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Imagine a delicious, inexpensive convenience food that is low in fat, cholesterol, sodium, and calories and provides all essential nutrients and dietary fibers in optimum quantities. This may seem the ideal food but it would be far from ideal if it were contaminated with pathogenic bacteria.
Women should consider all the scientific evidence available, consult with their physician, and then decide whether they should take a chemopreventive agent to lower their risk of breast cancer, according to scientists with the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH). A new booklet, Chemoprevention of Breast Cancer, has been written for ACSH by Kathleen Meister, M.S.
A New York Times report ("Cleaning Up the Dry Cleaners" by Barnaby J. Feder, Feb. l5, 2000) raises questions about the health effects of the most widely used dry-cleaning chemical, perchloroethylene, commonly referred to as "perc." The article pointed out that there were substantial business efforts underway to develop safer alternatives to perc -- namely a biodegradable soap that dissolves in carbon dioxide.
Erratum: pg. 33, item number 3 reads, in part ...."should take supplements containing 400 mg of folic acid/day."
Reporting about health risks isn't easy. It involves an understanding of the complexities of risk assessment, an ability to distinguish between scientific and pseudoscientific information, the capacity to evaluate and digest complicated material, and the communication skills to portray the risk in the proper context. Simplistic or contradictory messages can leave readers confused and wary; they "tune out" and you lose your audience.
THE COVER-PAGE HEADLINE, "LEAD Poisoning: More Kids Are at Risk" is inconsistent with the data on childhood exposure to lead. Federal monitoring shows that blood lead levels fell significantly along with the decline in the use of leaded gasoline in the 1970s. The plaintiffs' lawyers are saying that it doesn't matter how much lead there is in the blood, just that there is some measurable amount and therefore the kids are sick. Such pronouncements indicate that we have left the realm of science and entered the theatrics of the courtroom.
To the Editor:
Re "Give Doctors Tougher Rules" (Op-Ed, Dec. 10), by Dr. Joseph R. Wilder: Most serious medical mistakes relate to inadvertent medication errors, which can best be handled on a hospital-by-hospital basis, using computerized safeguards and guidelines. Oversight by medical governing bodies would have the counterproductive effect of encouraging doctors (and other caregivers) to hide, rather than learn from, their mistakes: plaintiffs' lawyers lurk in every corner.
On the 40th anniversary of the great "cranberry scare" of l959, scientists at the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) urged Americans to "eat, drink, and be wary" of those who attempt to frighten us about trace levels of synthetic chemicals in foods.
To the Editor:
While scanning my wife's copy of April 1999 Elle I was dismayed to see poor health advice dispensed because of inappropriate risk comparisons.
On page 275 the "Health News" column states that oral contraceptive pills have dangers that include "a 50% greater risk of circulatory disease and a 20% increased risk of breast cancer," which belies the next statement that the risk is "very remote."
To the Editor:
A recent study reports that the ads created by Philip Morris to discourage teenage smoking are not only ineffective, but they may actually encourage the habit. (Marketplace, April 7, 1999). This does not come as a big surprise. A cigarette company is hardly the ideal candidate to convince teenagers not to smoke. The viability of the Industry depends on new, young recruits.
To the Editor:
As Dr. Harold S. Koplewicz points out (Op-Ed, March 1), many children and adults are treated with medications that do not have Food and Drug Administration approval. The doctor is responsible for using clinical judgment to insure that a drug is safe and effective for each patient. However, an equally important issue is the risk to children from potentially dangerous substances, like androstenedione, that can be purchased from a health food store or supermarket without a prescription. Unlike pharmaceuticals, these supplements have not been tested on adults.
A recent issue of the journal "Science" focused on the dilemma posed by the so-called "precautionary principle," which has become enshrined in many international environmental treaties and regulations. The greatest source of controversy about the precautionary principle is its definition.
Our first introduction to the precautionary principle may have come from our mothers who told us it was better to be "safe rather than sorry", meaning we should buckle our seatbelts and throw out the left over food we forgot to refrigerate the night before.
To the Editor:
Greenpeace, having succeeded in terrorizing Europeans about genetically modified (GM) food ingredients, is now flexing its muscles in the United States.(Gerber Baby Food, Grilled by Greenpeace, Plans Swift Overhaul; July 30,1999) Its target is not really food manufacturers, but American parents of infants and young children.
The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) today announced the addition of nine distinguished scientists, physicians, and policy experts to its Board of Directors. Directors are responsible for the overall direction of ACSH, such as setting organizational policy and overseeing the executive staff.
The new directors are:
Terry L. Anderson, Ph.D., M.S. Executive Director Political Economy Research Center (PERC) Bozeman, MT
Dr. Anderson's career in law and environmental economics enables his providing insight to ACSH on such issues.
Most of the recent press coverage of the Jenna and Barbara Bush under-age drinking incident has missed the main point: Making it a crime for a 19 year old to buy an alcoholic beverage is not only unrealistic and absurd but it may be an underlying cause of today's serious problem of alcohol abuse on college campuses.
Prohibiting the sale of liquor to responsible young adults creates an atmosphere where binge drinking and alcohol abuse have become a problem. American teens, unlike their European peers, don't learn how to drink gradually, safely and in moderation.
"Canola oil," Rodney W. Flynn apparently said in a message that recently circulated on the Internet, "is a health hazard to use as a cooking oil or salad oil. It is not the healthy oil we thought it was. It is not fit for human consumption, do not eat canola oil, it can hurt you. Polyunsaturated or not, this is a bad oil." Yet in an email response to a question from me, Flynn said of this message: "I am no authority on the subject. As a matter of fact, I did no research.
Humankind has been consuming cows' milk as nourishment for thousands of years. Such use has contributed significantly to the development of civilization. Yet outcries to the effect that cows' milk as food is unhealthful, even poisonous, to humans have occasionally been getting play in the American media. The roots of this incongruity are complex. They lie in the culture of abundance that characterizes the present-day United States. Much of the negativism toward milk relates far less to health concerns than to antagonism toward animal agriculture.
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. Understandably, Americans are very concerned and fearful about cancer and would welcome sound information on how to reduce the risk of the various forms of this disease. In an attempt to fill that need, some 20 years ago Congress passed a law requiring the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to publish a biennial report telling American consumers what is known or suspected to cause human cancer. The DHHS delegated that responsibility to the National Toxicology Program (NTP).
Health news can be confusing especially when it comes to nutrition. It often seems as though what's touted as good to eat on Tuesday is out of favor by Friday. And it seems to be happening again with the most favored food groups fruits and vegetables. Although numerous epidemiological studies support the concept that consumption of ample amounts of these foods can help protect against various types of cancer, a study in the February 14 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) finds no such benefit, at least with respect to breast cancer.
Hair analysis is an ostensibly diagnostic procedure that is a major part of alternative medicine. Among promoters of alt-med, those likelier to proffer hair analysis are chiropractors, naturopaths, physicians who routinely use chelation therapy, practitioners of orthomolecular medicine, persons who style themselves "nutrition consultants," and companies that provide laboratory services directly to the public.
For What Might Hair Analysis Be Useful?
Overview: Questions and Answers on AIDS in New York City
By Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan
President, ACSH
Question 1
"Flip Little Article"?
Dear Dr. [sic] Raso,
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Introduction
Strategies proposed to address smoking-related health consequences in the United States have spurred heated political debate. Bridging the Ideological Divide: An Analysis of Views on Tobacco Policy Across the Political Spectrumexamines attitudes on the issue of tobacco as found in published statements by columnists, publications, organizations and politicians from ideological camps on the political left and political right.
Pagination
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