The CDC 2016 Opioid Prescribing Advice, which has caused so much hardship to so many pain patients, has been tossed out and replaced by a revised document. Is it better? Sure looks that way.
Search
The American public has been concerned with radiation safety as far back as the tragic story of the “Radium Girls,” female factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting watch dials with self-luminous paint between 1917 and 1920. While there is substantial data demonstrating powerful carcinogenesis from high-dose radiation, e.g., an atomic bomb explosion, can small doses of radiation cause cancer? Some believe that they can.
In the mood for a lesson on drug-drug interactions? I didn't think so. But you got one anyhow. Might as well read it, no?
Should organic farmers grow gene-edited crops? A leading figure in the agroecology movement says "yes"—and so does the generation of environmentalists following in his footsteps.
Horseshoe crabs, those almost pre-historic-looking creatures that we occasionally see washed up on the shore, hold a special place in medicine. But that's about to change.
Perhaps you’re familiar with the sentiment about how a child's behavior is often transformed into how they act as an adult. A new study finds a connection between some early lifestyle and health choices and later-life concerns.
An unexpected delay in the FDA's authorization of COVID shots for children under age 5 could amplify parents' existing concerns about vaccinating their kids. Here's what we know about the situation.
A new take on sin taxes, Wordle and the Internet, who is an expert, and the return of human sacrifices?
Have you ever tasted a medicine pill that’s so bitter that you can barely swallow it? Most adults can handle it. But with kids, bitterness can affect compliance. Here’s some clever chemistry to the rescue.
There is a tussle between those that believe that our COVID vaccines are net beneficial and those that argue that there are too many adverse side effects. The combatants cite data from varying sources, always pointing out that their opponents’ data are, as Mark Twain states, “lies, damn lies, and statistics.” A new paper from JAMA Network Open puts some context to the numbers.
Crappy studies on the alleged harm of artificial sweeteners are about as common (and valuable) as a wad of gum stuck under a school chair. Yet, here's another claiming that consumption of artificial sweeteners, especially aspartame and acesulfame-K, are associated with cancer. Shall we dismantle it? I say yes.
Fat-acceptance advocates say medical terms like "obesity" and "overweight" stigmatize fat people and should be eliminated from our vocabulary. They're putting public health at risk to promote a misguided ideology.
“For a man's house is his castle, and each man's home is his safest refuge.” With that phrasing, English common law reinvented the Castle Doctrine, the concept that one may be safe and protect one’s home. With time, the definition of our “home” expanded into the space around us, morphing from the Castle Doctrine to Stand Your Ground. A new study looks at how those laws have changed our behavior.
In part two of our series on the Lancet's descent into ideological activism, we look at the journal's proposal to "transform" global dietary habits and protect the planet from the ravages of animal agriculture. Is there any evidence to justify this campaign against meat production and consumption?
I became most interested in the two reports on lead we ran in Dispatch last week. I had looked at this topic a few years ago, and at the time I was concerned that ACSH had on its website some older commentaries that seemed to downplay the danger of lower blood levels. Now, let me share some of my thoughts.
Is it too early to address what went wrong when the COVID vaccines were rolled out? This is not about the “first rough draft of history." Instead, it's a more dispassionate, high-altitude view that allows us to assess this public health moment through two different critical theory lenses: complex systems and scaling.
COVID’s Delta Variant is far more infectious than the earlier versions. It also differs in which age group is most susceptible, as this study from South Korea points out.
Two months ago, there was a mad rush to get the two oral antiviral pills approved to treat COVID-19. Pharmacies often ran out of these drugs within hours of delivery. Now, no one wants them. What is going on?
Operation Warp Speed, everyone loves watching a controlled building demolition, know your adversary, and social media and the “slap heard round the world.”
Daily COVID-19 cases reached an all-time high in February and then descended as rapidly as they had surged, with the Omicron variant in full swing. Mask rules were eased as the media featured reports of double-digit percentage decreases in infections and hospitalization, implying that Omicron infections may be less severe than with the previous Delta variant. Meanwhile, vaccination rates remained stalled in some recalcitrant states, and thoughts of a 4th booster program appeared. Who knows what evil still lurks in the heart of the virus?
COVID-19 may remain in our communities for the foreseeable future, and we are told to live with as yet to be defined “new normal.” By and large, this pandemic has been fought on an individual level, one case, mask, and vaccination at a time. Alternatively, environmental risk analysis involves three levels of specificity: community, local, and individual, comprising a “3-legged stool”. Understanding the first two legs is required to benefit the third.
Claims made on food packaging have been increasingly scrutinized, resulting in a precipitous rise in class action lawsuits against food manufacturers. Food activists and consumer advocacy groups view litigation as a means of protecting consumers from deceptive marketing and greenwashing by large food manufacturers. On the other hand, food manufacturers may view this as a form of extortion, using the threat of court costs and legal fees for out-of-court monetary settlements.
A new study employs some blatantly obvious sleight of hand to amplify the so-called teen vaping 'epidemic.' Here's what you need to know.
When discussing Hospital systems, non-profit is a tax status, not a revenue statement. In exchange for providing a range of “community” services, these institutions are tax-exempt. The Lown Foundation dishes the dirt on the profits and losses of some of our most prominent institutions.
Seemingly everywhere you look there are articles on the dangers of PFAS. Federal and state governments, environmental groups, and the media have declared that dangerous PFAS chemicals are everywhere and present a widespread problem across the U.S. The condemnation and fearmongering are so widespread that you’d be forgiven if you question why we would even bother to write about such a black-and-white subject in the first place. But we must.
Pagination
ACSH relies on donors like you. If you enjoy our work, please contribute.
Make your tax-deductible gift today!