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We at ACSH are heartened to know that America has gotten a little safer this week.
Self-proclaimed vaccine expert Jenny McCarthy will soon become a co-host on The View, where she will no doubt be sharing her medical acumen with millions of people who will devour every word.

While scientists around the world advocate for adult and childhood immunizations to counter the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases, many pediatricians are also doing their part to discourage parents from refusing to vaccinate their children.

A recent Los Angeles Times headline reads, Breast cancer: Pollution link remains hazy but upon reading the whole article, readers will soon realize that no actual link exists, says Dr. Ross. Reporter Jill U.

Perhaps spurred by last week s seismic announcement by Sage Publications that it was retracting 60(!) papers from one of their journals, Science 2.0 founder Hank Campbell wrote a scathing

ACSH is proud to announce the latest installment of its annual publication, The Top Ten Unfounded Health Scares. Before we officially ring in 2012, we d like to reflect on the most popularized yet most inaccurate health scares of the past year. From Dr. Oz s nonsense arsenic and apple juice scare to unfounded fears of eating supposedly contaminated Gulf seafood, ACSH debunks these allegations and more. Click here for the full list.

Junk science is everywhere. This is why our mission is so important. If journalists and advocates don't speak up for good science, cranks and quacks will take over. As part of our ongoing effort to eradicate nonsense, here's our list of the top junk science stories we debunked this year.

"Fake news" has become a meme — and it's all over the Internet. For example, take a look at a site that claims to provide real evidence that aspartame is carcinogenic in humans. Not only does it cite old data, it has picked a study whose authors don't agree with them. Can you get much more fake than that?

Only about 37% of American adults bothered to get a flu shot this past flu season. That's actually a decrease from the previous season, when about 43% got one. Partially as a result, 80,000 Americans died from the flu. On the flip side, we did buy more organic food than ever before.

The US government s most comprehensive examination of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and drinking water, which spanned four years, concluded that fracking, as it is being carried out and regulated, is not a threat to drinking water.

Here are our top 5 quacks from this year.

The phrase sugar is poison, fructose is toxic, is incorrect, says Dr. David Katz, the Director of the Yale Prevention Research Center

Anyone who believes that vaccines cause autism shouldn't be in a position of authority. The fundamental problem with someone making such a claim is not that s/he is wrong. Instead, it reveals someone who's conspiratorially minded and lacks critical thinking skills. That's not the sort of person who should be in charge of anything important.

The link between autism and mercury has once again been debunked. Researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center conducted a large cohort study involving mothers and children in the Seychelles,

The uptake of the current COVID vaccine is running at about 7% of the U.S. population. Pfizer is taking a significant write-off. After the pandemic, our trust in vaccinations has reached a nadir. It's a far cry from our behavior concerning smallpox in 1947 when, over eight days, over 4 million New Yorkers were vaccinated. Or compared to 1961, when 90% of the at-risk population got vaccinated against polio.

Unless it's a strategic resource, like food, energy, or science, we're all for letting the free market find the best solution. If supplement hucksters can have an easier time in a dictatorship like China, this is one time we should have no problem letting communism win.

ACSH staffers were pleased to encounter a variety of pieces defending vaccines as a vital public health practice. A book review in today’s The New York Times, for instance, features an excellent work by informed consumer and Vanity Fair Contributing Editor Seth Mnookin. The Times’ Dr.

Preservatives help keep our food supply safe and reduce food waste. Apparently, Panera Bread is unaware of this.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, an activist group known for nuisance lawsuits related to health issues and scaremongering just about every food in the modern world, wants the Department of Agriculture to put warning labels on bacon. Yes, bacon.

New York Times columnist Mark Bittman isn t content just to scare people on food issues he s now branched out into other topics. Today he writes in The Cosmetics Wars, about how American consumers are purportedly covering their faces, lips and hair with a long list of toxins.
Some 400 hair dyes and lipsticks contain lead ¦ you might not want to kiss your kids if you re wearing lead-tainted lipstick, Bittman warns.

Another blogger voice is adding fuel to the anti-vaccine movement. Sharyl Attkisson, an investigative journalist, reports the findings of

A big shoutout to ACSH advisor (and junk science debunker extraordinaire) Dr. Geoffrey Kabat for his recent Forbes op-ed entitled What Is Really At Stake In The House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology Subpoena Of EPA Data.

We tend to associate vaccines with prevention of acute illness — which they're quite good at. But future benefits can also accrue to the vaccinated, such as prevention of shingles in those who have avoided chicken pox, and escaping measles-engendered encephalitis.

The leaves are turning beautiful colors, the air is crisp and pumpkin spice lattes are back. Simply put, moving from September into October could perhaps be the best time of the year. But no matter how much fun we're having on the side, we never lose our focus on defending good science. Here's where we appeared in recent weeks.

In ACSH s recent publication, The Top Ten Unfounded Health Scares of 2011, hydraulic fracturing (better known as fracking) made the list. Alhough our report debunked the various unfounded accusations that this method of natural gas extraction has received, it seems as though The New York Times failed to get the message.

Antioxidant supplements may actually cause more harm than good for cancer patients, according to an article in the current issue of the American Cancer Society's CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.