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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.

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

Measles is a highly contagious viral infection that once burdened an average 53,000 people in the United States. As of 2000, officials

Why wouldn t consumers want to embrace a technology that could: Reduce the use of pesticides on crops; provide crops resistant to drought and high salinity in soil; enhance the nutritional value of foods; improve disease resistance in crops; prevent expansion of agriculture into marginal lands; allow the use of soil-conserving methods; and reduce the anti-nutrients in staple crops?

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.

Just what we don't need. Yet another study claiming that Advil plus Tylenol outperforms Vicodin. Lost in the sauce is that Vicodin was given in the lowest therapeutic dose while Advil and Tylenol were administered by steam shovel. Yawn.

I don't want to be a wet blanket about that Fitbit you got for Christmas is not going to make the difference.

One of the most beautiful aspects of science is that it transcends culture and language. Facts are facts, no matter if you speak English or German. That's why we are so happy to see that our work is being cited, not just across America, but all over the globe. Here's where the Council's impact has been felt in recent days.

People want to do what makes them feel good and – perhaps more importantly – makes them look righteous in the eyes of others. Going organic and avoiding straws accomplishes that moral grandstanding, and companies are happy to oblige in order to make a buck. And, in the process, the companies also look good. It's a win-win for everyone, except Mother Earth.

Postpartum depression of varying degrees is obviously real but it has everything to do with lack of sleep and an abundance of stress. It has nothing to do with whether or not a placenta was eaten. And the risks are not worth it, considering the case study of a child who got sepsis twice because of placenta pills showed.

They won t give up, no matter the science or the votes. Anti-technology activists opposed to genetically-engineered food were defeated at the ballot box in California last year, but they re not giving up.

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.

As the public health community began digesting the much anticipated new food pyramid last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to its credit, released a new study suggesting that previous obesity-related mortality estimations were grossly overstated and that, get this, being slightly overweight actually adds to longevity.

Author Steven Pinker's observation, that the world is less violent now than ever in human history, is probably true.

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.

DeSmogBlog, a climate activist website that ruthlessly smears scientists, is headed by Brendan DeMelle, an anti-vaxxer who helped RFK, Jr. write an infamous and since-retracted article linking vaccines to autism.

For a civilized nation, we can be mighty uncivilized. If you're a pain patient and cannot get the meds you need, you know this only too well. As Christmas wishes go, how about a return to sanity and compassion where people don't have to beg for relief? We have precious little or either right now. 
 

A proposed resolution by the New York State PTA, to be voted on at their November convention, supports mandatory labeling and a GMO ban from school food. The resolution, which is shocking coming from an organization that, is packed full of pseudoscientific thinking and anti-biotechnology propaganda.

Last week, we exposed the flaws of a study published by a group from the Harvard School of Public Health claiming that girls who drink more sugar sweetened soda have their first period a few months earlier than those who don t. ACSH s Dr. Josh Bloom concluded that

In another example of “the sky is falling” news cycle, the predictions of massive radiation-induced illnesses, especially cancer, resulting from the devastating Fukushima nuclear plant damage in March of 2011 have been found to be grossly exaggerated, according to a new report issued last week by a U.N. panel. Naturally, no major media bothered to report [...]
The post Japanese “nuclear disaster” update: none sick, none dead appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

Last week, the respected scientific journal Nature published a superb editorial castigating the Breast Cancer Coalition, a nonprofit ostensibly devoted to reducing the toll of breast cancer. The editorial pointed out that the goal put forward by the BCC, to cure breast cancer by 2020 was irresponsible, given the complexity of cancer in general and breast cancer specifically.

In the early 1990s, Gary Hirshberg, chairman and former president and CEO of Stonyfield Farm, was a leader of the nascent corporate responsibility movement .....But now, Hirshberg has deserted evidence-based science in his support of mandatory labeling of GMO foods

Glucosamine and chondroitin are found naturally in cartilage, and are popularly taken as dietary supplements to help OA. Indeed, the combination is among the most popular so-called dietary nutritional supplements consumed by Americans, with a market estimated at perhaps one-billion dollars annually.

A new report presented to the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that the WHO s decision in 2008 to endorse the use of thimerosal as a preservative for multidose childhood vaccines in the developing world is indeed scientifically valid. Some had previously claimed that there was a connection between thimerosal in vaccines and autism, but that link has since been debunked. And, as Dr.

Although he initially viewed the study as nothing more than nonsense, ACSH s Dr. Josh Bloom was dismayed to discover wide media pickup of a reckless report claiming that, somehow, 14,000 Americans had died as a result of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident last March in Japan. So, in an op-ed posted yesterday on Forbes.com, he debunks the study authors bizarre claims.