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Anti-GMO, anti-pesticide groups have tried to distance themselves from the political instability in Sri Lanka, fueled in large part by the disastrous organic-farming policies they told the country to pursue.

The barrage of PROP's BS propaganda continues. If they haven't looked stupid enough in the past month, you ain't seen nothing yet.

There are hundreds of pain-patient advocates constantly fighting to overturn the cruel and misguided policies of withholding power pain medications from those truly in need. But it would be difficult (perhaps impossible) to find one who's dedicated his career to advocating for pain patients, now for a quarter of a century. An interview with Dr. Richard "Red" Lawhern, an ACSH advisor.

In 2010 the Physician Payment Sunshine Act was passed, requiring pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers to report all payments to physicians, be it royalties, speaking fees, or the proverbial “free lunch.” The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) share the #1 and 2 spot for impactful journals in the US. The authors of their articles are the thought-leaders in our medical understanding, but as a new study points out, reporting their conflicted interests, at least the financial ones, remains challenging.

An excellent commencement address; after all, it is the season
Living with pain
“Because we live in the past when we are online, we will find ourselves fighting over the past.”
The downside of letting machines do our work.

Environmental Working Group claims that "obesogenic" chemicals are helping to make everybody fat. Is EWG correct? Next, do we need a COVID booster shot that specifically targets Omicron sub-variants?

The Non-GMO Project recently reassured its Twitter followers that seedless watermelon is not genetically modified. The only problem is that this delicious summer treat is a "GMO"—and it undermines the project's dubious business model.

A new paper reports that Paxlovid-resistant Covid has been isolated, calling into question the utility of the drug as well as how it should be used. Is this cause for alarm? Not yet, but it could become just that. A look at viral resistance to drugs.

The Chinese use quite a bit more salt in their diet than in Western diets, so a new study looking at reducing the incidence of hypertension by dietary reductions in salt in China should be thought-provoking. It is.

I wrote the other day about a study from China on the effect of dietary salt on blood pressure. The study was unique in that it distinguished four regional Chinese cuisines. This got me thinking about whether salt use varies among American cuisines and regions. The standard narrative is that the salt in our heavily processed foods is a significant factor in the nearly 50% prevalence of high blood pressure—but then I ran across this study.

Americans expect that when the tap is turned on, fresh drinking water comes out. This expectation is increasingly questionable. There is a water crisis in the U.S. The increase of severe droughts in the southwestern U.S. has led to very low levels in lakes, rivers, and groundwater across the area. Water shortages are already common and expected to worsen in the coming years. What are we to do?

You already eat seaweed but probably don’t know it. Seaweeds are multicellular macroalgae used as functional ingredients, a food additive. Hydrocolloids derived from seaweeds provide texture and structure, prevent the melting of frozen foods, providing edible coatings or other desirable properties to foods as different as ice cream, apples, and bread. No longer considered just an additive, seaweed is poised to enter the US market as a whole food due to its nutritive attributes, potential economic benefits, and unique cultivation requirements.

Food deserts are areas frequently in urban settings where it is difficult to find stores providing fresh foods, especially fruits and vegetables. Food deserts have long been thought to contribute to poor nutrition because the food people need is just not available. A study in JAMA Pediatrics suggests that this long-held thought may be a mirage.

Do biotech companies lie about the pesticide-saving benefits of genetically engineered crops? The activist group GM Watch says yes. Do they have a convincing case? Nope.

The FDA just decided that the anti-Covid drug Paxlovid can be prescribed by pharmacists. ACSH & Company was on this 6 months ago.

E-cigarettes can help smokers abandon their deadly habit. Unfortunately, that message has been buried under a mountain of anti-vaping messaging promoted by tobacco researchers and reporters.

Surgeons are frequently impatient, “never letting the skin get in the way of the problem.” One of my colleagues repeatedly asks God, "Please give me patience right away.” That seems to be the case for us that are not scientists; we often are not patient enough for the data to unfold; the data, in this case, some reliable findings on the incidence of myocarditis and pericarditis associated with the COVID vaccinations.

The FDA recently attempted to ban JUUL vaping products and announced a proposal to cut nicotine levels in combustible cigarettes. The policies are designed to reduce tobacco use—but will they? We have our doubts. Join us for episode 10 of the Science Dispatch podcast.

If there's any reason to doubt the veracity of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing (PROP) there is now more. The group lied about the results of a June debate on the cause of the opioid crisis. We caught it.

Can science inform the abortion debate?
Are you more likely to die from heat or cold?
Could it be that part of our institutional problem is bullshit jobs?
Ten things wrong about science reporting – I tried to avoid them all, not always successfully

My colleague Dr. Barbara Billaeur has written recently about the ethical dilemmas behind uterine transplantation in men transitioning into women. A new study updates us on uterine transplants in women, providing some answers to Dr. Bilauer’s concerns and baseline medical data. Unlike studies of sample populations, this reports on all uterine transplants that have been performed in the US.

Cato Institute's Dr. Jeffrey Singer (also an ACSH advisor) published an opinion piece in The Detroit News arguing that laws that restrict drug paraphernalia do more harm than good. "If states want to get serious about reducing the risk of harm from using illegal drugs, lawmakers should repeal their drug paraphernalia laws." We couldn't agree more. Harm reduction is one of the central tenets of ACSH.

Environmental Working Group has again claimed that chemicals in food and consumer products are contributing to obesity. They are mistaken, embarrassingly so.

In trying to make sense of the pandemic as new virus variants emerged and vaccines became available, we found that cyclical patterns don’t conform to seasons, deaths lag behind cases by varying degrees, cases and subsequent deaths vary by 10 to 15-fold, regional trends may shift, and case counts may be subject to reporting errors.  
How can we anticipate the future if we can’t understand the past? 

Scientific writing could use an English major
Which is worse, stupidity or malignant intent?
Hype and alarmism hype’s evil twin in today’s scientific enterprise.
A bright, refreshing wine with a bit of a smoky aftertaste – from the nearby wildfires.