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Today is the first anniversary of the first known H1N1 death -- that of a government worker in Oaxaca, Mexico -- and there is no shortage of reflection on how the pandemic was addressed.

The AFP reports, Workplace exposure to synthetic fibres and certain oil byproducts before her mid-thirties triples a woman s risk of breast cancer after menopause, a study among Canadian patients said Thursday.

Trevor Butterworth wrote a detailed history for the non-profit Statistical Assessment Service (STATS) of the falling-out between toxicology and endocrinology experts and the anti-BPA activist faction led by Dr. Frederick vom Saal.

ACSH staffers have written before about the unfortunate consequences of the 2008 Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA).

An article in the latest issue of The Lancet reveals that Pyramax, a new oral malaria treatment from South Korean drugmaker Shin Poong Pharmaceuticals, is just as effective as Novartis leading treatment Coartem. According to Reuters, Coartem is the current gold standard for people infected with the mosquito-borne disease.

Yesterday we received a fundraising letter asking us to celebrate Mother's Day by honoring the greatest mom around -- Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.
Why is the senator such a great mom? Because, the missive said, she protects kids from dangerous toys and foods and has promised "to keep our drinking water safe and chemical free."
Guess that means the good senator would disallow the presence of dihydrogen monoxide (H2O) in water ...

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has ruled that use of a nicotine vaporizer, also known as an "e-cigarette," doesn't violate the state's indoor smoking ban, the Washington Post reports. The heated vapor the devices emit doesn't constitute "smoke" as the word is "commonly understood," Cuccinelli decided, so Virginians are free to light up in restaurants and other public places.

An editorial in the Richmond (Va.) Times Dispatch offers some perspective on the issue of redesigning hot dogs to reduce the likelihood of children choking: In 2006, only 61 choking deaths were food-related, and hot dogs accounted for only 13 of those. Any child death is tragic. Yet it's worth noting ¦ that children under age 10 eat almost 2 billion yes, 2 billion hot dogs a year.

CBS News reported yesterday morning that plastic and wooden pallets used for transporting food are deemed unsanitary and implicated in the contamination of food by the E. coli and Listeria bacteria.

It seems that neither advanced video games nor the allure of Facebook are capable of satiating teenage boredom any longer, which explains why some have found alternative and novel forms of amusement. For instance, 19-year-old Melissa Fontaine chooses to entertain her and a group of rambunctious rugby players by pulling her eyelids open and allowing shots of vodka to be poured into her left eye.

The food industry has been substituting trans-fat with better-for-you fats, HealthDay reports , picking up an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health found most manufacturers and restaurants weren t simply replacing trans-fat with saturated fat, as some had feared they would.

It s well-known that moderate wine consumption can help prevent heart disease.

An ABC News report asks if the American Heart Association should be endorsing the Nintendo Wii video game system with its Healthy Check logo. Games like Wii Fit are supposedly designed to help video game enthusiasts stay active.

An article in The New Yorker by Harvard Medical School professor Dr. Jerome Groopman quotes ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan extensively. In the article, titled "Plastic Panic: How worried should we be about everyday chemicals? Dr. Groopman examines the charges against BPA and phthalates and concludes the evidence of their health consequences is "far from conclusive."
Dr. Whelan s comments included:

A simple blood test followed by ultrasound exams as needed may help detect ovarian cancer tumors before they cause symptoms, according to a small study reported yesterday.

ACSH s request for Dispatch-reader input on the issue of a mystifying Camel Snus ad yielded similar theories on the meaning of the Break Free and Stare Back slogans. Here are some responses:
I am wondering if Stare Back is a long-overdue call for nicotine users to stand up for themselves and face up to those who would ruin their lives by opposing [tobacco harm reduction].

The White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity, established in accordance with first lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” anti-obesity campaign, has released a report outlining suspected causes of childhood obesity and strategies on how best to address it. In addition to reliable advice about nutrition, food availability, and physical activity, the report also contains ominous references to the dangers of “endocrine disruptors” and chemicals in plastic containers.

A study published in the journal Nature Medicine claims that a vaccine appears to have prevented breast cancer in lab mice. The mice, genetically prone to develop breast cancer, were injected with a vaccine designed to provoke an immune response to a protein found in most breast tumors. None of the mice immunized with the vaccine developed breast cancer, compared to the control group in which every mouse developed breast cancer.

A review published in the New England Journal of Medicine by the Harvard School of Public Health analyzed 20 national opinion polls conducted at various points throughout last year s H1N1 flu pandemic. The Wall Street Journal s health blog summarizes, Public health officials, take note: the If we build it, they will come approach to a pandemic flu vaccine isn t going to work.

ACSH staffers can’t help but notice that the list of reviewers enumerated in appendix A of the President’s Cancer Panel’s recent report seems unbalanced.

A recent meta-analysis, which combines and analyzes the results of multiple studies, casts doubt on the use of statins to reduce the risk of death in patients without heart problems but who have an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Statins are drug therapies that reduce blood cholesterol levels and have effectively reduced further complications in patients who have already experienced heart disease.

As befits any birthday, Americans will celebrate this Fourth of July with food, pageantry, and, of course: fireworks!
Who cannot remember the thrill of their first fireworks display, the childish wonder that is rekindled each July 4th? Fireworks are a big part of this holiday.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed a lawsuit against the FDA on Tuesday for what it deems the agency’s unsatisfactory regulation of BPA.
Maintaining that the NRDC suit is simply media grandstanding, ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan points out that the “FDA has studied BPA through and through and has decided that it is safe enough to remain on the market. This isn’t a decision they made arbitrarily or capriciously — it was based on decades’ worth of scientific data.”

ACSH is proud to announce once again that the fruits of our labor in tackling junk science taste sweeter than ever.

Despite its preventability via vaccination and booster shots, whooping cough has become an epidemic in California. There have been 910 cases recorded of the highly infectious disease as of June 15. So far, five babies all Latino under the age of 3 have died from whooping cough in 2010, which might be attributed to a lack of information on inoculation in the state s Central Valley, a region comprised of a high Latino agricultural worker population.