A June 26, 2007 item by Tom Dennis notes ACSH's reassurance that pesticides don't kill people and cites our Holiday Dinner Menu:
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A July 19, 2007 piece by Lisa Jo Rudy notes ACSH's take on the dubious Dr. Wakefield who has championed the idea of vaccine-induced autism:
Dr. Andrew Wakefield is the British doctor whose work first presented the idea that the MMR vaccine could be linked to autism. Wakefield's work has been questioned for many years; now he is under investigation for alleged unethical behavior. According to the American Council on Science and Health...
Soon, this daily dose of ACSH staffers' conversations will be e-mailed to donors each morning, available to the public online later in the week.
You can become a donor at http://www.acsh.org/support/ or send a tax-deductible donation to:
American Council on Science and Health1995 Broadway, 2nd floorNew York, NY 10023
For questions, please call Jeff Stier at 212-362-7044 x225 or e-mail Tara McTeague at McTeagueT[at]acsh.org.
Preliminary data from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene shows that HIV infection is on the rise among young gay and bisexual men in the city. Over the past six years, HIV diagnoses increased by 33% in such men under the age of thirty, from 372 in 2001 to 500 in 2006. Most shocking was that for gay and bisexual males ages thirteen to nineteen, diagnoses increased by 50%, from thirty-four in 2001 to sixty-eight in 2006.
An August 29, 2007 piece by Jack Hunter cites ACSH's Dr. Whelan among critics of Surgeon General Carmona and others who exaggerate the benefits of smoking bans, deadly though smoking is:
Reason magazine editor Jacob Sullum writes, "Carmona is so intent on promoting smoking bans that he absurdly exaggerates the hazards of secondhand smoke. (Carmona's) insistence that there is 'no risk-free level' is an article of faith, not a scientific statement."
A Federal Judge last week said that New York City was wrong to make fast food restaurants list calories on their menu boards.
The judge did not weigh in on whether the law was an effective way to trim down New Yorkers, but he found that it conflicted with federal law, which already regulates the posting of nutritional information. The awkwardly written law only applied to fast food restaurants, which already voluntarily posted nutrition information. It was never enforced because of pending legal questions.
This piece first appeared in the New York Post and was noted on NY1 Itch for that day.
The days of deception on the health risks of cigarettes aren't over after all -- although now the distortion's coming from the "good guys."
A report today from northeastern Pennsylvania describes a fruitless search for the environmental "cause" of an increased rate of a blood disease called polycythemia vera (known among medical folk as P Vera -- here I'll use PCV). While not in fact a cancer, it often deteriorates into some form of leukemia, or it can lead to other blood disorders of high mortality. The federal epidemiologists found no specific explanation for the apparent increased incidence of PCV.
Okay, let's be clear, smoking is still the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. Obesity, though, seems to be claiming much more attention from the media and the public health establishment -- perhaps because there has been recent controversy about exactly what the health effects of extra pounds might be. Two new studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) should help put this question into perspective.
Parents of infants in sub-Saharan Africa, where a million or more die each year, have new hope, thanks to a group of multinational researchers, led by Dr. John J. Aponte of the University of Barcelona and colleagues from Mozambique. They evaluated a new malaria vaccine's safety and efficacy in 214 infants in rural Mozambique, an area of high incidence of malaria, and found that the vaccine against Falciparum malaria, the most severe form, reduced the rate of new infections by almost two thirds.
Defying the doom-and-gloom-sayers, Americans are living longer and healthier each year, according to data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to the report, a product of the CDC's National Center for Health and Statistics, a child born in 2005 in the U.S. can expect to live 78 years -- the highest life expectancy to date. Life expectancy was based on age at death for 99% of deaths recorded in 2005 in the U.S.
An October 9, 2007 article by Becky Bell on the website of Southern Arkansas University describes a visit by ACSH's Jeff Stier to participate in a panel on smokeless tobacco as a means of harm reduction:
A feature posted in September by ProCon.org on arguments for and against milk consumption notes the positive view of ACSH's Dr. Ruth Kava from ACSH's 2001 publication on The Role of Milk in Your Diet:
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and its Board of Scientific Counselors (BOSC) make a big deal about how they want public input -- and the law requires public comment -- so ACSH Advisors Dr. James Enstrom, Dr. Stan Young, and I presented our concerns about EPA toxicology and epidemiology to a meeting of the Human Health Risk Assessment (HHRA) subcommittee of the BOSC by phone (in the case of Enstrom and Young) and in person (me), on November 15 in Bethesda, MD.
November 15th marks the thirty-first annual "Great American Smokeout," a campaign initially undertaken by the American Cancer Society, whose goal was to encourage smokers to quit -- even if only for one day -- hoping this would lead to prolonged abstinence from cigarettes.
This piece first appeared on January 8, 2008 on TCSDaily.com.
Patients will benefit if the Supreme Court sides with pharmaceutical companies in two cases this session, establishing the general principle that drug makers can't be sued for unforeseen side effects that emerge after drugs have received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval. The alternative is to let pharma slowly be sued into abandoning the introduction of new lifesaving drugs, since new drugs always carry some risk.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) sent out an important warning this week: we all must keep safety in mind as we enjoy our holidays, which often include decorating with candles, holiday lights, and Christmas trees. As beautiful as these decorations are, when not used properly they can lead to fires, injuries, and in the worst cases death.
At last, there is a reliable source of information to help us differentiate real health threats from alarmist nonsense. The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) has researched and published a reliable reference to help the consumer discern the comparative risk of dying from various illnesses, behaviors and exposures. On our new website, Riskometer.org, a simple graphic-illustration diagram of relative threat magnitudes is accompanied by clear text and references to source material.
New York, NY -- December 6, 2007. Americans are bombarded almost daily with warnings about new health risks -- and advice on how to avoid premature disease and death. Too often, this flurry of advice and warnings blurs the true distinction between real and hypothetical health risks -- and between large and tiny chances of death.
New York, NY -- December 19, 2007. Americans are constantly bombarded with alarming news about the dangers of the everyday products they encounter as consumers. In order to shine light on the health fear frenzy portrayed by the media, the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) has published The Top Ten Unfounded Health Scares of 2007, a roundup of the most frightening and prominent -- but groundless -- health scares in the media this year.
Legislators all over the country are rightfully concerned that more and more citizens are becoming obese, and they're not sitting still for it! New York City, for one, has demanded that chain restaurants post the calorie content of their foods on menu boards. But Mississippi legislators are going even further. They are rightfully concerned that residents of their state have about the highest proportion of obesity in the whole country. So, what do they want to do about it? Prevent the fatties from dining out, that's what.
Reuters' wire service does a good job of finding and reporting on health stories -- perhaps too good. This morning, for example, I received a short story about a New Zealand study on older women, which found that those who took calcium supplements for five years were more likely to experience a heart attack than those who did not. What the story didn't say, though, is where this study was published -- or even if it was. Perhaps it was just a report presented at a scientific meeting -- which would mean it hadn't been peer-reviewed, and thus could be considered preliminary.
DISPATCH: Plastic, Longevity, Gender, and Vitamins
The Anti-Quote of the Day: The dangers of plastic bottles"The truthful answer is that nobody knows" their full health impact yet, said David Ozonoff, a professor of environmental health at the Boston University School of Public Health. "And because we don't know, it's prudent to avoid something that is avoidable." --_Boston Globe_, April 23, 2008.
DISPATCH: Hunger, Mercury, Alcohol, Smoke, and Toenails
Norman Borlaug's op-ed on the fight against hunger
Pagination
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