The brain hungers to place things in simple categories: good for you, bad for you...safe, risky. But the stomach hungers for French fries, salmon, meat substitutes, and other things that have been hastily labeled "bad" by activists, so the brain has some work to do: putting the activists' warnings (about food and other things) in context, weighing those tiny or imagined risks against other risks from everyday life. Ten lessons for the discriminating risk-assessor:
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The juxtaposition of two recent items in the New York Times was striking.
First, there was the Sunday, June 13th frontpage photo of Presidential candidate John Kerry, helmetless, riding a motorcycle (accompanying the article "Behind the Scenes, a Restless and Relentless Kerry").
For the past four or five years a clarion call to eat more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains has been heard throughout the U. S. Often it is coupled with "and avoid saturated fat" or "avoid dairy and meat because of saturated fat." All versions of the call, one way or another, are urging us to reduce meat and milk products in our diets. No doubt one purpose of the fruit-and-vegetable cry is to help deal with the obesity epidemic, a very worthy objective, but it doesn't seem to be working. Americans are reported to be getting fatter all the time.
It's amazing how many people feel comfortable blaming the food industry for the obesity epidemic in the United States. Less surprising is that having blamed industry, people seek to regulate what types of food can be marketed toward children. But refusal to take personal responsibility for eating misleads us into thinking that Americans are fat because of junk food. It also perpetuates the nonsensical claim that food can be separated into two categories: good and bad.
ACSH's Whelan v. CSPI's Wootan over vending machines on CNBC
"I cannot explain to my mother any longer why she should pay twice or two-thirds more than what is paid in Canada and Mexico. I'm switching my position." United States Senator Trent Lott (R-Miss.), March 11th, 2004.
Dear Sen. Lott:
It pains me to hear that your concern for your aged mom has caused some confusion on your part about the risks and benefits of importing drugs from Canada and elsewhere. You suggest that your inability to explain your earlier position to your aged mother is justification for your change in position
An April 16, 2004 article by Arnold Kling on regulation notes an article from Reason magazine by ACSH's Todd Seavey:
An August 31, 1992 National Review piece by Peter Samuel was reprinted by http://nationalreview.com on June 10, 2004 and contains the following ACSH reference:
Scientists at a private fertility clinic in Chicago isolated twelve new embryonic stem cell lines from genetically flawed human embryos, the Associated Press recently reported. The embryos, which had a total of seven mutations related to genetic diseases, were donated by couples who underwent prenatal genetic screening at the Reproductive Genetics Institute in Chicago. The embryos likely would never have been chosen for implantation given their genetic conditions.
Calcium-fortified orange juice, special fortified margarine, nutrient enhanced salad dressings, and other "functional foods" are advertised everywhere these days. Is there a scientific basis for the claims made on these products -- and should they be used by everyone? There is no across-the-board answer to this question; whether these foods are beneficial depends on several factors.
Members of the ACSH staff this week attended a continuing education seminar for health professionals on the subject of preparedness for biological, chemical, and nuclear emergencies. The seminar was based on an excellent publication prepared for the Medical Society of the State of New York, which reviewed salient facts about a full spectrum of potential terrorism agents including smallpox, anthrax, ricin, plague, and sarin.
Yesterday the Pentagon announced plans to up its anthrax and smallpox vaccination efforts for American forces and essential civilian contractors in the Middle East. Officials at the Pentagon explained that the decision was motivated by an increase in vaccination supplies, not an increased threat level though their concerns about a biological or chemical attack persist.
The Senate is currently considering a piece of legislation, already approved by the House, to legalize the importation to the U.S. of pharmaceuticals from dozens of countries around the world. Like some pharmaceutical bill from hell, it would undermine the foundations of modern pharmaceuticals -- the safety and efficacy that have made the U.S. drug industry the envy of the world and the source of the majority of the world's new pharmaceuticals for decades.
We spend the summer weekends on a barrier island off the southern coast of New Jersey. Our eighteen-mile long island is extremely vulnerable to the effects of tropical storms and hurricanes. Thus, this weekend we kept a close eye on Charley, wondering if the hurricane would re-energize as it swept northward.
As we checked the weather forecast on 1010WINS.com and other sites, we came across this advertisement:
A recent study comparing x-ray analyses of asbestos-related lung damage revealed some troublesome results.
Yesterday's warning from acting FDA director Lester Crawford about the possibility of terrorists using contaminated pharmaceuticals as a weapon against us should cause everyone to reflect on the real risks associated with our nation's latest obsession: importing less expensive prescription drugs from Canada.
Specifically, Dr. Crawford noted that "cues from chatter" gathered around the world are raising concerns that terrorists might use the drug supply, particularly illegally imported prescription drugs, to hurt and kill Americans.
Irradiated foods dangerous? Here we go again. And this time, it isn't the media sounding the health (scare) alarm but members of the science community. Which just goes to show, having a medical degree does not guarantee a degree of rationality.
"This was worse than labor" read the opening line of an Associated Press piece yesterday. What caused this mother of two such pain was not the repeated slamming of her fingers in a car door or an accidental fall on her tailbone. She was recalling her recent experience with the foodborne bacterial pathogen, salmonella. The source of the outbreak, which has afflicted over 300 individuals in five states, is not one of the usual suspects.
Those Americans who crave being taken care of by the government will be comforted by the latest from Medicare: Obesity is no longer banned from the list of illnesses covered by our national health insurance program for the elderly and disabled. The "disease-ification" of America continues its march...
Click here to read the rest of Dr. Gilbert Ross's counterpoint column from the Daily News.
A July 26 Los Angeles Times article by Johanna Neuman about the Center for Science in the Public Interest notes ACSH's take on them:
A June 24 article by Daniel Moreau noted that the Naderite NYPIRG (New York Public Interest Research Group) is repeating the groundless fears over arsenic-based compounds in playground equipment, but the article quoted ACSH's Jeff Stier for perspective:
[Stier] described the possibility of arsenic poisoning from playgrounds as a "nonissue."
"You can't get AIDS from shaking someone's hand," Mr. Stier said. "Likewise, you can't get cancer from playing on pressure-treated wood -- unless you're eating or sucking the wood.
These are good times for those who grow and sell organic foods. But there may be trouble in paradise.
The December 8 Associated Press article "Groups to Seek Voluntary Halt to Companies' PVC Use" includes a contrary view from ACSH:
The president of the American Council of Science and Health, Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, said there is "no evidence that these chemicals pose any risk to humans."
Former President Bill Clinton's heart disease and its treatment have been in the headlines of late, and no wonder: heart disease due to atherosclerosis (fatty deposits also containing cholesterol) is the leading killer of Americans, with a death toll of over one-million annually. But for many of us in his age range, the reasons we are so interested are complex: aside from humane concern for his health, we also think: if heart disease can sneak up on an apparently healthy and robust ex-president, who among us is immune?
As the candidates vie for an edge in the tight race for the presidency, campaign members should be especially cautious about making statements that could make them vulnerable to attack by the opposition. Last week, in an irresponsible remark perhaps meant less to inspire hope than to gain partisan advantage, Democratic Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards handed the Bush campaign such an opportunity by exaggerating the pace of stem cell research.
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