Vaccine Litigation over Mercury and Autism Puts Kids in Jeopardy
By Gilbert Ross, M.D.
Publication Date : Wednesday, September 26, 2007
In this week's New England Journal of Medicine, three separate publications deal with the current status of children's vaccines and the litigation swirling around them. The main article is yet another large study debunking any connection between infants' exposure to mercury in vaccines and autism or any other neurodevelopmental condition. I wonder -- along with thousands of doctors and scientists around the world -- whether there will ever be enough evidence to silence   Read Full >>

The Consequences of Precaution: Warning Labels May Drive Teen Suicide Up
By Gilbert Ross, M.D.
Publication Date : Friday, September 7, 2007
An excess of caution can be as dangerous as its lack. A current example is the black-box warning label on antidepressant medication for youngsters, which has actually cost lives, as now seems obvious to anyone evaluating the data -- except the FDA. When the FDA mandated black-box warning labels on antidepressant medication for young people in early 2004, some experts asserted that the new warnings would frighten off both parents and primary care doctors, who actually provide most of the care   Read Full >>

Big News About Plastic Bottles with BPA: They're Still Safe
By Gilbert Ross, M.D.
Publication Date : Friday, August 10, 2007
Perhaps a new report by the federal National Toxicology Program (NTP) will temporarily stifle the activist Environmental Working Group's endless alarms about Bisphenol-A (BPA), a chemical found in plastic water bottles and baby bottles, among other products. This chemical has been safely used for decades, with not one shred of evidence linking it to any human illness, whether in adults, children, or fetuses. This has not stopped the EWG and other like-minded alarmist   Read Full >>

Benefits and Risks of Antidepressants During Pregnancy
By Gilbert Ross, M.D.
Publication Date : Thursday, June 28, 2007
Two new studies appearing in this week's New England Journal of Medicine attempt to assess the real risks of antidepressant medication of the SSRI class on fetal development and neonatal health. The studies came to fairly similar conclusions: in a nutshell, that while some adverse health effects -- specifically, certain types of birth defects -- may indeed be linked to SSRIs taken during pregnancy by women with depression, the absolute risk is very low. And, as always, the   Read Full >>

Good News on Heart Disease Continues
By Gilbert Ross, M.D.
Publication Date : Wednesday, June 6, 2007
A new analysis of death rates from heart disease among Americans confirms the salutary trend of the past thirty years: mortality from coronary heart disease continue to plummet. The New England Journal of Medicine study goes into depth to attempt to show the how's and the why's of this decline.The authors -- from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta and the Public Health Division at the University of Liverpool, UK -- found that the decline in CAD death from 1980 to 2000   Read Full >>

Smokeless Tobacco Lacks Significant Negative Health Effects
By Gilbert Ross, M.D.
Publication Date : Wednesday, May 9, 2007
In today's edition of the medical journal The Lancet, two reports and an editorial deal with the question of the health effects of snus, a form of moist snuff or smokeless tobacco. A little background is in order first: perceived as a dangerous carcinogen -- a falsehood encouraged by our Surgeon General and zealous anti-tobacco advocacy groups -- smokeless tobacco (ST) has been banned from Australia and the EU, except for Sweden. And yet, the clearly lethal tobacco-delivery device   Read Full >>

Don't Buy (Imported, "Canadian") Drugs from This Man: The Sopranos and Fake Pharmaceuticals
By Gilbert Ross, M.D.
Publication Date : Monday, April 9, 2007
Last night, we devotees got our long-awaited return of HBO's The Sopranos -- generally regarded as one of the best television experiences ever put together. The sympathetic anti-hero mob boss Tony Soprano was presented with an unprecedented opportunity. The series creator, David Chase, is nothing if not sensitive to the current buzz around the country, and he exploited the recent craze for cheap "Canadian" drugs by having some Montrealers pitch Tony an idea for easy money   Read Full >>

Movie Stars: Still Smoking After All These Years
By Gilbert Ross, M.D.
Publication Date : Monday, March 5, 2007
In 2003, I wrote an essay that appeared in USA Today, condemning Hollywood moguls for putting cigarettes in their movies and effectively causing actors to promote smoking. The basis of my attack was a study published in The Lancet that year that documented the effect that smoking in movies had on young teens and pre-teens: a three-fold increase in their likelihood of taking up smoking, as compared to their peers with   Read Full >>

ACSH Statement for Senate Hearing on FDA Regulation of Tobacco
By Elizabeth M. Whelan, Sc.D., M.P.H., Gilbert Ross, M.D., Jeff Stier, Esq.
Publication Date : Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Elizabeth Whelan M.P.H., Sc.D.Gilbert L. Ross, M.D.Jeff Stier, Esq.forThe American Council on Science and Health“The Need for FDA Regulation of Tobacco Products”Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and PensionsFebruary 27, 2007Mr. Chairman:The mission of the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) is to promote sound science and to inform policy debates about public health, providing independent scientific evidence and analysis to clarify the scientific record in order   Read Full >>

Eat More Fish: Your Baby and Your Heart Will Thank You
By Gilbert Ross, M.D.
Publication Date : Thursday, February 15, 2007
Over the past few years, American consumers (especially women) have been literally bombarded with warnings about the dangers of eating fish. While many of these warnings have come from the usual suspect sources -- self-styled "environmental" groups and activists crusading against the deadly "Big Fish" industry -- some confusion is directly attributable to our governmental watchdogs.In 2004, the FDA and the EPA co-produced a health warning, advising women who are or might   Read Full >>