Last week Senator Bill Frist made headlines with his apparent turnabout in favor of federal funding for research using embryonic stem cells (ESC) -- a break with the policy of President Bush. Almost all proponents of ESC (potentially far more flexible and thus conducive someday to far more treatments than adult stem cells) saw this as terrific news, while opponents -- including a full spectrum of religious groups and social conservatives -- characterized Frist as a traitor. But Frist may not have changed enough to keep him from stifling ESC after all.
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It might be nice if all scientific debates were conducted quietly, with no media attention to them at all. Instead, we get varying levels of media attention, each bringing a different degree of distortion to the underlying facts (as a random grab-bag of odd science and health stories from 2005 remind us) but occasionally offering enlightenment:
A new study by E.G. Knox of the University of Birmingham (UK) claims children who were born near "emissions hotspots" (bus stations, train stations, and other transportation hubs) are at greater risk for childhood cancers than those who were born farther away.
A July 7, 2005 article by Gary White on the website of the Florida newspaper The Ledger noted some customers' fear-driven purchases of organic milk but also quoted ACSH Advisor Thomas G. Baumgartner's reassurances about conventional milk:
September 21, 2005--New York, New York. The public, press, and regulators alike are not well-equipped to weigh pharmaceutical benefits against pharmaceutical risks, leading to an unnecessary climate of fear. So says a new report from the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH), a non-profit health education group.
A new ad by US orange juice promoters tries to scare consumers away from "chemical-packed" rivals
By Elizabeth M. Whelan, Sc.D., M.P.H.
Posted: Monday, September 12, 2005
When can a supplement do more harm than good? When it's taken by smokers, in some cases. At least, that's what the latest data suggest about beta-carotene. Beta-carotene is a compound found in a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. In the early 1990s, some animal studies and small, observational human studies suggested that beta-carotene, as an antioxidant, might have cancer-preventive properties. Then, in 1994, a large study of heavy smokers suggested that beta-carotene slightly increased their risk of lung cancer (1).
This article originally appeared on Spiked-Online.com.
Last week's news that a jury found the pharmaceutical company Merck negligent in its marketing of the painkiller Vioxx, awarding $229 million in punitive damages, is bad news for all consumers who hope that pharmaceutical companies will continue to develop new drugs -- to address not only their aches and pains but life-threatening conditions like cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.
As an economic development expert, I have written about and been an advisor on disaster relief. Now that there is a major disaster close to home and very much in the news, it might be a good idea to outline some basic principles of disaster intervention. Ironically, since the effects of Hurricane Katrina are so close at hand for us in Houston, many of the established rules of intervention -- which hinge on recognizing the distinction between local knowledge and the desire by distant donors to grant assisitance -- can be violated, but it is still important to know the general rules.
Last night I attended a book party for a colleague here in New York. In the course of mixing with other guests, I met the host's best friend from college -- let's call the friend Joe. Joe told me he was a film producer, a graduate of an Ivy League school, and a long-term resident of New York City.
After Friday's suit by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer demanding that snack food companies put warning labels on foods such as potato chips and French fries because of the chemical acrylamide found in them, it's worth taking a look back at the calmer comment sent by ACSH Nutrition Director Dr. Ruth Kava to California's Office of Health Hazard Assessment about acrylamide:
We told you so. We told you some recent health scares were groundless or exaggerated, and a couple recent headlines are reminders we were correct:
1) "No allergy problems from GM corn or soy: study"http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050831/hl_nm/gm_study_dc
We told you so, here:
Biotechnology and Food (September, 2000)http://www.acsh.org/publications/pubID.289/pub_detail.asp
In the words of Carl Sagan: "We've arranged a global civilization in which most critical elements depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster."
An article by John Luik on TechCentralStation November 2, 2005 noted the opposition of ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan to California Attorney General Bill Lockyer's crusade against foods containing acrylamide:
Ah, the contrast! Last night, I was lucky enough to attend Popular Mechanics magazine's 2005 Breakthrough Awards, a reminder that wonderful things that benefit human health are still being invented all the time.
Results of a two-year study involving over 12,000 women indicate that an experimental vaccine has proven highly effective at preventing cervical cancer and precancerous cervical lesions.
Imagine that you fear you may have a life-threatening disease. Imagine now that this disease is almost always contracted through sexual activity or illicit drug use. Imagine that the stigma attached to this disease is so great that you fear running into someone you know at the doctor's office or wherever you can go to get the test. Would you be more likely to present yourself at a crowded public health clinic to take a diagnostic test, or would you be happier to just take the test in the privacy of your own home?
Re "The Senator Surgeon Explains Himself," a box in "Fighting for Their Lives" (Sept. 5): Senator Frist continues to express his belief that the human embryo has moral significance. He has recently argued, however, that the federal government should fund research involving embryos left over from in vitro fertilization procedures, since they are likely to be destroyed anyway and should be used toward a positive end. Interestingly, Frist has yet to urge the improvement of current IVF technologies to prevent the accumulation of surplus embryos in the first place.
A December 26, 2005 article by Lisa Ryckman in The Monitor quotes ACSH president Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, albeit a smidge condescendingly, on artificial sweeteners:
And what of cyclamates? That faux- sweetener saga began in 1937 with a discovery by chemistry graduate student Michael Sveda, who tasted something sweet on the cigarette he'd just stuck in his mouth while mucking about in the lab.
This article first appeared December 30, 2005 in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
Advocates of anti-science agendas keep trying to change physiological laws through litigation, regulation, and pressure on corporations. This is illustrated by three recent health news items that conspired to make me worry the world has finally gone crazy.
--First, there is Microsoft's plan to eliminate PVC plastics from their products over the next few years, due to "health concerns."
A Thursday, November 3, 2005 article by Linda Stahl in the Courier-Journal about fad diets such as Atkins quotes ACSH's Dr. Kava:
Ruth Kava, director of nutrition for the American Council on Science and Health, figures a new diet will come along that Americans will embrace.
"Self-help books have been around awhile. Plus maybe we have too much leisure time," she suggested. "It's human nature to want to find a quick fix."
A November 9, 2005 article by M.A.J. McKenna in the Pioneer Press about a possible cola-high blood pressure link quoted ACSH's Dr. Kava:
Other researchers who reviewed the study were more critical.
November 21 was the deadline for a response from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ACSH's lawsuit, filed by the Washington Legal Foundation. Ninety days earlier, we had requested an explanation for the discrepancy -- ostensibly forbidden by the Information Quality Act -- between EPA's regulations and the scientific information available to them.
A December 21, 2005 article by Catherine Donaldson-Evans notes the hopes of Dr. Gilbert Ross of ACSH that humanity will create a successful bird flu vaccine:
"Eventually, when you have migrations of birds, you re going to get some cases in North America," said Dr. Gilbert Ross, medical director at the American Council on Science and Health...
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