Canadian University Creates Hot Spot for Junk Science: Wi-Fi and Warnings
By Todd Seavey
Publication Date : Thursday, February 23, 2006
The British technology news site The Register reports that the president of Canada's Lakehead University has restricted the creation of Wi-Fi networks (which allow people to access the Internet through the air without wires) on campus, out of concern that the networks' radio transmissions might cause leukemia and brain tumors.  Read Full >>

EPA to Defend Itself from ACSH; NYC Defends Itself from Bedbugs
By Todd Seavey
Publication Date : Thursday, December 1, 2005
November 21 was the deadline for a response from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ACSH's lawsuit, filed by the Washington Legal Foundation.  Ninety days earlier, we had requested an explanation for the discrepancy -- ostensibly forbidden by the Information Quality Act -- between EPA's regulations and the scientific information available to them.    Read Full >>

Mythosphere: Brockovich at Harvard, Seavey in Vegas, Crichton in NYC, and More (with cartoon by Marvin Winter)
By Todd Seavey
Publication Date : Thursday, October 20, 2005
Does empirical reality matter?  Or, to borrow a term from the title of a folklore journal, do modern minds live in a sort of "mythosphere," concerned only with their own perceptions?  As ACSH president Dr. Elizabeth Whelan has lamented, activist Erin Brockovich received an award this week from the Harvard School of Public Health even though it is only in the movie named after Brockovich that she's advanced   Read Full >>

Popular Mechanics and Popular Panics (per Frank Furedi)
By Todd Seavey
Publication Date : Friday, September 30, 2005
Ah, the contrast!  Last night, I was lucky enough to attend Popular Mechanics magazine's 2005 Breakthrough Awards, a reminder that wonderful things that benefit human health are still being invented all the time.  Tonight, though, I'll hear a panel discussion about "the future" that will include sociologist Frank   Read Full >>

Two Paths Away from Pandemic: A Vaccine and Tamiflu May Ward Off Bird Flu
By Todd Seavey
Publication Date : Tuesday, August 9, 2005
There have been many warnings of late that if A(H5N1), the avian flu strain spreading in Asian bird populations, were to mutate into a form easily transmitted between humans, a pandemic might result on the scale of the 1918-1919 flu that killed tens of millions of people.  There are three main reasons not to panic just yet, one epidemiological and two pharmaceutical: the low number of deaths so far, the announcement this past weekend of an effective vaccine against bird flu, and -- if it   Read Full >>

The Year in Fear
By Todd Seavey
Publication Date : Tuesday, August 2, 2005
It might be nice if all scientific debates were conducted quietly, with no media attention to them at all.  Instead, we get varying levels of media attention, each bringing a different degree of distortion to the underlying facts (as a random grab-bag of odd science and health stories from 2005 remind us) but occasionally offering enlightenment:  •The worst-case scenario is a media circus like the spat between Tom Cruise and Brooke Shields over the value of psychiatry, with Cruise   Read Full >>

The Hitchhiker's Guide to Bureaucracy
By Todd Seavey
Publication Date : Friday, May 6, 2005
The sci-fi parody The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is in theatres all over the planet -- and it has some valuable lessons about earthly bureaucracy, including one pivotal subplot that resonates with the critique of anti-chemical regulations made in the ACSH book America's War on "Carcinogens".  Douglas Adams' popular sci-fi/comedy story -- previously told as a radio show, a novel series, record   Read Full >>

The Sum of All FactsAndFears
By Todd Seavey
Publication Date : Friday, February 18, 2005
Your humble editor is taking next week off, but before I do so, I must quickly note a few milestones:  --HealthFactsAndFears.com is (currently) the third-highest Google hit for the search term "fears" -- right behind the New Wave band Tears for Fears at #1 and the techno-thriller Sum of All Fears by Tom Clancy at #2, which is approximately where I've always wanted to be,   Read Full >>

Rocket Fuel, as Seen by Science and by Greens
By Todd Seavey
Publication Date : Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Perchlorate is a chemical in rocket fuel that can leach into the ground and find its way into water supplies, but there is no evidence it is harmful to humans in small amounts.  Indeed, the National Academy of Sciences released a report this week suggesting that 20 parts per billion perchlorate in drinking water is safe (and the Department of Defense makes a case for 200 parts per billion) -- but the anti-chemical activists at the Natural Resources Defense Council and Environmental Working   Read Full >>

Deck the Halls (of Science)
By Todd Seavey
Publication Date : Thursday, December 23, 2004
This ACSH Christmas ditty from 2002 may -- may -- warrant reposting: Death befalls a bout of folly,Fa la la la la, la la la la.So try to reason well, by golly,Fa la la la la, la la la la. Don't assume each thing's a peril,Fa la la la la, la la la la.Or fear will have you o'er a barrel,Fa la la la la, la la la la. See the raging fools before us,Fa la la la la, la la la la.With their theories rather porous,Fa la la la la, la la la la. Follow quacks and get no pleasure,Fa la la la la, la   Read Full >>