ACSH staffers this morning lauded Los Angeles Times writer Elena Conis for her comprehensive and informative article on the many benefits of food irradiation, an effective yet underused method of preventing food-borne infection that has been around for the last century.
Search
The FDA has all but approved a genetically modified salmon for human consumption, but the politics of the fish s introduction to the open market is proving tricky. On Wednesday, the House voted to prohibit the FDA from approving the salmon, which was engineered by the Massachusetts company Aquabounty to reach market size in half the time of conventional salmon.
The Environmental Working Group s (EWG) most recent alarmist Dirty Dozen list is meant to scare folks about the trace levels of pesticides on fruits and vegetables especially apples. Why? See Dr. Joe Schwarcz s smart riposte.
Every now and then, a new study turns up warning consumers that diet soda is too good to be true.
Smokers with children should be aware of a new study linking both ear infections and asthma to secondhand smoke in the home. In their study, just published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, Dr. Summer S. Hawkins and Dr. Lisa Berkman of the Harvard Center for Population and Developmental Studies looked at data collected from over 90,000 parents of children up to 17 years of age in the 2007 National Survey of Children s Health.
A newly published study in the Lancet lends more support to the CDC s recommendation that girls as young as 11 and 12 should be vaccinated for human papillomavirus (HPV). In their study, Dr. Julia Brotherton and colleagues reported a nearly 50 percent decrease in precancerous cervical lesions in girls age 12 to 17, two years after Australia introduced a nation-wide HPV vaccination program.
Josh Bloom, Medical Progress Today Spotlight Feature, 6/24/11
How Far We ve Come in the Battle Against AIDS
In welcome news for the people of Kenya, a set of new laws will allow the production and importation of genetically modified (GM) crops. Kenyans have been suffering the effects of a long drought on food supplies, with price spikes and malnutrition becoming frequent problems due to grain deficits.
With two-thirds of U.S. adults and one-third of children either obese or overweight, public health officials are scrambling to come up with solutions to this growing problem. Calorie labels, which will be instituted nationwide in chain restaurants next year as part of ObamaCare legislation, have already been in place in New York for the past two years.
Neither the chemicals that leach in tiny amounts from plastics, nor the so-called radiation from your cell phone threatens your health as much as the simple act of sitting may. While news media and activists peddle the former two scenarios as grave public health threats, the latter is actually more detrimental, since a sedentary lifestyle increases obesity and significantly increases your likelihood of cancer and death.
In May, the world marveled at news that early anti-retroviral treatment of those who are HIV-positive reduced the chance of one partner infecting another by over 96 percent. Now, in a new study led by Dr.
Despite repeated requests for sensible modifications to the stringent restrictions on lead in products that might be used by children, as mandated by the 2008 Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), no such easing is forthcoming.
While physicians may be used to screening their diabetic patients for numerous complications associated with the disease, up until now they ve had few reasons to expect to see hearing loss in these patients. However, in a meta-analysis of 13 studies comprising over 20,000 subjects, and which may be the first to quantify the association between diabetes and hearing loss, Dr.
The parliament in Reykjavik, Iceland is considering some radical tobacco legislation: banning the sale of cigarettes from the usual retail outlets and allowing only pharmacies to sell them. As part of a 10-year plan, cigarettes would be legal to purchase only from pharmacies to those over the age of 20; eventually, only those with a doctor s prescription would be allowed to buy them.
As health care costs steadily rise, some people try to cut corners by splitting pills or holding on to certain medications past their expiration date but are such practices safe? An article in yesterday s Los Angeles Times provides readers with some guidance to these questions and offers useful tips that may help save some money at the pharmacy.
Two studies published in the Archives of Internal Medicine demonstrate that cardiovascular exercise may not only help skim inches off your waistline, but it may also stave off the onset of cognitive decline as you age. Led by Dr.
Bowing to government scrutiny and public concerns fueled by advocacy groups, McDonald s took steps today to make children s Happy Meals happier by boosting nutritional content while reducing calorie and sodium content. "Fast foods have long been the easy bull s-eye of the current obesity epidemic," notes ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross, and we have long advocated that fast food should not be demonized as bad food, and indeed can be incorporated into a balanced diet.
USA Today reports that a group referring to themselves as doctors wants NASCAR fans to stop eating hot dogs and race to a vegan diet.
After 20 years of intense research, the first two antiviral drugs (protease inhibitors) to treat hepatitis C, bocepravir (Victrelis, Merck) and telaprevir (Incivek, Vertex) were approved by the FDA one week apart. Incivek, the more potent of the two, may become the preferred first-line therapy for a disease that affects 4.5 million Americans, and as many as 200 million people worldwide. The infection, if left untreated, causes gradual deterioration of the liver, leading to cirrhosis, cancer, and end-stage liver disease.
As a rule, diabetic patients have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease. Now, the results of a study published in Archives of Internal Medicine suggest that a patient s blood level of glyco-hemoglobin (HbA1c, an indicator of long-term blood glucose control) might be a more precise indicator of that risk. What s more, if these study results are applicable, HbA1c level could also be used as a predictor of cardiovascular disease risk for non-diabetic patients.
Josh Bloom, National Review Online July 21, 2011
The CDC vs. Life-Saving Vaccines
Should a child s morbid obesity be classified as abuse and neglect on the part of the parents, and thus grounds for state interventions like moving a child to foster care? According to the authors of a commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the answer is yes. Harvard School of Public Health s Dr. Lindsey Murtagh and Dr. David S.
Researchers at the School of Medicine at West Virginia University have violated every tenet of sound epidemiology, says ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross, in their attempt to link levels of a chemical used to make teflon-like surfaces to arthritis among a population of people exposed to the tainted water.
On his TobaccoAnalysis blog, Dr. Michael Siegel, a professor in the department of community health sciences at Boston University s School of Public Health, criticizes the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC) for failing once again to make a recommendation to the FDA regarding a possible ban on menthol cigarettes.
A New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) perspective piece on electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) would have you believe that FDA-approved cessation methods like the patch are a superior means of quitting smoking compared to e-cigarettes and, therefore, smokers should not rely on these relatively new electronic devices to kick the habit. But as ACSH s Dr.
Pagination
ACSH relies on donors like you. If you enjoy our work, please contribute.
Make your tax-deductible gift today!