Are commercial agricultural practices impoverishing our soils? In particular, is the practice of replacing soil minerals with commercial fertilizers impairing the nutritional content of plants?
Rich Soil, Poor Soil
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The public is often faced with conflicting "expert" opinions on how dietary components allegedly contribute to the cause, prevention, and cure of a host of health and even social problems. These supposedly nutrition-related problems range from Alzheimer's disease and immunologic disorders to juvenile delinquency and homicidal behavior.
Self-appointed protectors of the environment have a long history of advancing their agendas by postulating sinister threats to our children, distorting the views of mainstream science, and dismissing their critics as profit-hungry plunderers of public health. Advocates of more stringent "air quality" standards are keeping up the tradition. If they succeed, we will soon be harnessed with extraordinarily costly new regulations that could harm public health more than improve it.
In March 1996 a 20-year-old Long Island, New York, college student died after ingesting eight tablets of Ultimate Xphoria, a dietary supplement whose main ingredient is the stimulant herb ephedra, also called "ma huang" and "Chinese ephedra." Practitioners of Ayurveda (traditional Indian medicine) and traditional Chinese medicine have used this herb for millennia to treat respiratory ailments. And a health food industry representative has stated that every day roughly five million Americans consume ephedra products. Should ephedra dietary supplements be reclassified and regulated?
Whenever I have visited a physician over the last decade, the following scenario has been replayed: We discuss my cholesterol levels (total, LDL and HDL). We review dietary guidelines and other medical recommendations. Then I say, "Don't forget to remind me to drink a glass or two of wine daily." Invariably, the doctor demurs: "That hasn't been proven to protect you against atherosclerosis."
Scientists from the American Council on Science and Health today, in an open letter to Mayor Giuliani, questioned the decision of the city to produce, at taxpayer expense, a pamphlet entitled Safeguard Your Home From Harmful Products, which suggests that numerous common household products - such as kitchen cleansers, insecticides, and mothballs - pose a serious health risk and should be discarded in favor of "all-natural" products. The booklet was apparently distributed to all city residents and signed by Giuliani and Health Commissioner Dr.
Scientists from the American Council on Science and Health called on both the Clinton White House and Republican candidate Bob Dole to back up their recent statements about their commitment to keeping America's children tobacco-free.
A leading public-health scientist today advised state attorneys general against signing a pending deal with the tobacco industry a deal that would give the industry immunity from individual or class-action lawsuits. Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, president of the American Council on Science and Health, stated in a letter to the attorneys general, "Such a settlement would be contrary to the interests of public health and will mean that you will forever be known as having sold out to the tobacco industry."
A leading public health consumer group said that any deal with the cigarette industry that includes shielding it from current and future private-sector litigation would be an unparalleled setback for the cause of public health in America.
Many people become vegetarians because they believe, in error, that vegetarianism is uniquely conducive to good health. The findings of several large epidemiologic studies indeed suggest that the death and chronic-disease rates of vegetarians primarily vegetarians who consume dairy products or both dairy products and eggs are lower than those of meat eaters. But this does not mean that maintaining or improving health requires abstention from eating meat.
(From Priorities Vol. 8, No. 2, 1996)
FYI: Three Classes of Medical Devices -- devices (download)
Popular magazines Reader s Digest, Good Housekeeping, McCall sand the like used to be America s number-one source of nutrition information. Today, magazines take a back seat to TV; but according to the American Dietetics Association, a solid 39 percent of the American public still gets most of its nutrition news from magazines. Those readers need to know that the information they get from their favorite magazines is both accurate and reliable.
(From Priorities Vol. 8, No. 2, 1996)
Should the FDA Regulate Medical Devices? Yes -- pcp-yes (download)
In a culture where words like "artificial," "synthetic," and "man-made" are often used as slurs and the masses increasingly applaud so-called natural healing, a revolution in what might reasonably be termed "unnatural healing" is proceeding almost full blast yet so quietly that the public has scarcely noticed it.
New York, NY July 1998. In a statement released in June 1998 the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) reported that 9,000 children in New York City have tested positive for lead poisoning.
Background
While food safety in the United States has been and continues to be very good, outbreaks of foodborne illness and deaths attributable to such illnesses have caught the attention of the public, the media,1,2 and governmental agencies. The perception that such outbreaks are increasingly frequent and serious are prompting queries into the best means of reducing their frequency and extent.
New York, NY, August 28, l998 Scientists at the American Council on Science and Health today criticized the Kellogg Company s full page advertisement touting the eating of Kellogg s All Bran as a means of reducing colon cancer risk. In making its claim for the cancer protection effect of its cereal, Kellogg points to the results of a recent laboratory animal study showing cancer protection linked to the consumption of a particular type of processed wheat bran.
Development of the hair-removal method called "electrolysis" began in 1869. By 1875 St. Louis ophthalmologist Charles Michel effectively used a very thin wire attached to a battery to remove ingrown eyelashes (which can cause blindness) permanently.
New York, NY January 13, 1998. The American Council on Science and Health today pointed to the results of a new study confirming what those who have studied the safety of the new fat substitute olestra have long known: that eating chips fried in olestra does not cause adverse gastrointestinal effects as olestra's now-discredited, highly vocal critics have been claiming.
New York, NY February, 1998 The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) has reported that, as a group, consumer-oriented magazines outrank other types of magazines in the quality of their nutrition reporting, with homemaking publications rated a close second. These findings were part of ACSH's seventh survey of nutrition reporting in popular magazines, in which 15 of 21 magazines surveyed were rated as either "Excellent" or "Good" sources of nutrition information.
LOST IN ALL OF THE HULLABALOO surrounding the FDA s reversal last week of its 1962 ban on Thalidomide, the drug that was linked to horrific birth defects, was perhaps an even greater story: what essentially amounts to the very refocussing of the FDA s raison d etre.
When the FDA reversed itself and approved Thalidomide, there was no suggestion that the teratogenic results of Thalidomide would no longer occur. Rather, the move signals a changing of the paradigm that guides the agency.
This week, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) confirmed that the apparent increase of brain tumors in children over the last 20 years is the direct result of our improved ability to detect them.
In actuality, there has been little change in the rates of brain tumors. With the help of technology, specifically high tech screening devices, we re simply doing a better job of diagnosing them.
Yet the environmentalist community continues to warn us that the United States is experiencing a cancer epidemic and that chemicals are to blame.
This report represents a work in progress. ACSH realizes that research in the areas of health impacts of alcoholic beverages is continuing, and we will update this paper as new research and insights are received. We welcome input from readers.
Executive Summary
Pagination
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