The Washington Times was among those picking up the UPI review by ACSH president, Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, of Michael Crichton's State of Fear.
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A January 26, 2005 American Spectator article by David Hogberg describes ACSH's book America's War on "Carcinogens":
Although it may be appropriate to criticize the revolving-door ethics involved when a former congressman becomes an advocate for an industry with which he had legislative dealings, the issue of government-controlled drug pricing is not a fair target ("Switch raises issues of loyalty," Opinion, Jan. 3). This part of the Medicare drug bill is there for good reason, as witness the current precarious state of our vaccine supply.
The latest version of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, released this month, engendered much analysis and commentary -- some of it good, some not so great.
Today, the American Council on Science and Health releases the book America's War on "Carcinogens": Reassessing The Use of Animal Tests to Predict Human Cancer Risk (see: http://www.acsh.org/publications/pubID.990/pub_detail.asp ), revealing what scientists have long known but regulators ignore: that there is no scientific basis for assuming that everything that causes cancer in lab rodents in high doses is harmful to hum
Back when Jaws was scaring us on the big screen in the 1970s, Americans were being warned of a more subtle danger. On television and in the papers, we were told that saturated fats, the type found in some meat and dairy products and in some processed foods, were on the verge of causing an epidemic of heart disease.
Your humble editor is taking next week off, but before I do so, I must quickly note a few milestones:
A January 31, 2005 Associated Press story describes the government's new list of "carcinogens," produced by the National Toxicology Program, but quotes ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan in a section about objections to the sweeping and poorly-prioritized structure of the list:
But the American College of Radiology faulted the addition of X-rays and gamma rays, saying it was misleading and could prompt patients to avoid getting needed care.
A February 06, 2005 article by Jennifer C. Smith in The Monitor about a report on barbecue-induced cancer quotes ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan counseling calm:
The vague nature of the report upsets Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, president of the American Council on Science and Health, a consumer advocacy and education group in New York.
There's a lot of media coverage of this carcinogen and that. Almost exclusively, however, the reports deal with synthetic chemicals that supposedly present intolerable risks to the most vulnerable populations -- infants and children. But in many cases, if not most, the evidence of risk is not substantiated by sound science. There are, however, naturally-occurring chemicals that are known to be carcinogenic.
Rock Hudson, Arthur Ashe, Ryan White, Liberace, Alvin Ailey, Freddie Mercury, Anthony Perkins, Rudolf Nureyev. Remember when you could hardly go a month without hearing about someone famous dying of AIDS? And the New York Times obituary page was filled with thirtyish men, often in the arts, who had died "after a short illness." When is the last time you heard this? Probably about eight years ago. So what happened?
The pharmaceutical industry is what happened.
"The Gay Plague"
A March 31, 2005 Dow Jones Newswire report on the Pope's health quoted ACSH Advisor Dr. Marc Siegel:
A urinary infection can produce fever and a drop in blood pressure as reported in the Pope, said Dr. Marc Siegel, a specialist in internal medicine at the New York University Medical Center.
The pope's risk of such an infection is heightened because he is elderly -- which suggests his prostate is probably enlarged -- debilitated and run down from the illness that recently sent him to the hospital, Siegel said.
An April 9, 2005 article on the news-for-fathers site DadTalk by Brett Levy notes a defense by ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross of the controversial CHEERS study on the reaction of children to pesticides, for which EPA Administrator Stephen L.
Now that the FDA has pressured Pfizer to remove Bextra from pharmacy shelves, applause rains down from the usual locales: self-styled "consumer advocates," politicos looking for a quick score, and columnists, all patting themselves on the back for "getting" Bextra.
The losers here, also as usual, are those members of the public who benefited (or might have benefited later on) from using this pain-relieving Cox-2 inhibitor.
An article in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) (1) adds to the mounting evidence (which ACSH has frequently pointed out) that antioxidant supplements are not the potent health-promoters that proponents claim. The study indicates they may even increase the risk of one of the very conditions that some claim they prevent.
Congress heard from Major League Baseball (MLB) players regarding their use of steroids, and none have proven to be the heroes they claim to be. Baseball is not shaping up to be the great American sport some believed. Meanwhile, Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted to his steroid use, but he has no regrets about it. He even vetoed a bill that would require California high school coaches to teach about the dangers of steroid use.
A tobacco company CEO appointed to the board of trustees of a reputable cancer institute? It's perhaps as outlandish as Time, Inc. being given an award for advancing tobacco control.
The scare story about vaccines containing mercury and causing autism is still with us, as a recent story on Fox 5 news here in New York City -- and a new book on the topic from St. Martin's Press -- suggest. (Indeed, the Fox 5 story caused such an outpouring of fear from parents that Fox 5 decided...to run it again.)
Celebrate. Celebrate. No, that's not the return of the Celebrex TV ad with its aerobic arthritics. That's the euphoria of physicians delighted with a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel's recommendation earlier this year that Vioxx and its cousins Bextra and Celebrex (all medicines known as Cox-2 inhibitors) should remain on the market, despite evidence they increase heart disease risk in some people. The panelists reached their decision after weighing all the data and concluding the benefits of these pain-relieving drugs outweighed the risks.
While we at ACSH have been determined to remain on the sidelines of the raging national debate about the fate of Terri Schiavo (this is largely a legal and ethical issue, not a scientific one), we cannot remain silent about the outrageous misrepresentation of scientific facts about this case that has been occurring in the past ten days.
A March 26, 2005 piece by Reason contributing editor and Boston Globe columnist Cathy Young noted a TechCentralStation.com article by ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan while summarizing the controversy over removing the feeding tube of vegetative Terri Schiavo:
A March 1, 2005 Editor and Publisher article by Brian Orloff about John Tierney taking William Safire's place on the New York Times editorial page (alongside his ideologically-opposed ex-girlfriend, Maureen Dowd) mentions the objections of Columbia Journalism Review's Zach Roth and, in the process, Roth's objections to ACSH (which accepts donations from anyone willing to give -- including you, or for that matter Greenpeace -- as long as no strings are attached to our research):
A March 2005 Michigan Review article by Daniel Krawiec, about Michigan University's funding of the eco-radical group PIRGIM, mentioned the American Council on Health's position on mercury risks:
So what might explain groups like PIRGIM's campaigns to eliminate power plant mercury emissions?
To the Editor:
As the assistant director of public health for the American Council on Science and Health, I would like to reply to your review of David Kirby's Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic (April 17). I disagree with your reviewer about the timeliness of the book. As noted in a 2004 Institute of Medicine report, the large majority of reputable doctors and scientists agree that available data do not support the existence of a causal relationship between thimerosal, a mercury-based vaccine preservative, and autism.
Whether you are traveling around the world or relaxing at home, a safe, healthy vacation will add to your enjoyment. Here are some health and safety tips to keep in mind when planning your summer vacation.
The Dark Side of Summer Sun
Pagination
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