ACSH staffers welcome an article in the online journal, Medscape, reporting on the Natural Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) suit against the FDA asking for a “writ of mandamus,” or court order requiring the agency to respond to NRDC’s 2008 petition to ban the use of BPA in commercial products.
In addition to calling the NRDC lawsuit “bizarre,” ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross was further quoted in the article:
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A House subcommittee will be holding hearings this week on a bill to "reform" the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, the federal law regulating chemicals, and ACSH staffers worry that the new measure goes too far.
Grocery retailers across the country are jumping aboard the nutritional bandwagon and offering customers greater advice on their dietary choices, The Wall Street Journal reports. Using a scoring system developed by NuVal LLC, owned by Griffin Hospital in Derby, Conn., foods get a score between 1 (low in nutrition) and 100 (really healthy) based on calorie content and the presence of more than 30 nutrients including proteins, fat and carbohydrates.
ACSH staffers re-learned a valuable lesson in news reporting yesterday: the media isn t always right. Based on inaccurate news reports, in yesterday s Dispatch we stated that Oregon has banned all electronic cigarettes. Thanks to ACSH friend Bill Godshall (and co-author of our publication on tobacco harm reduction), we re able to bring you the right information:
Perhaps the L.A. Times was inspired by our June 29 Dispatch detailing the false belief that all-natural means safe when they decided to cover the new Consumer Reports assessment of several dietary supplements thought to pose substantial health risks.
As the obesity epidemic becomes a global health care crisis, German economists and parliament members have tried to come up with a solution: let’s hold fat people financially responsible for the extra pounds they’re packing, they say.
One person not onboard with the proposed plan, however, is Walter Willett, professor of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, who says that along with lifestyle, genetics and urban environments also contribute to obesity.
Today’s New York Times book review of Invasion of the Prostate Snatchers: No More Unnecessary Biopsies, Radical Treatment or Loss of Sexual Potency caught A
In yesterday’s Dispatch, ACSH staffers considered the Reproductive Risk Factors for Incontinence Study at Kaiser (RRISK) study, which correlates breast feeding with a reduced risk of Type 2 diabetes, as the first of its kind that we were aware of. But Dr.
The California Legislature ended its session at midnight last night — and in the end, two pernicious pieces of legislation failed. The Senate rejected a bill to ban plastic bags from grocery stores and pharmacies after opponents argued it went too far in restricting consumer choice.
In light of the recent egg recall, people are scrambling to get free-range chickens eggs, thinking they may be safer than those laid by caged hens, but mounting evidence suggests that this may just be a myth spurred by food activists. According to a 1994 study investigating the presence of a specific type of salmonella, the strain was present in 50 percent of free-range hens but found in only 1 percent of caged hens. Additional research of U.S.
This may sound like an April Fool s joke, but a team of British researchers from Imperial College London are apparently serious when they suggest that fast food restaurants should give away statins to combat the heart disease dangers of fatty foods.
Last week we discussed how doctors have been reluctant to prescribe finasteride to men as a prophylactic treatment for prostate cancer.
According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), cancer is now the most economically crippling disease in the world, costing more in lost productivity and lives than any other illness.
We’ve said it more than once, but we’ll say it again — and this time, a powerful, new study agrees with us: men with early, probably non-aggressive prostate cancer (determined by lower PSA levels and the presence of low-grade tumor pathology) can safely postpone surgery.
A large study of New York City children indicates that the incidence of childhood obesity ranges from 51 percent in Corona to 12 percent in the Upper West Side.
ACSH staffers were excited with the overwhelming response we received over the weekend via e-mail and Twitter to our question asking readers whether they or someone they know used electronic cigarettes as an effective method to successfully quit smoking.
Numerous people wrote in testimonials describing how, thanks to e-cigs, they have kicked their cigarette habits for good:
A coveted seat at the ACSH Dispatch table goes to agronomist Giorgio Fidenato for standing up to environmental groups and the Italian government.
A study of about 500 people in Charlotte, N.C., before and after the city completed a light-rail system found that those who used the system to commute were 81 percent less likely to become obese.
Even though her provision to ban bisphenol A (BPA) was removed from the Food Safety Modernization Act, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) refuses to give up and is asking California Gov.
A new University of Virginia study finds that alcohol-based hand sanitizers do not significantly reduce infection rates with flu or cold viruses. Study participants who used the sanitizer had 42 rhinovirus infections and 12 influenza infections per 100 volunteers, while 51 rhinovirus infections and 15 influenza infections occurred per 100 volunteers who did not take any special sanitary precautions.
Americans over the weekend honored the victims killed in the tragic attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
ACSH staffers would like to remind our readers that they should take the necessary precautions for terrorism preparedness by reading ACSH’s publication A Citizen's Guide to Terrorism Preparedness and Response.
“The most important thing people can do is to be educated. Knowledge will overcome fear,” ACSH's Jeff Stier reminds us.
Here’s a possible pick-up line for all you boys at the bar: Did you know moderate wine consumption is associated with better cognitive function? Female wine drinkers, and male wine and beer drinkers, score better on thinking tests than teetotalers.
From the company that brought you Dolly the cloned sheep comes another new and exciting development: the creation of red blood cells from spare IVF embryonic stem cells (ESC). British scientists from the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh are using stem cell lines to create an alternative source of O-negative (universal donor) and B-positive blood types.
Statin medications such as Lipitor and Crestor are a cost-effective way of preventing heart attacks even in lower-risk populations, according to a computerized analysis published this week in Circulation.
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