ACSH Dispatches Round-Up: Oprah, Spice, Tanorexics, and More
By Elizabeth Wade
Publication Date : Monday, June 1, 2009
ACSH/Staff, Oprah/Cranks, Meat/Breasts, HRT/Lungs, Sun/Skin, Spice/Island by Elizabeth Wade   ACSH welcomes two new staffers We'd like to extend a warm welcome to the two newest members of the ACSH team: art director Anthony Manzo and research intern Curtis Porter.  Curtis will be taking over as writer of Morning Dispatch this week, as I prepare to leave to start my Fulbright scholarship in Mexico. Could watching Oprah be dangerous for your   Read Full >>

ACSH Dispatches Round-Up: Us on 20/20, Daily Show, Times Site, More
By Elizabeth Wade
Publication Date : Friday, May 15, 2009
May 15, 2005 ACSH on Comedy Central and Fox Business, plus Frieden, Flu, and FoodBy Elizabeth WadeJeff takes on Michelle Obama's organic garden on The Daily ShowLast night ACSH's Jeff Stier appeared on Comedy Central's The Daily Show to discuss the downside of the organic and locally grown food movements. In particular, he talked about Michelle Obama's White House garden with   Read Full >>

Mexico on My Mind
By Elizabeth Wade
Publication Date : Friday, May 8, 2009
In just a few months, if all still goes as planned, I'll begin studying comparative literature in Mexico City on a Fulbright Scholarship -- after having spent the past year working at a New York public health organization, tracking stories like the ones about deadly swine flu now covering newspaper front pages. Mexico, and particularly its megalopolis of a capital city, is no stranger to bad press north of the border. Now that the country has emerged from seventy years of corrupt one-party   Read Full >>

ACSH Dispatches Round-Up: Mexican/Swine Flu and More
By Elizabeth Wade
Publication Date : Thursday, April 30, 2009
April 30, 2009 Flu Reactions, Statin Benefits, Acrylamide ScaresBy Elizabeth WadeWorld continues to (over)react to swine fluIn response to the growing spread of swine flu across the globe, the World Health Organization has raised its alert level to 5, indicating it believes a pandemic is "imminent."  But as ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan says, "We need to put this situation in perspective by remembering that the U.S. has over 30,000 deaths every year from seasonal   Read Full >>

ACSH Dispatches Round-Up: PERC, Diabetes, Tea Parties, Salt, Sharks, More
By Elizabeth Wade
Publication Date : Wednesday, April 15, 2009
April 15, 2009 Diabetes, Prostate Cancer, and Recalling Food RecallsBy Elizabeth WadeDiabetes dominates JAMAThe current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) focuses on diabetes -- and brings some good news.  According to their graph, death rates for diabetes are stable or decreasing among black females, white males, and white females in the United States.  The death rate for diabetes among black males has gone up in recent years, but not by much.    Read Full >>

ACSH Dispatches Round-Up: Smokeless, Vinyl, HPV, Dr. Wind, More
By Elizabeth Wade
Publication Date : Monday, April 6, 2009
April 3, 2009 Congress's Pro-Smoking Bill and Anti-Book Law, plus Radiation HysteriaBy Elizabeth WadeQuitting smoking just got harderA story about a study concluding that smokers who use nicotine replacement therapy are twice as likely to quit for six months than those who were given placebos reminds us of the dire straits we are in with regard to tobacco cessation therapy. What isn't reported until the end of the news story is that only 6.75% of the smokers given the nicotine   Read Full >>

ACSH Dispatches Round-Up: Infertility, Academia, Lost Limbs, and More
By Elizabeth Wade
Publication Date : Monday, March 23, 2009
March 23, 2009 Sugar, organic food, colons, booze and bonesBy Elizabeth WadeSugar makes a comeback -- as a health foodEver since high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) became the favorite target in the fight against the obesity epidemic (at least in the popular media), sugar has experienced an upswing in popularity. "All of a sudden, sugar is believed to be better because it's 'natural,'" says ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. She is particularly disappointed that the food   Read Full >>

ACSH Dispatches Round-Up: Phosphorus, Colons, Soda, Gates's Mosquitoes, and More
By Elizabeth Wade
Publication Date : Friday, February 13, 2009
February 13, 2009 Victories for Vaccines, Soda, Smokers, Cold Sufferers, Eggs, and VacationersElizabeth WadeCourt rules in favor of vaccine safetyACSH staffers are pleased that a special federal vaccine court followed the science and ruled against parents claiming that vaccines caused their children's autism.  "The studies have been quite definitive on the fact that childhood vaccines have nothing to do with autism, and the three-judge panel commonly referred to as the   Read Full >>

ACSH Dispatches Round-Up: Malaria, "Light" Cigarettes, Stroke Risk, Gupta, and More
By Elizabeth Wade
Publication Date : Tuesday, January 13, 2009
January 12, 2009 PB & Salmonella, Genes and Cancer, Fat and Poverty, Smoke and Alzheimer's, FDA and GardasilBy Elizabeth WadeSalmonella outbreak linked to peanut butterA large institutional-sized container of peanut butter contaminated with salmonella has been discovered in Minnesota, and public heath officials suspect that the strain is linked to an outbreak that has sickened nearly 400 people in forty-two states since September."So far, the outbreak seems to be linked to only   Read Full >>

The Case Against Mandating Gardasil
By Elizabeth Wade
Publication Date : Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Shortly after Merck's HPV vaccine Gardasil was made available in the U.S. in 2006, Texas and Virginia decided to make the shots mandatory for all girls entering the sixth grade.  The requirement didn't last long in either state -- the Texas legislature voted to overturn the executive order mandating the vaccine, while Virginia provided broad "opt-out" provisions for parents.  But the debate rages on: Read Full >>