Census data suggests that the number of people aged sixty-five or more will triple by 2050. That age group has already expanded by more than double the growth rate for the general population since 2000, and the trend is expected to continue with more Baby Boomers and China s Red Guard generation. Likely with these demographic data in mind, President Obama has said that overhauling Medicare and Social Security is critical.
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According to a report released yesterday by the EPA, two million Americans face increased cancer risks from exposure to toxic air pollution. The statistics here are just bizarre, says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross. They re making gross estimates based on gross estimates and so on until they turn out this absurdly precise number and all these figures about specific threats.
One provision of the tobacco bill signed into law with much pomp and circumstance on Monday is the prohibition of flavored cigarettes that supposedly appeal to younger smokers with the notable exception of menthol, which continues to enjoy its 28 percent market share of the cigarette industry and 80 percent preferred status among African-American smokers.
With irony befitting this week s celebration of the law, Philip Morris simultaneously released its latest Marlboro Blend No. 54, a menthol-flavored cigarette, with perfect impunity under the law.
This piece first appeared on the site of American Spectator.
In a blog entry published on Friday, Anrew Van Dam with the Association of Health Care Journalists finally noticed the media bias against bisphenol-A (BPA) that ACSH staffers almost alone against the crowd have been condemning for some time. In a review of American media coverage of the controversy of bisphenol-A, researchers at STATS (a nonprofit, nonpartisan Statistical Assessment Service affiliated with George Mason University), say the media failed to properly weight different studies based on their size and research methodology.
Yesterday, Mintel Menu Insights revealed in a press release that people overwhelmingly disregard the health quality of food when dining out, opting instead for certain menu items based on taste, hunger satisfaction, and price.
This revelation comes as no surprise to ACSH s Todd Seavey: America loves donuts. The rest of this public health haranguing is as irrelevant and futile as confessing to a priest once a month about impure thoughts and serves much the same guilt-acknowledging social function.
Is multiple chemical sensitivity real? Some claim it is and that they are crippled by encounters with routine chemicals such as pesticides, perfume, paint, air fresheners and car exhaust. One person afflicted told the Denver Post she had to live in her car to get away from it.
Her car has no chemicals?
Nonetheless, people who believe they have it think they are proof of how toxic the world has gotten. The Denver Post called on ACSH for help in separating science fact from environmental fiction.
The CDC recently rejected reports from Brazilian scientists who claimed to have discovered a novel strain of the H1N1 virus. ACSH staffers were skeptical of the report when it was released, and we are pleased to see such an issue addressed objectively without unnecessary media attention.
American women, and their doctors, have been thrown into a state of confusion by the release of a new study of the likely benefits--and possible harms--of screening mammography among 40-49 year olds. A federal panel--the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF)--analyzed examined recent studies and came to a very different conclusion than they did seven years ago: mammograms for women under 50 should be deferred, and women over 50 need only get the exam every two years.
November 20th, 2009
EPA, Breast Exams, Cervical Exams
By Curtis Porter
The Consumerist relays the accounts of two Apple computer owners who were refused service on their machines because the company claimed that residues from cigarette smoke in their house created unsafe working conditions for Apple employees, and therefore voided the computers' warranties.
"This has to do with nicotine being listed as a hazardous substance," says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross. "Obviously, the home of a smoker is going to have some kind of residue."
Dr. Ross in the Wall Street Journal
Check It Out ACSH's Jeff Stier is scheduled to be on CNBC this afternoon at 1:48 PM (Eastern) in order to discuss the New York City Department of Health's campaign to reduce the city's salt intake.
Salt Is the New Asbestos? Mr. Bloomberg's war on salt has drawn the ire of many chefs who understand the nutritional and gustatory necessity of salt, so the New York City mayor decided to sidestep reasonable arguments and go straight to comparing salt to asbestos.
The Wall Street Journal reports, "A working group made up of officials from several federal regulatory agencies Tuesday proposed restricting marketing of foods and beverages that contain significant amounts of sugar, sodium, and saturated fat, in response to concerns about childhood obesity."
"While these guidelines from this working group are voluntary at this point, it seems to me that the road leads to some official government restriction," says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross."
The French news agency AFP brings us a story that seems at first like a parody in the style of The Onion but apparently is quite serious: "The current image of Santa Claus promotes obesity, drink-driving, speeding, and an unhealthy lifestyle, says a study from Australia's Monash University published in the British Medical Journal."
This piece first appeared in the Wall Street Journal on January 7, 2010.
This letter -- reacting to a piece by Kyle Smith noting that "fat acceptance" efforts are usually just a short-lived gesture and that that may be just as well -- first appeared on January 14, 2010 in the New York Post:
Smith's extremely well-written commentary, "Fat Chance," is excellent.
An article in TIME reveals that "[o]ne in 110 American children are considered to fall somewhere along the autism spectrum, according to the latest report released by the federal government. ... The estimate also represents a stunning 57% increase in prevalence since 2002, when health officials first began a nationwide effort to quantify the risk of autism in childhood."
"The question is: is there really an increase or is this a matter of expanding the definition for purposes of enhanced and more accurate detection?" asks ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan.
At least 152 people in New York have been diagnosed with mumps since a boy who unknowingly carried the illness over from England exposed a Jewish summer camp in Sullivan County.
"The majority of those affected were vaccinated against mumps," says ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. "The protection rate with the mumps vaccine is somewhere in the 75% to 95% range."
Senator Diane Feinstein of California has called on Congress to ban bisphenol-A (BPA) from all food and beverage containers.
"Thanks to BPA, botulism from industrially canned food products has disappeared over the past thirty years," says Dr. Whelan. "This is a perfect example of a case of banning a substance with no regard for the benefits it provides."
An increase in the prevalence of cavities in children has prompted dental experts to seek out new ways to fight tooth decay.
"We encourage the development of new technology to address these problems," says ACSH's Jeff Stier. "However, it's also important that we continue to use old technologies that are proven to work, such as water fluoridation."
In a welcome change of direction, the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) has shifted their focus to consumer products safety. They dispelled rumors that the popular Zhu Zhu pets are hazardous after yesterday's antimony scare, and released an advisory warning of fires, falling toy-stuffed stockings attached to mantle pieces with heavy metal or brass stocking holders, and other actual dangers commonly posed by holiday decorations.
Billy Joel's daughter Alexa Ray is fine after an unsuccessful suicide attempt.
"While there's nothing funny about a suicide attempt," says ACSH's Jeff Stier, "there is a bit of a sad irony here. She attempted to 'overdose' on the homeopathic sleep aid Traumeel. She tried to kill herself using a homeopathic drug, so it didn't do anything. It couldn't have done anything to her at any dose, because there is no active medicine in there." You never know what's in a so-called homeopathic remedy, though, so ACSH wouldn't recommend experiments and stunts using one.
Statistics posted online yesterday by the CDC indicate that the number of H1N1 infections seems to have peaked for the fall flu season. The number of children and teenagers dying from H1N1 continues to rise, however. According to the New York Times, "An additional twenty-seven deaths in lab-confirmed cases of it were reported among children and teenagers in the week ended Nov. 21, raising the total to 234 since April. In a typical flu season, there are fewer than 100 deaths among that segment of the population."
Pagination
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