ACSH staffers were pleasantly surprised when they discovered anti-pseudoscience blogger JunkScienceMom s reference to a Hands off my plastic stuff! Facebook site, which reveals some of the various consumer and medical products that would disappear if BPA were banned.
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Next year, New York s required calorie count policy for chain restaurants is set to go into effect nationwide under the country s new healthcare legislation. The Wall Street Journal reports that while supporters believe the new policies are necessary to overcome the nation s high obesity rates, opponents question whether the government should have such regulatory power over private businesses.
ACSH s Jeff Stier was so surprised to see the following advertisement on a New York City bus the other day that he ran out onto the street to snap a picture of it with his arsenic-laden iPhone 3G.
It was not until later that he realized that this was not, in fact, a campaign by the New York City Public Health Department to cleanse our food of salt, but a promotion for an upcoming movie starring Angelina Jolie.
ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan debated Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, on the CNN special "Toxic Childhood." Watch here.
Women who were light to moderate drinkers early in pregnancy were more likely to raise children with more positive behaviors, Reuters Health reports, citing a study by researchers from the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research in West Perth, Western Australia. The study defined light to moderate drinking as the consumption of two to six drinks per week, or one a day.
The EPA is longer accepting studies that use humans as guinea pigs in chemical tests, such as those for dose-response analyses, which determine how much of a chemical is safe for humans.
Biotech company AquaBounty has spent the last decade seeking FDA approval for what would become the first genetically engineered animal to be used for public consumption Atlantic salmon. Genetically modified to produce growth hormone year round, the modified salmon grow to conventional market size twice as fast as regular fish.
Shoppers who use reusable grocery bags and do not routinely wash them may be putting themselves at risk for food poisoning. Researchers who tested dozens of bags found half contaminated with coliform bacteria, suggesting raw-meat or uncooked-food contamination. Further, E. coli was found in another 12 percent of the bags, according to a study funded by the American Chemistry Council.
With the FDA’s ban on the words such as “light,” “mild,” “medium,” and “low-tar” from cigarette packaging going into effect today, Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. have switched to colored packaging to communicate differences in products. The FDA is challenging this use of colors, arguing that it suggests certain products are safer.
Starting July 1, people who buy cigarettes in New York will have to fork over an extra $1.60 per cigarette pack in state taxes according to a new law passed yesterday by the Legislature. This will bring the total cost of cigarettes to approximately $12.00 a pack.
Science journalist Chris Mooney, the author of "Unscientific America: Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future," urges scientists and policymakers to start listening to the public’s views on controversial science issues when drafting policies. Rather than focusing on the public’s lack of science education, Mooney argues that both politics and mistrust towards perceived industry-backed science seem to drive public fears.
A study published today in the Journal of Clinical Oncology shows that approximately half of breast cancer patients with estrogen-sensitive tumors terminate their hormone therapies, such as tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors, before the recommended five-year course. These drugs can reduce the risk of relapse by 40 percent and death by 10 percent, but only if taken for the prescribed five years.
ACSH offers an honorary seat at the table to the California lawmakers who succeeded in voting down a ban against BPA on Monday.
Despite pressure from environmental activists to ban BPA from use in children’s products, the Legislature adhered to sound science instead, earning themselves a pat on the back from ACSH staffers.
A whopping $712 million settlement was approved Thursday for approximately 10,000 rescue and clean-up workers who claim their health was compromised at Ground Zero. Compensatory payments will be allotted even to plaintiffs who currently have no qualifying injuries.
In another news story illustrating the potentially disastrous health effects that studies hyping such exaggerated risks may perpetuate, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) has demanded that the FDA immediately provide guidance and reassurance to consumers about a potential link between a common sunscreen additive and skin cancer.
Studies conducted in laboratory animals suggest a possible link between retinyl palmitate and skin cancer, but no human data was analyzed, says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross.
In a radical new law approved in San Francisco on Tuesday, retailers will be required to display the amount of radiation each cell phone emits, even though there’s no conclusive scientific evidence that these devices pose any health risks.
The annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology presented two studies that may eventually alter the treatment of women with early-stage breast cancer. In the first study conducted by investigators from the University College of London, 991 women were recruited. All of the women had a "sentinel node" removed which showed the presence of cancer cells, but only half of the women received the standard treatment since the 1990s, the removal of additional lymph nodes.
An iconic photo of renowned British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the World War II museum in London is missing something these days: his beloved cigar. A museum visitor was the first to notice the cigar’s disappearance, which has been attributed to an unknown airbrushing censor.
In its first update in 26 years, the National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association proposes new diagnostic criteria for earlier detection of all three stages of Alzheimer’s disease — pre-clinical, mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s dementia — based on genetic risk factors and biomarkers.
For postmenopausal women diagnosed with estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer, the American Society of Clinical Oncology now recommends the use of aromatase inhibitors hormone-based breast cancer drugs immediately following surgery or after two to three years of the drug tamoxifen.
ACSH's Jeff Stier heads to Gaithersburg, Md., to attend the FDA’s Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC) meeting on the potential ban of menthol from cigarettes. Stay tuned for his updates from the two-day conference on Thursday and Friday.
After hearing mixed evidence that Avandia may increase patient's risk of heart attack, an FDA advisory panel voted yesterday to keep the diabetes drug on the market but with new warning labels.
More older Americans are opting for colon cancer screenings, while the screening rate for breast cancer though higher than for colon cancer has reached a plateau, according to a recent Centers for Disease Control (CDC) phone survey. The American Cancer Society estimates 51,000 Americans will die this year from colon cancer, the second leading cause of cancer death, and 40,000 from breast cancer.
Today s New York Times reports that Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to ban smoking in City parks and beaches. Among the goals he hopes to achieve with such a ban is reducing health risks associated with second hand smoke. His health commissioner, Dr. Thomas Farley, cites a New York City-funded study claiming that 57 percent of non-smoking New York City adults, compared to 45 percent nationally, tested positive for the presence of cotinine in their blood.
In his response to the Center for Science in the Public Interest s (CSPI) threat to sue if they do not remove toys from their Happy Meals, McDonald s CEO Jeff Skinner castigates CSPI for their inflammatory rhetoric and believes they owe Americans an apology:
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