Although vaccination is acknowledged to be one of the most cost-effective public health strategies available to prevent many communicable viral and bacterial infections, large numbers of Americans above the age of 18 remain vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases.
ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross points out the contrasting science-based educational values of two columns in the Wall Street Journal. "The Informed Patient" by Laura Landro is about the "growing field of nutritional immunology" and all of the ways you can boost your immune system with the right diet.
A report by the World Health Organization reveals that tobacco use kills 5 million people worldwide each year. The WHO attributes 600,000 of those deaths to exposure to secondhand smoke.
"As ACSH points out in our publication on the health effects of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), ETS can have serious impacts on nonsmokers, including increased risk of asthma, ear infections, and more," says Dr. Whelan. "Still, it is unlikely that it causes 600,000 deaths each year, but then again, we cannot make a science-based estimate on what mortality from ETS might be."
NBC New York tells the horror story of a cancer cluster in New Jersey "in a neighborhood where state health department officials have found elevated rates of kidney cancer in women and non-Hodgkins lymphoma in men. The study stopped short of linking the cancer to the chemical-laden groundwater from the sprawling DuPont plant that takes up 1,455 acres in this Passaic County community."
The following brief commentary appeared on the Manhattan Institute's MedicalProgressToday.com, along with similar reactions to the "conflicts of interest" debate from Richard Epstein, ACSH Trustee Dr. Thomas Stossel, and others.
New York NY -- January 15th, 2010. The American Council on Science and Health applauds today's decision by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) not to ban the plastic hardener bisphenol-A (BPA). Despite heavy pressure from various activist "environmental" groups, the FDA has not placed any restrictions on the chemical's use in consumer products but rather decided to "support" industry's decisions to reduce exposure to BPA in food-related products aimed at infants and children. FDA is also "facilitating" the development of alternatives to BPA in infant formula cans.
Testimony delivered January 22, 2010 at a Public Hearing before the New York Senate Committee on Health.
Patting Themselves on the Back The latest issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine features a letter by ACSH's Dr. Ross about a report in the journal praising New York City's restriction on trans-fats in restaurants.
Recommended Reading ACSH staffers were pleased to read two reports from thinktanks addressing the panic fomented by activist groups concerning trace levels of chemicals in our consumer products and our bodies.
The New Face of the New McCarthyism ACSH’s Jeff Stier got the last word in the Los Angeles Times’ report on PLoS Medicine’s recent announcement that they will no longer review studies that are funded by the tobacco industry.
Cancer Screening Déjà Vu
A Chicago Tribune personal health blog written by Julie Deardorff seeks the cost-benefit analysis for organic food.
The CDC says that it is too early to confirm the Washington Post s reported estimates that 71.5 million doses of the H1N1 flu vaccine may be discarded. Some of the doses will expire as soon as June.
Spanish scientists suggest that one third of breast cancer cases are preventable based on diet and exercise habits.
“We have to acknowledge that it is true that being overweight during and after middle age is a risk factor for breast cancer,” says ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. “Still, claiming that one third of cases are preventable by lifestyle choices is probably an overstatement.”
The Wall Street Journal reports, A new generation of anti-obesity drugs could hit the market in coming months...The three new medications, which have been submitted for approval to the Food and Drug Administration, also can be expected to have side effects for some patients...But doctors say different weight-loss medications affect people differently, so having more choices should help them match a patient to a therapy tha
An analysis of Medicare data indicates that the rate of hospital admissions for heart attack was 23% lower in 2007 than in 2002.
The FDA is debating whether tanning beds should be more strictly regulated, since they have been linked to skin cancer.
In the wake of last week's U.S. House Subcommittee on Health hearing on smokeless tobacco, ACSH advisor and friend Dr. Brad Rodu has taken on one of the key witnesses. Dr.
Politico reports that a measure to ban Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical used to manufacture certain food and beverage containers, could be introduced on the Senate floor by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) as early as this week.
"I introduced my bill to ban BPA from being used in food containers because I feel very strongly that the government should protect people from harmful chemicals," Feinstein told Politico in a statement.
Three top FDA administrators have a column published in the New England Journal of Medicine this week about how they will use their authority under the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.
The New York Times reports, “R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, one of the country’s biggest cigarette makers, must pay $46.3 million to the widow of a Florida man who died from lung cancer in 1995, a jury in Gainesville, Fla., decided Wednesday.”
A survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics indicates that more than 40% of U.S. adults who have depression are also smokers. By contrast, the overall national smoking rate is around 20%.
Thanks in large part to vociferous anti-chemical activists, a new bill in Congress seeks to reform the thirty-four-year-old Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). According to the Washington Post, The plan, contained in legislation that Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) is set to file Thursday, would require manufacturers to prove the safety of chemicals before they enter the marketplace.
