A recent study published in EMBO Reports provides the latest fuel for fear-mongering about chemicals. Dr. Christian Schiffer of the Center of Advanced European Studies and Research in Bonn, Germany and colleagues tested 96 different chemicals found in many household products, foods, and personal care products to see what effect they might have on human sperm.
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Golden Rice, a genetically engineered crop enriched with beta-carotene which the body can then convert to vitamin A, has the potential to prevent blindness in populations prone to vitamin A deficiency. The WHO
Dr. Gilbert Ross in the Ithaca Journal, April 24, 2014.
While cigarettes continue to kill a half-million Americans each year while holding 100-fold that number in
As we discussed here two months ago, Gilead s Sovaldi a revolutionary treatment that can actually cure hepatitis C was under attack for its cost ($1000 per daily pill for 12 weeks, or $84,000).
Atrial fibrillation (AF) prevalence is on the rise, increasing 13% over the last twenty years in the United States alone. Its incidence is expected to
Although he is still a still a journalism student at the University of New Haven, Brandon Bisceglia s op-ed on the Science 2.0 website is dead on, and well worth the read.
He begins, Philadelphia was under attack through the winter and spring of 1991.The name of the enemy? Measles. The Philadelphia outbreak the city s first since 1954 - began in October 1990, and quickly spread throughout the unvaccinated population. Within six months, 938 cases of the highly contagious disease had been reported to the city's health department.
ACSH friend (and the creator of the enormously popular Science 2.0 website) has the uncanny ability to sniff out bad (and hypocritical) science, and when he does, he is not shy about speaking his mind.
This time he goes after the radical environmental group Friends of the Earth, and by the time they read his piece they will not be Friends of Hank.
A recent judge ruling protects the public health of its local community by prohibiting unvaccinated students from attending school when another
It should come as no surprise to any of our readers that ACSH is unabashedly in favor of vaccinations, and appalled by groups and individuals that promote completely baseless and dangerous fears of vaccines. It is not a question of whether this paranoid mentality has cost lives, rather, how many children have died as a result of this ignorant, fearful mindset.
Last year, the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology announced its retraction of a study done by Giles-Eric Seralini and colleagues asserting that rats fed genetically-modified corn suffered significantly more malignant
Screen Shot 2014-05-29 at 1.07.00 PMAlthough Ashley Smith, writing in the Times-News, from Magic Valley, Idaho s agricultural heartland, makes some very good points about how to deal with GM food issues, she goes way off track later in the article.
A new survey of 1,000 adults finds widespread agreement with the FDA s position on (not) labeling food with GMO ingredients. It seems anti-biotech activists are just louder than everyone else but the public isn t buying it. Good for them.
As if parents of autistic children didn t have enough to contend with, now there s a pseudo-warning from the animal rights/vegan-promoting group PETA alleging that consumption of dairy products is linked to autism.
The pancreas of an individual with type 1 diabetes does not produce the hormone insulin, which is essential to allow body tissues to take up and use glucose from the blood. Before the discovery of insulin in the 1920s, such people had little chance of living a normal lifespan. And even with insulin injections, it is difficult to keep blood sugar within normal boundaries. Too little insulin, or insulin injected at the wrong time, could mean high blood sugar and later complications such as blindness and kidney failure. Conversely, too much insulin could mean hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), which in turn can lead to passing out a real threat if a person is driving, for example.
Many different drugs are available to help lower blood pressure, and lifestyle changes can also be important in controlling HTN. One important question is how low the target blood pressure should be or how low should it go?
We ve known for a long time that people can reduce their risk of cardiovascular events (heart attacks and strokes) if they habitually consume moderate amounts of alcoholic beverages no more than one or two standard drinks per day. But the data on stroke in particular have been somewhat inconclusive. Now a huge new meta-analysis demonstrates that some alcohol consumption may significantly reduce the risk of stroke.
First, the bad news. A report just published in The Lancet depicts a true obesity epidemic.
On a lighter and certainly brighter note, a new study published in the journal Obesity refutes the rather bizarre theory that diet beverages are linked to weight gain rather than weight loss.
The journal Environmental Health Perspectives publishes any study linking a chemical to any bad outcome. Today s junkpile: a poorly conceived, poorly analyzed, data-dredged propaganda piece which strains to find a link between pesticides and autism. And fails.
A new warning about the dangers of acne medicines is enough to make you break out into a rash. It is all over the news. Here are a few representative headlines:
"Acne products can cause dangerous side effects, FDA warns"
"FDA: Acne products can cause severe allergic reactions"
"FDA Warns Of Life-Threatening Reactions With Acne Products"
New York s highest court will hear arguments re: townships abilities to ban shale-gas exploration (fracking) via zoning ordinances. Fracking is safe and landowners rights to their own property are at stake. We hope the Court strikes down such bans. The State s moratorium is bad enough.
Preliminary study shows how manipulating the body s own immune system may lead to improvement, remission maybe cure in previously terminal cancer.
Taking medications appropriately, as prescribed by your doctor, is extremely important in not only ensuring that the medications are effective but also making sure that you avoid potentially serious
Chemicals pervade all aspects of our daily lives independent of the setting. Whether you are a city dweller or reside in a rural area, synthetic (as well as natural) chemicals encompass and sustain everyday life. Mark
Shouldn t the NYTimes Science section concern itself with, you know, science? Yet here s another toxic alarm from a well-known purveyor of scares about hypothetical chemical threats: this time it s flame retardants, again.
Of all the misconceptions we regularly deal with at ACSH, the mangling of cause and effect is way up there. Between the generally poor state of American scientific acumen and groups that have a vested interest in obfuscating the truth for their own purposes, we will never run out of topics.
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