In September, this daily opportunity to listen in on ACSH staffers' conversations will be available only to donors, e-mailed each morning.
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For questions, please call Jeff Stier at 212-362-7044 x225 or e-mail Tara McTeague at McTeagueT[at]acsh.org.
--The flooding that brought almost every subway line to a halt yesterday serves as an indicator to how unprepared the city of New York is for this type of event. Weather, Dr. Elizabeth Whelan said, is a public health issue. The MTA did not alert authorities in time; commuters didn't realize there was a problem until many of them were in the subway tunnels. Even if they suspected a problem, MTA's website went down, inundated with commuters' queries, leaving New Yorkers further in the dark about what lines were operating.
And the tornado in Brooklyn? We suspect Dorothy had more advanced warning. (ACSH enjoyed the New York Times' sardonic but right-on-target editorial today). What happened yesterday could have been terrible, Whelan continued, like all the injuries that happened on February 15, 2007, after an ice storm. Trans fats are banned, yet the mayor's office does not issue warnings about the weather.
--ACSH is used to the usual breast-implant safety debate, but when Dr. Ruth Kava, Director of Nutrition, tuned into the _Today_ show this morning, she did not expect the latest "link": a new study suggested that those who get breast surgery may be more likely to take their own lives. ACSH agrees with Dr. Nancy Snyderman's take on the issue -- emphasizing that association does not necessarily mean causation. There is no valid evidence linking silicone breast implants to suicide.
--Check out Besty McCaughey's letter to the editor in the New York Sun. McCaughey, who sits on the ACSH Board of Trustees, applauded an op-ed on Saving New Yorkers' lives by screening patients to reduce rates of MRSA infection. For another ACSH opinion, Dr. Ruth Kava was quoted in this AP story about taking trans fats out of the Indiana State Fair. (No, that would not help make that fried Twinkie more healthy.)
Corrie Driebusch is a research intern at the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH.org, HealthFactsAndFears.com).
