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Our children face a wide range of health and safety risks these days: choking, fentanyl poisoning and school shootings, just to name a few. But put aside such paltry concerns because Consumer Reports (CR) has identified the real threat to your kids: Lunchables. These safe, affordable prepackaged meals may actually expose your children to potentially harmful levels of lead, the activist group claims. As usual, CR is pushing a baseless health scare to raise money.

With Chevron dismembered and deference to agency determinations now dismantled, agency heads are quaking. Allowing judicial intervention in an agency’s medical or scientific decisions is undoubtedly, disconcerting. However, while it's not time to rend our garments, an alert is prudent.

Discussions about eating disorders and dietary supplements have been gaining traction, both on the internet and among policymakers. Last year, a review published in a peer-reviewed journal made the rounds among supplement makers and lobbyists. Since the article is being touted as evidence that supplements don’t contribute to eating disorders, a dive into the article is warranted.

Ready for another magical weight-loss miracle update? Welcome to my world, shedding weight with semaglutide — where every ounce counts and every worry multiplies.

The CMS's End-Stage Renal Disease Treatment Choices model, launched in 2021, aimed to address disparities in transplantation and the use of home dialysis with financial incentives. However, after two years, the expected improvements in home dialysis and transplantation rates have yet to materialize.

The FDA recently banned brominated vegetable oil (BVO), an emulsifier used in citrus-flavored sodas to keep flavor oils evenly distributed. BVO has been replaced by safer alternatives due to potential health risks, which may be valid. A visit from Steve and Irving and The Dreaded Chemistry Lesson From Hell (Yay!) will explain what's going on.

Free speech purists were likely surprised and greatly disappointed by last week’s 6-3 Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ruling in Murthy v. Missouri. Relying on the staunchly conservative court to give them cover, the plaintiffs miscast government advice to social media (SM) platforms about false and dangerous COVID-19 “health” messages as illegitimate interference, coercion, and – horrors! –censorship!  The majority rejected that argument outright.

Plant-based meat alternatives are those mysterious concoctions made from legumes, grains, and fungi, which promise to save the planet and your arteries. Let's cut through the kale and quinoa: Are these trendy meat impostors good for your heart, or is it just another bout of health food hysteria?

From Slow Boring, the question burns:
Are "ultra-processed" foods where obesity concerns turn?
Magicians weave tricks with swift sleight.
Our solar story, finite and brief.
Kids Online Safety, a call to arms,
To shield our youth from digital harms.

Thank God for the Supreme Court. If not for their reversal of the Chevron doctrine, we would continue to be subject to the regulatory whims of a faceless, often agenda-driven, unelected bureaucracy. With a sweep of its magisterial pen, the justices have turned over the fine details that Congress in its infinite wisdom avoids, to – wait for it – a largely faceless, often agenda-driven, unelected judiciary.

Happy Independence Day! Let's celebrate by mocking a bunch of idiots who played (hilariously) with explosive devices. It's all on video, frame by frame. Enjoy some yuks.

First, it was our gas stoves. Now washers and tumble dryers join the eco-menaces, spewing microplastics into our water and air. Is it time to rethink our laundry habits? (Spoiler alert: probably not).

A new report from the National Transportation Safety Board is highly critical of Norfolk Southern's handling of the 2023 derailment. The railroad made a terrible decision to burn off the vinyl chloride in five railcars. Chemistry explains why the cure was far worse than the disease.

Is Big Pharma crying wolf over Medicare's new drug pricing negotiations? Will diminished revenue from Medicare negotiating their cost of drugs, and other drug pricing controls, result in reduced research and development (R&D) and fewer innovative drugs coming to market? But let's not kid ourselves — this narrative conveniently ignores the labyrinthine economics of drug pricing and innovation.

Despite the staggering amounts Americans spend annually, the latest study involving nearly 400,000 participants suggests those colorful multivitamins might be more of a wallet-drainer than a life-saver.

Last month, a Delaware judge undid the 30 years of progress the law has made in excluding junk science in the courtroom.

Holden Thorp, editor of the once-prestigious academic journal 'Science,' has made many strange claims in recent years, including the assertion that anybody involved in or adjacent to science (a journalist, policy wonk and perhaps even an activist) is actually a scientist. ACSH's Dr. Henry Miller calls shenanigans.

C. diff is a horrible disease that can cause significant morbidity. It can and often does recur and kills around 30,000 Americans every year. We have made progress in prevention and treatment, but clearly there's more to do.

This week, two tales of Chinatown's lore,
One on ultra-processed media we abhor,
And a tribute to a food fav, the potato.

The state of New York gave itself high praise for “making significant progress in reducing new high-risk exposures to opioid prescriptions.” I call BS. It did nothing of the sort — just more of the same stale lies and misleading statistics we've seen from the CDC and others who continue to exploit this fallacy.

The Supreme Court is poised to decide a case that may seriously restrict the authority of federal regulatory agencies. Some legal observers say the decision could put power-hungry bureaucrats in their place, though others maintain the ruling could force judges and legislators to make scientific determinations they aren't qualified to make. Legal scholar Dr. Barbara Billauer joins us to help make sense of the "Chevron deference."

In 2013, the American Heart Association (AHA) thought it had heart disease prevention all figured out with their trusty "risk calculator." Fast forward a decade to the new and improved PREVENT equations, promising to reflect a more diverse and current U.S. population. While the old calculator had us popping statins like candy, the new equations suggest many of us might not need them after all. Welcome to the latest chapter in the never-ending saga of heart health guidelines.

Lars Larson and I discuss the future of American biotechnology.

Russia has been aggressively trying clandestinely for years to interfere with American elections and to damage U.S. economic interests, national security, and public health. Examples include election interference, discouraging vaccine uptake, promoting opposition to genetic engineering, and sowing social divisiveness.

Influencers are not new, but their popularity has exploded since the advent of social media. They have become an easy place to go for health advice and recommendations, but that’s not necessarily good.