Walter Olson's July 18 editorial-page commentary "The Runaway Jury Is No Myth" describes many lines of attack that tobacco lawyers will pursue as they appeal the landmark Engle tobacco verdict. Mr. Olson's uncompromising support of each of the tobacco industry's positions, one more erroneous than the next, leads one to question whether any verdict that would hold the companies responsible for their misconduct would sit well with him.
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The topic of today's quiz is "Ethical Quandaries of Two New York Journalists in the Supermarket Produce Aisle." The first is John Stossel of ABC's "20/20," who did a report earlier this year comparing organic produce with regular produce. Most of it reflected conventional wisdom among scientists: organic food has no nutritional advantages and poses a greater risk of bacterial contamination because it is grown in manure.
Earlier this week, Vice President and Presidential hopeful Al Gore declared a "war" on cancer. He promised to double federal spending on cancer research and make "a flood" of new cancer treatments and tests available to all Americans who need them. He promised that, "if I am entrusted with the presidency, I will work with you to put the same energy and priority into fighting cancer that we would put into preventing a war that could take 500,000 American lives every year." Raising not only the stakes but our expectations, the Vice President claimed that, "we can win this war."
Last week on the ABC program 20/20, environmental and consumer reporter John Stossel offered a public apology to his viewers.
Only half of Americans and few scientists believe in alternative medicine, but we're all paying to study it.
From a relatively small $2 million per year operation in 1992, called the Office of Alternative Medicine, a behemoth has grown now known as NCCAM, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Its funding has grown even more rapidly than the popularity of alternative medicine has and is now soaring over $100 million a year.
WASHINGTON, March 20 /PRNewswire/ The American Council on Science and Health, Center for Global Food Issues, Citizens for the Integrity of Science, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Consumer Alert, and National Center for Public Policy Research sent the following letter to Mr. Orin Smith, President and CEO of Starbucks Corporation today, signed by Steven J. Milloy, Citizens for the Integrity of Science; Elizabeth M.
To the Editor:
The Personal Health column on Dec.5 correctly notes the potential of genetically-improved food to help feed the world while reducing the need for pesticides ("Gene-Altered Foods: A Case Against Panic"). Genetic engineering is thoroughly regulated by at least three separate federal agencies. Scientific data reveal no cases of any human illness from GM foods, despite over four years of common use.
Philip Morris's opposition to the use of genetically modified tobacco in cigarettes ("Tobacco Fracas in Argentina," page B1, March 7) raises an interesting issue. It appears that Philip Morris's primary concern is that consumers' irrational fear of genetically modified products will supersede most smokers' irrational tolerance of the proven health risks of smoking.
Nine years of good TV and bad science is coming to an end. The X-Files has been cancelled and will end in May.
It was the best science fiction TV series of all time, with better acting, writing, and above all cinematography than any of its kin. True, when it started it had the second-rate feel of one of those syndicated series shot in Canada that only appears in late-night timeslots, sort of like Tales from the Darkside, but it grew into something much more polished and much more influential.
Some reports in the media have suggested that sexual activity increases the risk of prostate cancer. "The evidence, however, is still far from conclusive," says Carmen Rodriguez, MD, MPH, senior epidemiologist and director of the Lifelink Blood Collection Study for the ACS. Dr. Rodriguez believes that there is no consistency in the research. "It is an interesting and possible real association," Rodriguez notes, "but not an established risk factor."
Tattooing and body piercing are somewhat trendy now, having gained popularity in the 1990s. However, these forms of "body modification/body art" are anything but new. Both have been around since ancient times and are practiced in many cultures. Although their popularity attests that millions of customers feel both procedures are worth doing, there are some potential risks and complications.
Tattooing
The following letter from ACSH's medical director appeared in today's Wall Street Journal
To the Editor:
Did mysterious fumes from the World Trade Center disaster leave firefighters, aid workers, and others with debilitating, lifelong diseases? Or might the people involved suffer from nothing more than a combination of smoke inhalation, flu symptoms, and (quite understandable) stress? It's too soon to say, but already hype about mysterious illnesses is spreading in the press. Witness last month's Associated Press report by Malcolm Ritter.
Food allergies afflict perhaps 2-2.5% of the U.S. population or 6-7 million individuals. The symptoms can range from comparatively mild reactions such as hives, itching, and gastrointestinal distress to life-threatening reactions such as laryngeal edema (throat swelling), asthma, and anaphylactic shock. An estimated 29,000 Americans visit emergency rooms each year as the result of inadvertent ingestion of foods to which they are allergic; an estimated 150-200 deaths from food allergies occur each year in the U.S. also.
The story of the man-breasts was not the first sign that an anti-Aspartame paranoia campaign was growing.
I must confess that my own dear mother recently expressed concern about the sweetener Aspartame, found in many diet sodas, after hearing the testimonials of some daytime talk show guests, who attributed their aches and pains to the substance. The show even inspired my mother to give up diet soda.
It's time to get things straight in the crooked world of illegal drugs. As a parent of a son who occasionally experiments with illegal substances such as marijuana and "ecstasy," I fear most two events: (1) a phone call from a hospital emergency room saying that he is dead or dying, and (2) his becoming addicted to a drug that ruins his career, relationships, and health.
Steve Milloy in his weekly Foxnews.com column, commenting on conflicting NCI mammography advice:
"What's a woman even her physician to make of this? Is this the National Cancer Institute or the National Confusion Institute?"
The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) urges the U.S. Postal Service to consider using irradiation technology to sanitize mail and thus protect workers and the public from bioterrorism. ACSH is a public health consortium of over 350 leading physicians and scientists.
A national panel of public health scientists has declared that childhood vaccinations are safe and has urged Americans to continue to protect their children's health by immunizing them against common childhood diseases.
You can't blame parents for erring "on the safe side" when it comes to their children's health. Unfortunately, parents aren't always good judges of what the "safe side" is.
A recent increase in fear of vaccinations is a case in point. The journal Pediatrics reports that parents' philosophical and religious objections to vaccinations have been a factor in most of the tetanus cases encountered in a Stanford study. A growing number of parents have also become concerned about extremely rare side effects from vaccinations and are choosing not to vaccinate their children.
We don't necessarily agree with everything on these sites, but they're generally pro-science, and we like having them around (and for more links, see: http://www.acsh.org/about/pageID.14/default.asp ):
AgBioWorld: Dedicated to bringing agricultural biotech to the developing world.
http://agbioworld.org/
Blogborygmi.com: Nick Genes and company.
We learned last weekend in a front-page New York Times story that the United States poultry industry has quietly begun to "bow to the demands of public health and consumer groups" by significantly reducing the use of antibiotics that are fed to healthy chickens. Antibiotics have been used for decades as a means of preventing infection in chickens and promoting an accelerated pattern of growth.
Is this move in the interest of promoting public health? And will consumers pay a price for the elimination of these chemicals?
Although popular women's magazines state that they have a commitment to general health coverage, they fail to cover the number one cause of cancer death in women lung cancer according to a new study by the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH). Further, women's magazines publish a significant number of cigarette advertisements, while neglecting to include basic information on the negative health-related consequences of cigarette smoking.
The first issue of Priorities: For Long Life and Good Health was published in l988, with a mandate to fill an information gap left by popular health magazines specifically, to assist consumers in distinguishing between real health risks and phantom ones.
Pagination
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