breast cancer

To the Editor:

To the Editor: While scanning my wife's copy of April 1999 Elle I was dismayed to see poor health advice dispensed because of inappropriate risk comparisons.

New York, NY, November 18, 1998. Consumers should use caution when interpreting a new study on the possible hazards of eating well cooked meats, say scientists from the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH).

Nearly three decades ago, in response to America's growing fear of a most elusive and deadly foe, Richard Nixon declared a "war on cancer." Behind this charge was the notion that personifying cancer as a battlefield enemy would lead to its "defeat

Is your reproductive system in danger? (Science & Technology, Sept. 14) was misleading. Rates of breast cancer are stable, not "soaring." The increased incidence of this disease from 1980 to 1992 was due to improved detection methods.

The public is often faced with conflicting "expert" opinions on how dietary components allegedly contribute to the cause, prevention, and cure of a host of health and even social problems.

This report was originally written by Alan C. Fisher, Dr.P.H., and Wendy Worth, Ph.D. It was revised by Debra A. Mayer, M.P.H., a Research Associate in Epidemiology at the American Council on Science and Health.

This report is a revised and updated version of a report on diet and cancer published by ACSH in 1985. The original report was written by Michael W. Pariza, Ph.D., of the University of Wisconsin, an ACSH Scientific Advisor.