Matching the flu vaccine with the exact strain of influenza that is hitting the United States in a particular year is difficult -- and it's amazing how accurate the process usually is. But this year there is a fear the matching isn't entirely accurate, meaning there could be an outbreak of flu even among those who were vaccinated. "It's scary," Dr. Whelan noted. "Especially when we're talking about 30,000 deaths from the flu each year."
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Along with today's frigid cold throughout the country, fear is also in the air. "High" lead levels have been found in baby products, such as a cooler for storing breast milk and a pacifier carrier. ACSH staffers find this a bit outrageous. It's one thing to ban toys that contain lead and can be easily consumed by children, such as jewelry and painted plastic figurines. But it's another story altogether if the products you seek to ban are impossible to bite down on.
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.
In an apartment building on the Upper West Side of New York, 74th and Broadway, there is yet another controversy surrounding smoking and non-smoking residents.
While most of these issues involve smelling cigarette smoke from one apartment in another adjacent apartment, the debate this time is about the common area by the elevator. A couple doesn't want its four-year-old child to be exposed to the second-hand smoke and wants the smoking residents to stop smoking.
The Organic Center is described as a not for profit advocacy group by their supporters in the popular press, which makes them appear to be a bunch of good guys who are interested in promoting good health through organic food. The Organic Center, however, is supported by tax-deductible contributions mainly from organic food companies and their officers, and the main interest of those companies is shareholder profits (as it has to be in our capitalist society), not improved consumer health.
MORNING DISPATCH 8/15/08: Strokes, Risks, Babies, Cancer
Mice develop cancer after being predisposed to itA new study alleges that common skin creams cause tumors in mice -- but only mice bred to be prone to skin cancer that were pre-treated with high levels of UV radiation. "They applied the creams after purposely making the mice susceptible to skin cancer," says ACSH's Dr. Ruth Kava. "So is it the cream or the pretreatment?"
Over the past two days, I reviewed reasons for optimism and pessimism about food production. Today, let's take a closer look at how promising technological solutions to the current crisis must be tailored to the geographic regions that might benefit.
MORNING DISPATCH 9/5/08: McCain vs. Pharma, Science vs. Cancer Claim, plus Smoking, Shots, and Obesity
DISPATCH: Hunger, Mercury, Alcohol, Smoke, and Toenails
Norman Borlaug's op-ed on the fight against hunger
Although Internet drug purchasing is known to be a dicey proposition, the extent of the risk has never been established. A new report by the European Alliance for Access to Safe Medicine (EAASM), the results of which were released last week at the 4th Global Forum on Pharmaceutical Anticounterfeting, suggests the problem may be worse than regulatory agencies heretofore anticipated.
Our job here is ranking risks, and here's a little exercise in doing so:
(1) A Real Risk:
Marilyn Larkin provides a balanced New York Academy of Sciences overview of foodborne illnesses: "Health Threats from Domestic and Imported Produce."
(2) A Small But Discussion-Worthy Risk:
Obesity is increasing at alarming rates in our society. While excessive attention to thinness carries its own physical and mental health problems, increasing overweight is a much larger problem in our society and currently affects over two thirds of the population.
New York, NY. The widespread belief that organic and so-called "natural foods" are safer than conventional ones is simply not true.
Scientists with the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) point out that the foods that make up a traditional holiday dinner are loaded with "carcinogens": chemicals that in large doses cause cancer in laboratory animals. None of these chemicals are man-made or added to the foods. These "carcinogens" occur naturally in foods.
Many Americans may be feeling the need to make a fat-fighting New Year's resolution after holiday bingeing. Obesity affects many more aspects of health than is commonly recognized, as described in a new book by the American Council on Science and Health, Obesity and Its Health Effects. In seventeen chapters, each reviewed by an expert in the pertinent medical field, the publication describes how obesity impairs the function of virtually every body system.
This piece originally appeared in the Washington Times.
Soy reduces sperm count! Or at least, that's what all the papers would be saying today if soy were an industrial chemical (like one of the three phthalates just banned by Congress).
This article first appeared on July 22, 2008 in the New York Post:
City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden apparently didn't notice the scandalous revelations about City Council "member items" earlier this year -- at least, it hasn't stopped him from jumping feet first into his own no-accountability giveaway.
This piece first appeared in the New York Post.
It's right to take pride in treating our heroes well. We should certainly compensate first responders who were actually injured as a result of exposure to the air on 9/11 and the following few days.
A survey finds, disturbingly, that a majority of primary care physicians feel overworked and that many are planning on either cutting back on the number of patients they see or quitting medicine entirely. "This issue says a lot about our healthcare system," notes ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan.
An October 2, 2007 post at Portfolio.com criticizing editor Neal Boulton notes his magazine's poor ranking in ACSH's survey of nutrition reporting:
We're pleased to report that over the twelve-month period ending in October 2007, ACSH's paper "Low-Calorie Sweeteners and Other Sugar Substitutes: A Review of the Safety Issues" by Ruth Kava, Ph.D., R.D., Manfred Kroger, Ph.D., and Kathleen Meister was the twelfth most popular download on the influential online journal Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety.
ACSH/Staff, Oprah/Cranks, Meat/Breasts, HRT/Lungs, Sun/Skin, Spice/Island
by Elizabeth Wade
ACSH welcomes two new staffers
We'd like to extend a warm welcome to the two newest members of the ACSH team: art director Anthony Manzo and research intern Curtis Porter. Curtis will be taking over as writer of Morning Dispatch this week, as I prepare to leave to start my Fulbright scholarship in Mexico.
Could watching Oprah be dangerous for your health?
Judgment calls are inescapable in the practice of medicine. Physicians and patients must choose among different courses of treatment based on imperfect knowledge and incomplete information.
Energy needs worldwide are expected to increase for the foreseeable future, but fuel supplies are limited.
Twenty years ago tomorrow, a combination of environmentalists, public interest lawyers, publicists, and members of the news media foisted a bogus health scare on the American public -- the fear that apples being sprayed with Alar were exposing children to a cancer-causing chemical.
Pagination
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