To the Editor:
It is distressing that the USDA, by attempting to legally define "organic", has granted legitimacy to the concept that so-called "organic" food is any safer or better than conventionally produced foods (Regulators Nearing Tougher Standard for Organic Food, pg. B13, 3/6/00).
Search
To the Editor:
As a public-health scientist, I applaud Andrew Revkin for his perspicacity in pointing out that malathion poses "no health threat to people" (news story, May 12). In its new report, the Environmental Protection Agency, generally no friend to pesticides, agrees with the overwhelming body of scientific evidence. While possibly a "health threat" to mice at very high doses, the trace levels to which New Yorkers would be exposed via spraying should cause no alarm.
Predicting the future is always in fashion but particularly so as we enter a new millennium.
Two of the most difficult issues we as consumers of health information confront are who to trust and how much to trust them. There is a lot of misinformation on the Web and even reporters in the mainstream media sometimes get the story wrong.
Many Americans engage in bicycling principally to improve their health and/or physical fitness for example, to control body weight, blood pressure, and/or plasma cholesterol concentrations, and/or to increase agility. Bicycling is useful not only toward these ends but also as a mode of physical therapy (e.g., to promote recovery from knee surgery) and as a means of stress reduction.
On the other hand, bicycling entails many health risks, even for experienced bicyclists. National statistics suggest that in the United States:
In regard to "Spending on Prescription Drugs Rose 19%" (Economy, May 8): I fear that many readers will view this significant increase on drug spending in 2000 as more bad news about health care in the U.S. Yet if we consider how many patients have been helped by the very drugs that are responsible for this rise in spending, we might instead see this as a step forward.
As a public health professional, I was appalled by the intensity of the antagonism over the damages in a Californian's lawsuit against Philip Morris U.S.A., decided last June. Sure, the damages $3.5 billion may seem immense. But this record award will barely dent the tobacco giant's profits.
In a full page ad in the New York Times this week, the Coalition for a Smoke-Free New York called on the New York City Council to pass legislation requiring that all workplaces, including small restaurants, restaurant bars and stand-alone bars and nightclubs become l00% smokefree. New York City already has expansive smoke-free laws, but still allows smoking in bars and in eateries that seat under 30.
Its time to differentiate between good and bad diets rather than simply good or bad foods.
Sales of organic foods have soared in recent years. They are touted as cleaner, more nutritious and better for the environment than foods produced by conventional means. But are such claims really true? People are finally starting to examine these questions.
On February 4, 2000, the ABC News show 20/20 presented a report about organic foods by John Stossel a report that asked these questions about cleanliness, nutritional value and environmental impact of organic versus conventionally-grown produce.
At least two United States senators have concluded that American children are at risk because parents are not warned about pesticides sprayed at schools. Some scientists disagree and claim that the senators are unnecessarily alarming parents based on an unfounded health scare and are consequently misdirecting priorities for children's health.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A wide variety of factors may influence an individual's likelihood of developing various types of cancer. These factors are usually referred to as risk factors. Different types of cancer may have different risk factors.
To the Editor:
Re "Tobacco's New Best Friend," by Jacob Sullum (Op-Ed, July 20):
I agree with Mr. Sullum when he asserts that government is an ally of the tobacco industry, but this has long been true. Although the tobacco industry appeared to fight the congressionally mandated warning labels that began appearing on cigarette packs in 1965, the industry was well aware that these labels would shield them from liability for their deceptive marketing practices, and that they would have no beneficial effect on public health.
The American Medical Association took out a full-page ad in the February 27 New York Times, chastising NBC for deciding to run hard liquor ads, putting impressionable teens at risk. The AMA has thereby compounded a mistake begun by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).
Nearly a hundred and fifty products making antimicrobial/antibacterial claims had found their way into the consumer market since 1996 (the terms antimicrobial and antibacterial are often used interchangeably, technically antimicrobials fight a variety of organisms while antibacterials target bacteria). Today, there are over seven hundred such products on the market.
There are organized marches nationwide to raise money to find a "cure" for breast cancer. Each day, the volume gets turned up on the debate over the usefulness of mammography for finding and "curing" cancer. Even the United States Post Office had a stamp advocating research to "cure" breast cancer.
Ironically, however, the real progress against breast cancer is taking place in another sphere: chemoprevention of this disease.
A lot of health-related politics has less to do with philosophy than with tribal allegiances. Those tribal allegiances are strong and make people disinclined to listen to each other or to examine the weaknesses in their own arguments.
In a saner, calmer world, for instance, one probably would not have to deal with people who regard it as un-American to avoid eating beef fat nor with people who think that evil corporations will destroy the world merely by sewing genetically-modified corn.
But here we are.
British conservative journalist Roger Scruton came under fire in recent weeks after admitting that he has taken money to write positive articles about the tobacco industry.
For free-marketeers, who defend the right of individuals to make free choices in a marketplace, constrained only by property rights, it is tempting to say that Scruton's error calls into question only his journalistic integrity, not his philosophical principles. But is it that simple?
My favorite way of putting risks into perspective is to consider the average loss of life expectancy they cause, LLE (indicated in parentheses throughout this article). I present here a brief catalog of these, taken from my paper published in the September 1991 issue of Health Physics Journal.
To the Editor:
Re "Responding to Anthrax Attacks" (editorial, Oct. 16):
Given the public concern over the recent anthrax cases and scares, I am disconcerted by the lack of information coming from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which should be in the forefront of such communication. Sharing what it knows is a large part of preventing irrational responses, like unwise self-medicating.
A national public health group has released two new publications, each of which presents evidence that childhood vaccinations are safe, and urge Americans to continue to protect their children's health by immunizing them against common childhood diseases.
Americans should remain calm in the face of the anthrax exposures reported in Florida, New York, Washington, and other areas, advised the American Council on Science and Health(ACSH), a public-health group directed by more than 350 leading scientists and physicians.
"This is not to say that we should let our vigilance lapse. Indeed, all we should maintain a heightened sense of awareness to possible biological threats," said Gilbert Ross, M.D., ACSH's medical director.
You have a healthy, balanced diet, are blessed with good metabolism, and are not at all overweight. And you certainly don't smoke. So who cares that you're a couch potato? Like most Americans, you don't think you're at risk for heart disease.
But new research published in the January issue of the American Journal of Hypertension suggests that being thin alone is not enough to protect your heart. You need to be active too. The benefits of being physically active go well beyond burning calories.
As parents around the country were getting their children ready to go to school this morning, ABC's Good Morning America (GMA) and CNN were both giving parents warnings about how their children get to and from school one about diesel fumes on school buses, the other about ill-fitting seatbelts. GMA went with the diesel fuel story, and that raises questions about how they prioritize health stories.
At least one type of stroke is more likely in the morning, according to a study done by neurologists and internists at Italy's University of Ferrara. They found that about 44% of the ischemic strokes (due to reduced blood flow to the brain, as with a blood clot) in the population they studied started in the quarter of the day between 6am and noon. The scientists suggest a "chronotherapeutic approach," including antihypertensive agents designed to lower morning blood pressure.
Pagination
ACSH relies on donors like you. If you enjoy our work, please contribute.
Make your tax-deductible gift today!