into the idea that a positive attitude is a must for surviving the typically serious and frightening diagnosis.

•Dr. Elizabeth Whelan was cited in Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, Vol. 36, No. 4.
•Jeff Stier was on the Vicki McKenna radio show in December 2007.
•Joe McMenamin and Andrea Tiglio co-wrote a report contrasting obesity and smoking for ACSH that was cited repeatedly at an FDA hearing about gastric banding.
•New York Times' Freakonomics blog linked to ACSH's Riskometer.org site in December 2007.
•Dr. Elizabeth Whelan and Jeff Stier weighed in about obesity and teens, food technology, and more on MSNBC in December 2007.

On December 7, 2007, Joe Koz noted the dawn of the ACSH Riskometer:

An October 30, 2007 piece by Cindy Skrzycki quotes ACSH's Dr. Whelan on the book The Secret History of the War on Cancer:
Elizabeth Whelan, president and founder of the American Council on Science and Health, a New York based group of doctors and scientists who question the reliability of the science government uses to regulate, agrees with Ames.

This piece first appeared December 27, 2007 in the Washington Times.

Now even Christmas trees have carcinogen warnings. And that's bad for public trust in science.

It can be difficult for overweight or obese people to lose weight, yet many do so. What seems to be much harder is maintaining weight loss -- and the health benefits that can accompany it -- for the long term.
Dr. L.P. Svetkey and colleagues (JAMA 299; 1139-1148) compared different strategies for sustaining weight loss in a two-phase trial. They found that having brief, monthly personal contact with a weight loss interventionist offered a slight benefit over either an interactive technology-based intervention (a website) or simply self-directed methods.

It would be hard to argue against the benefits of pharmaceuticals. Their development and use has led to life-prolonging effects such as lowering many people's blood pressure and cholesterol, boosting the immune system of HIV positive patients, and even the remission of some types of cancer. But what happens when these drugs we have so come to depend on contain ingredients, often made in remote regions of the world, that may actually harm us? We may ask ourselves, who is protecting us? And whose job is it to ensure drug safety: the pharmaceutical companies or the government?

¢A March 23, 2008 piece by Denise Mann on WebMD quoted Dr. Ruth Kava on ACSH's review of articial sweeteners: http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=56064.
¢A brief letter from Dr. Gilbert Ross about the FDA's finding of no danger from 1,4-dioxane appeared in the March 23, 2008 Los Angeles Times under the title "Toxicant Finding No Basis for Worry."
¢Family-Medical.blogspot.com mentioned ACSH as a counterpoint to CSPI in its March 2008 list of useful nutrition resources.

Too much caffeine during pregnancy could increase the risk of miscarriage, which is a pregnancy loss before twenty weeks of gestation, according to a new study being published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology). But if you pick up the most recent issue of the journal _Epidemiology_, you will find a study stating that there is no link between miscarriage and caffeine consumption -- so what should a woman contemplating pregnancy believe?

For many people, the concept of drinking unpasteurized milk may seem foreign. After all, you cannot legally purchase raw milk in eighteen states, and in four others it can only be purchased as pet food. Even if you could purchase raw milk in your local grocery store, would you want to? Hasn't raw milk been recognized as a microbial hazard since pasteurization began in the 1920s?

To the Editor:

The Internet can never be wholly trusted for accuracy, especially when it comes to medical information (remember all of the autism videos on YouTube?). Therefore, ACSH staffers were surprised by the small degree of error found on breast cancer websites according to a study published in the journal Cancer it's only 5%.

As ACSH discussed last week, the controversy about the Lipitor Dr. Jarvick advertisements is still heated. ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan said she was at a party this weekend and a man couldn't believe anyone cared about Dr. Jarvick, developer of the artificial heart, using a body-double in the television ads -- Lipitor, after all, is a fantastic drug.
"The point is not that Lipitor is not a fantastic drug," Dr. Whelan noted. "The point is that the ad unnecessarily introduced a level of fiction with the use of a stand-in actor for Dr. Jarvick's alleged rowing scenes."

ACSH's Jeff Stier was quoted in the January 24, 2008 New York Sun piece by E.B. Solomont about fears of mercury in sushi (and commented on the story on Google as well):
"Assuming that the numbers reported are accurate, I don't see how anyone is put at any risk," the associate director of the American Council on Science and Health, Jeff Stier, wrote in an e-mail message.

As the candidates release their medical records, some questions will naturally arise. Senator McCain's report card is no surprise but Senator Obama has a lot more insecurity: He is young, active and looks great but has a documented history as a cigarette smoker. His campaign is claiming he quit, and that should be taken with a grain of salt, but what if he is a former smoker? Did his risks disappear?
Politico came to ACSH to provide insight into what his future might hold.

From time to time, the Organic Center publishes State of the Science Reviews.

DISPATCH 6/27/08: Lying Brains, Silent Strokes, Unsafe Sex, and Rotavirus Vaccines

Concern about the increase in obesity in children and adolescents has spurred research into their activity levels. Data garnered from girls' reports of their activity, for example, indicates that as girls mature, their participation in leisure-time and total exercise appears to decrease. Because these studies are based on participants' reports of their activities, it is hard to know how accurate they are.

In a July 6, 2008 letter to the New York Post, Thomas Aldrich, Chair of the New York State September 11th Workers' Protection Task Force, objects to a Post piece by ACSH's Jeff Stier:
The NYS September 11th Workers' Protection Taskforce and its rigorous and balanced efforts are mischaracterized by Jeff Stier ("Exploiting 9/11," PostOpinion, June 26).

As we approach yet another Great American Smokeout -- tomorrow, November 20th -- both good and bad news on smoking abounds.
•The good news is that adult smoking rates in 2007 have dropped below 20% for the first time since this statistic has been recorded with any accuracy. There are now more former smokers than current smokers, and women's smoking rates have declined for the fifth year in a row.

The willful blindness of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) -- its overcautious reluctance to approve new drugs -- has led to historic declines in new drug approvals, which will cost lives in years to come.
A more immediate tragedy, though, is FDA's refusal to withdraw its off-putting "black-box" warning label on antidepressants for teens.

With food allergies receiving more attention, more children are being prescribed EpiPens, single-use shots of epinephrine that can counter severe allergic reactions resulting in anaphylaxis.