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Reuters Health reports, “Everyday exposure to perchlorate, an industrial chemical found in drinking water and a range of foods, may not impair thyroid function in pregnant women, a new study suggests.” The CDC study found perchlorate in the urine of all 2,820 subjects tested.

The WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer completed a decade-long analysis of over 10,000 cell phone users and could not find a clear link between cell phone use and brain cancer risk.
“This is the largest cell phone study of its kind ever done, and the researchers said we still can’t be sure whether or not using a cell phone increases the risk of brain cancer,” says Stier. “How many studies that show no such link do we need before we can be sure? It’s a health scare that just won’t die.”

The Washington Post reports, “In a direct response to Michelle Obama's declared war on childhood obesity, an alliance of major food manufacturers on Monday pledged to introduce new, more healthful options, cut portion sizes and trim calories in existing products.”

Millions of vacationers will pack a picnic basket and head to the parks and beaches this Memorial Day weekend we hope you re among them and we here at ACSH urge everyone to eat their potato salad till to their heart s content.

A coveted seat at the ACSH Dispatch table for Cas Holloway, commissioner of the New York City s Department of Environmental Protection. His agency spent $81,000 to study the city s water supply after a scaremongering pharmawater investigation by The Associated Press in 2008 found traces of pharmaceuticals in municipal drinking water around the nation.
The conclusion of the study? It turns out New York City s water supply isn t going to cure your headaches, change your hormones or lower your cholesterol after all. (Not that we at ACSH ever thought it would.)

The Environmental Protection Agency has ordered BP to use a less toxic and more effective chemical to break up the oil that leaked from their offshore drilling platform. According to The Wall Street Journal, Of all the chemicals approved by the agency for use on oil spills, Corexit 9500 is among the most toxic to certain organisms, according to EPA tests.

CBS’ 60 Minutes last night aired a report on phthalates, widely used to soften plastics, and the coverage was about what ACSH staffers expected from the news team that brought you the 1989 Alar scare.

ACSH staffers cringed last night as the first hour of CNN s Toxic America report broadcast its message that trace levels of environmental chemicals are causing myriad disease in America, from cancer to diabetes and more.
It was worse than I could have imagined, says ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, who was interviewed for tonight s conclusion of the two-part series. The most shocking part of it was that they recruited people from certain towns who thought that they were harmed by chemicals, and brought them all together to talk about how dangerous these substances are.

ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan is among the scientific experts who contributed to the "Second Opinion" feature on the FDA s Bad Ad program in the Manhattan Institute's Medical Progress Today. She wrote:

ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan appeared last night on the second installment of CNN's special about chemicals, "Toxic Childhood," countering assertions that environmental chemicals are among the main causes of disease and death in children.
Dr. Whelan said CNN placed her in a tough spot: How do you go up against parents who appeared in the previous segment who claim, emotionally, that their daughter died of cancer because of exposure to trace level environmental chemicals?

According to the Associated Press, Supreme Court justices on Tuesday sharply questioned a lower court's decision that has prohibited biotech giant Monsanto Co. from selling genetically engineered alfalfa seeds ¦

Proctor & Gamble says its Dry Max Pampers, less bulky but more absorbent than the previous design, are the biggest thing in diapers in 25 years.

Research presented at experimental biology conference this week in Anaheim, Calif., showed that people who ate cookies labeled as organic believed that their snack contained 40% fewer calories than the same cookies that had no label.

ACSH President and Founder Dr. Elizabeth Whelan was on CNN Sunday, May 9, 2010, to discuss the President's Cancer Panel report blaming cancer on environmental chemicals. Watch here.

Reuters reported Wednesday on a study in the New England Journal of Medicine that asserts a causal link between the nationwide trend in the reduction of heart attack rates and bans on smoking in public places.

U.S. News & World Report s Washington Whispers blog reports that at least four groups are skeptical of the credibility of the FDA s Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC).

ACSH staffers were pleasantly surprised when they discovered anti-pseudoscience blogger JunkScienceMom s reference to a Hands off my plastic stuff! Facebook site, which reveals some of the various consumer and medical products that would disappear if BPA were banned.

Next year, New York s required calorie count policy for chain restaurants is set to go into effect nationwide under the country s new healthcare legislation. The Wall Street Journal reports that while supporters believe the new policies are necessary to overcome the nation s high obesity rates, opponents question whether the government should have such regulatory power over private businesses.

ACSH s Jeff Stier was so surprised to see the following advertisement on a New York City bus the other day that he ran out onto the street to snap a picture of it with his arsenic-laden iPhone 3G.
It was not until later that he realized that this was not, in fact, a campaign by the New York City Public Health Department to cleanse our food of salt, but a promotion for an upcoming movie starring Angelina Jolie.

ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan debated Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, on the CNN special "Toxic Childhood." Watch here.

Women who were light to moderate drinkers early in pregnancy were more likely to raise children with more positive behaviors, Reuters Health reports, citing a study by researchers from the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research in West Perth, Western Australia. The study defined light to moderate drinking as the consumption of two to six drinks per week, or one a day.

The EPA is longer accepting studies that use humans as guinea pigs in chemical tests, such as those for dose-response analyses, which determine how much of a chemical is safe for humans.

Biotech company AquaBounty has spent the last decade seeking FDA approval for what would become the first genetically engineered animal to be used for public consumption Atlantic salmon. Genetically modified to produce growth hormone year round, the modified salmon grow to conventional market size twice as fast as regular fish.

Shoppers who use reusable grocery bags and do not routinely wash them may be putting themselves at risk for food poisoning. Researchers who tested dozens of bags found half contaminated with coliform bacteria, suggesting raw-meat or uncooked-food contamination. Further, E. coli was found in another 12 percent of the bags, according to a study funded by the American Chemistry Council.

With the FDA’s ban on the words such as “light,” “mild,” “medium,” and “low-tar” from cigarette packaging going into effect today, Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. have switched to colored packaging to communicate differences in products. The FDA is challenging this use of colors, arguing that it suggests certain products are safer.