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As the demand for -- and cost of -- prescription drugs in America soar, the Internet marketplace for medications grows. Seniors, especially, are being taken in and blinded by their desire for more and cheaper drugs.

A research report in the March 2 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) pointed out that many members of National Football League (NFL) teams (57%, to be exact) had Body Mass Indices (BMIs) over 30 -- numbers that would put them in the range of body weight considered obese. Similarly, the March 9 edition of the Kansas City Star had an article listing the BMIs of a number of National Basketball Association (NBA) players -- who also came in at or close to 30.

This article originally appeared on http://TechCentralStation.com.
The government is not doing a good job in telling us what causes cancer.

This article first appeared in the Austin Statesman on February 7, 2005:

I saw the posters everywhere this weekend "Celebrating Fifty Years of Flavor": Celebrating Marlboro Cigarettes!
Celebrating? Under what possible circumstance should we be celebrating the anniversary of the introduction of a product that is the leading cause of preventable death in America? It is bad enough that we tolerate it--and turn our heads away from the billions of dollars spent annually to advertise and promote it.
But we have to celebrate it, too?

A March 23, 2005 Wall Street Journal article by Jim Carlton informs readers that a "study" by an environmental group provides "fresh evidence of a potential pathway by which certain chemicals end up in people."

Virtually everyone "knows" that red wine is the best type of alcoholic beverage to consume if you're concerned about health. After all, the French eat lots of cheese and other high fat foods, yet their rate of heart disease is lower than ours. This observation, known as the "French paradox," has been widely attributed to the red wine the French consume liberally. What is it about red wine that supposedly makes it superior to other alcoholic beverages?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), rubella, a virus notorious for causing birth defects, stillbirths, and miscarriages, has been eliminated from the United States. During its last major U.S. outbreak in the mid-60s, there were 12.5 million cases of rubella, resulting in 20,000 cases of congenital rubella syndrome, 11,600 babies born deaf, 11,250 fetal deaths, 2,100 newborn deaths, 3,580 babies born blind, and 1,800 more mentally handicapped.

An article by Pat Phibbs on http://BNA.com January 27, 2005 describes the release of ACSH's America's War on "Carcinogens":
Congress and the National Cancer Institute should lead an effort to change the ways animal data are used to predict whether a chemical would cause cancer in humans, the medical director of a consumer-education organization said Jan. 26.

Whether gold or grain, humans don't give it away.
Globally, a thousand people die of hunger every hour. Over 800 million of us are chronically malnourished. Yet studies consistently conclude that the world actually produces enough food for everyone; if only it were more evenly distributed we could eradicate hunger.
This is a major plank in the argument against using modern farming methods to increase food production: there's already enough food, so we don't need modern technology.

The New York Times in its March 4th editorial, "Experts and the Drug Industry," has it wrong. Recently, the FDA decided to allow the drugs Celebrex, Bextra, and Vioxx to be marketed despite research showing they seem to increase the risk of heart problems. The Times complains that this FDA decision is suspect because a "vast majority" of the scientists on the panel had financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry and ten of the thirty-two panel members had consulted or received research support from the three drug companies involved in this judgment.

A February 2, 2005 review of Michael Crichton's anti-eco-radical thriller State of Fear, by Read Schuchardt, editor of http://Metaphilm.com , mentions ACSH's Todd Seavey:

A February 23, 2005 article by Nancy Wang in the Stanford Daily described student attitudes toward smoking, noting some of the risks and citing ACSH:

A March 1, 2005 Family Practice News debate about whether to remove red meat from our diets included a "no" argument from ACSH's executive and medical director with the following cautionary introduction (but please check out

According to an estimate released Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over one million people in America are living with HIV. This towering figure is the highest since the 1980s* and may at first seem like discouraging information. But in fact the CDC report represents both good and bad news about the fight against HIV/AIDS.

A group of leading scientists in England is making headlines for writing a scathing letter attacking one of England's leading medical journals, the Lancet, for promoting unfounded health scares.

This article originally appeared on http://www.Spiked-Online.com.
The new US protocol that says scientists with corporate connections are unfit to judge drug safety smacks of modern-day McCarthyism.

Ever wonder why the American public is so ill-informed about issues involving science such as evolution, genetic modification of food crops, stem cell research, and homeopathy or "alternative medicine"? Some scientific issues seem settled in the public's mind. There is no serious question as to whether the earth revolves around the sun, even though not too many centuries ago one could be burned at the stake for promoting proscribed ideas on this issue.

This op-ed appeared in the May 22, 2005 Hartford Courant:
Here are just a few of the problems associated with the state House of Representatives' vote this past week to attack childhood obesity and poor nutrition by banning sodas and other snacks from schools:

A July 7, 2005 letter to the editor cited ACSH on PCBs:
Regarding the July 3 article "Soil still toxic 25 years later":

Mark Parascandola's well-researched article, "Scientists, Families, and Courts Clash Over the Elusive Causes of Autism," in the Summer 2004 issue of Cerebrum, may have confused your readers. He failed to make clear that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine never contained the ethylmercury-based vaccine preservative thimerosal.

Alzheimer's disease has made headlines this week. In the past, only memory tests were available to detect moderate and advanced stage Alzheimer's disease. There are now methods able to detect the disease up to nine years before it becomes apparent. While Alzheimer's is still uncurable, this early detection may allow potential sufferers to postpone its onset. Researchers are working on developing treatments that may combat newly-detected mild cases of the disease.

Early birds watching the Today show on May 13 were treated to the opinions of a new proponent of culinary Puritanism Dr. Steven Witherly. Dr. Witherly heads a supplement and ingredient company called Technical Products, Inc., although that fact was not mentioned on the Today interview.

There was substantial media coverage this week of the claim by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), based on analyses of a small number of umbilical blood samples, that newborn babies are exposed even before birth to toxic and carcinogenic chemicals. Few stories put the disturbing assertions in perspective.

New York, NY -- June 2005. Journalists can improve their coverage of public health topics by more critically considering health claims made by activist groups. These claims are frequently not based on sound science.