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Just last week, the first ultrasound device to improve breast cancer detection in women with dense breasts won FDA approval.

In 1999, ACSH assembled a Blue Ribbon Panel of physicians and scientists, chaired by former Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop. The panel, after a thorough review of the literature, gave two members of the family of chemicals known as phthalates a clean bill of health. Phthalates (pronounced thal-ates) are used to soften plastics, which would otherwise be hard and brittle.

When The Pill was developed back in the early 1960s, medical and social philosophers predicted a sexual revolution, as reproductive and sexual fulfillment were, it seemed, finally untied from each other. However, complications ensued.

Last month, ACSH s Dr.

In 2008, nearly 215,000 men in the U.S. were diagnosed with prostate cancer and 28,000 died from the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control. That makes it the second most common cause of cancer death in men (after lung cancer), but it is often difficult to accurately determine what if any treatment is the best option.

In addition to voting for president, this election season residents of California will be determining the fate of Proposition 37, which would mandate the labeling of foods that contain genetically engineered ingredients.

In what ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross calls one of the worst studies ever, a team of researchers from the University of Texas School of Public Health reported in the Journal of Pediatrics that exposure to a widely used herbicide during pregnancy may raise the risk of a birth defect.

A new weight-loss program for kids has shown promising results and we re pleased to note that the program did not involve reducing the participants dietary levels of BPA. In fact, as Dr. Whelan observes, the pilot program for kids relied on entirely rational methods.

And while we re on the topic of BPA, we d like to applaud ACSH colleague Jon Entine s recent exposé of the disconnect between public relations and scientific evidence that has resulted from uninformed public outcry over the chemical.

Recently, the Ministry of Health in New Zealand moved to ban Hydro, a popular brand of electronic cigarette. In response, Dr. Murray Laugesen, founder of Health New Zealand, called for the Ministry to review its policy on electronic cigarettes, as such a ban is against the public s particularly smokers best interests.
In his open letter, Dr. Laugesen draws attention to a number of key points. As he points out,

In the past decade, according to a study sponsored by Prevent Blindness America and the National Eye Institute, there has been a nearly 90 percent increase in the incidence of diabetic retinopathy an often progressive condition caused by tiny hemorrhages in the small arteries of the retina. In fact, diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness among adults in America.

Portland, Oregon, whose residents have long resisted fluoridating city drinking water, will finally be joining the twentieth century in tooth decay prevention. (Yes, fluoridated drinking water became an official policy of the U.S. Public Health Service in 1951.) Just yesterday, the City Council approved a plan to add fluoride to Portland s water by March of 2014.

Flu shots can stop you from getting the flu. Can they also stop you from having a heart attack?

Adding confusion to the already-confusing world of dietary supplements, a new study published in the British Medical Journal compared the incidence of strokes in people who ate fish with those who took fish oil supplements.

Although chelation has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat heavy metal poisoning such as from lead or mercury a growing number of alternative medicine practitioners have been promoting its off-label use as a means of treating diseases such as autism and heart disease.

A new study from JAMA shows that when initial findings about experimental drugs or devices sound too good to be true, they probably are. Stanford University researchers statistically analyzed nearly 230,000 trials compiled from a variety of disciplines.

ACSH has long maintained that mandatory flu vaccines for health care workers is one of the best ways to reduce the toll of seasonal influenza, which kills between 3,000 and 50,000 Ame

Patients with type 2 diabetes taking a widely prescribed drug are suffering more heart attacks, strokes and deaths than those taking another common treatment, according to a startling new study that raises the question whether the drug is dangerous.

This may be the first and last time you ll hear us praise Vladimir Putin in the annals of Dispatch. But thanks to the Russian president, a personal fitness buff, the Kremlin seems poised to finally crack down on cigarette smoking.

Are you among the majority of people who dread having a colonoscopy? Well then here s some good news for you. A new study suggests having the procedure done just once in a lifetime may be enough for most people.

This may seem obvious to say, but stress can be detrimental to your body no matter the cause. Unemployment is certainly one such stressor and now those who are unemployed may have even more reason to stress out. A study led by Matthew Dupre at Duke University found that being unemployed may actually increase your risk of having a heart attack.

Putting patients medical records online may not be such a good way to cut down on unnecessary doctors visits and calls to the office. A new study published in Journal of the American Medical Association indicates that patients who have access to their medical records online and can email their doctor make more appointments and use the emergency room more often than those who don t log on.

Medicare patients often receive repeated tests for which repetition is not routine, according to researchers who are worried that automatic or needless repeated tests not only sap finances from an already hard-pressed healthcare economy, but sometimes lead to adverse effects. Moreover, repetitive screening often finds abnormalities of no consequence but requiring yet further follow-up (over-diagnosis).

Last year over 300,000 U.S. teenage girls gave birth a decrease over previous years, but still a rate higher than any other developed country. Now the American Academy of Pediatrics says pediatricians should routinely give teen girls prescriptions for emergency contraception, commonly known as the morning after pill, such as Teva Pharmaceutical s Plan B One-Step.