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June 30, 2009

ACSH Dispatches Round-Up: Burros, GMOs, Cosmetics, and More

By Curtis Porter

June 30th, 2009
 

Forbes Farewell, plus EPA, FDA, and GMO News
 

By Curtis Porter
 

 
 

Mary Lou Forbes
 

ACSH staffers would like to pay our respects to Washington Times commentary editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mary Lou Forbes. She was a dear friend and valuable asset to institutions of free inquiry in America.
 

“She helped us publish hundreds of op-eds, and she always did a good job,” says ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. “She was an amazing person.”
 

EPA on NO2
 

According to a news release from the EPA Office of Public Liaison Notices, “For the first time in more than thirty-five years, EPA has proposed to strengthen the nation’s nitrogen dioxide (NO2) air quality standard that protects public health. The proposed changes reflect the latest science on the health effects of exposure to NO2, which is formed by emissions from cars, trucks, buses, power plants, and industrial facilities and can lead to respiratory disease.”
 

ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross sees it differently: “EPA is starting to flex its muscles and is seeking out imaginary public health hazards so that it can use the power of the federal government to justify their proposal for a huge budget increase.”
 

Apropos of EPA’s rampant regulation, National Review Online featured an account of some of EPA’s recent attempts to effect expensive change such as this, as told by ACSH’s Jeff Stier and Angela Logomasini of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. They warn of projects with goals similar to “strengthening the nation’s nitrogen dioxide air quality standard,” designed solely to deplete government funds.
 

Acetaminophen: Use As Directed
 

FDA’s Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory committee is meeting to discuss “how to address the public health problem of liver injury related to the use of acetaminophen in both over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription (RX) products,” noting that they are not seeking to remove it from the market, as it is safe when used as directed.
 

“This is an unusual statement from the FDA, which rarely utters the word ‘safe,’ as they did in this case,” says Dr. Ross. “They’re bending over backwards to ensure that they don’t create a needless panic, especially considering that acetaminophen is safe when the dosage schedule is adhered to. It is true, however, that a significant percentage of people who come into emergency rooms with acute liver problems have them as a result of mixing alcohol and high doses of acetaminophen. People just need to be careful about mixing medications that have acetaminophen in them.”
 

For more information, see ACSH’s publication on OTC pain relievers.
 

Genetically Modified Rice
 

Japanese scientists reported in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that the new transgenic rice designed to fight a common pollen allergy appears safe in animal studies. Transgenic plants have genes from different species artificially inserted into their DNA in order to improve their resistance to environmental threats or increase their nutritive value to humans.
 

“The interesting thing about this is that more and more plants will be produced to make pharmaceuticals if regulatory strictures are relaxed,” says Dr. Ross.
 

Dr. Whelan agrees: “Genetically modified products are very promising. It’s amazing to me that starvation rates around the world are so devastating and yet technology like this still encounters resistance. It’s unbelievable.”


June 29th, 2009
 

Flu, BPA, and Pancreatic Cancer
 

By Curtis Porter
 

Flu Vaccines
 

An article published on Friday from Associated Press medical writer Mark Stobbe reports that 600 million swine flu vaccinations may be distributed for the upcoming flu season in addition to the approximately 115 million seasonal flu vaccinations offered each year. “The rationale used here is that everyone would need two doses, and there are 300 million Americans,” explains ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross. “But that’s ridiculous. Even if health officials could vaccinate every single American, which they can’t, not everyone would need two doses since there is still circulating immunity from previous encounters with and vaccinations against swine flu among Americans over fifty. For now, people are running around in a panic, wearing masks and not going to school. They lack the perspective to see that the seasonal flu is more dangerous than this. [The usual seasonsal flu] is a pandemic by any standard, and thus far, apparently much more dangerous than swine flu.”
 

“They claim that they won’t interfere with seasonal flu vaccinations,” says ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. “I can’t imagine the logistics of that. There’s going to be a huge overlap between the two vaccination schedules. I could easily imagine tens of millions of doses of this stuff not being used because people don’t want it or there’s just no way to get it distributed. In fact, millions of doses of annual, seasonal flu vaccine are discarded every year.”
 

The article also mentions the 1976 vaccination of 40 million Americans in anticipation of a new strain of swine flu: “The pandemic never materialized, and at least 500 people who got the shots came down with a paralyzing condition called Guillain-Barre Syndrome. It’s still unknown what caused the condition.” Officials are concerned that having two vaccines with unknown side effects could create an even more complex problem.
 

Dr. Ross is not as pessimistic: “The flu vaccine is practically as safe as rainwater unless you’re allergic to eggs, since it’s developed in eggs. The fact that in 1976 there were 500 cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome from 40 million doses swine flu is of minimal concern. That risk is about one in 100,000, and in most cases the symptoms were mild and reversible. These vaccines will hopefully even be less toxic.”
 

It’s About Time
 

In a blog entry published on Friday, Anrew Van Dam with the Association of Health Care Journalists finally noticed the media bias against bisphenol-A (BPA) that ACSH staffers -- almost alone against the crowd -- have been condemning for some time. “In a review of American media coverage of the controversy of bisphenol-A, researchers at STATS (a nonprofit, nonpartisan Statistical Assessment Service affiliated with George Mason University), say the media failed to properly weight different studies based on their size and research methodology.”
 

Dr. Whelan has noticed the trend: “If you looked at media coverage of BPA for the last six months, you’d find that a vast majority of the reports were biased in favor of anti-chemical scares. There were very few scientists who were willing to defend BPA despite all the evidence that proves it’s not dangerous. The FDA has already ruled time and time again that BPA is safe as used. How could they come out with any other assessment, unless a new administration can overturn scientific evidence?”
 

“This needs to be brought to light,” says Dr. Ross. “All of this hype comes from two or three junk science groups like the one under Frederick vom Saal that has been trying to scare people about BPA for over ten years. They automatically doubt any corporate-funded study -- including any researcher who ever received industry support -- for absolutely no reason other than the fact that they want to be praised as heroes.”
 

“Well, I don’t know their motivation, if it’s publicity-seeking or what,” says Dr. Whelan, “but I know that they aren’t advancing the cause of public health. Any reassessment study would take so long that BPA would probably be banned everywhere already by the time that they prove it is safe again.”
 

 
 

Fat and Pancreatic Cancer
 

Researchers from the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD reported that a diet high in fat can increase the risk of developing pancreatic cancer. According to the article from dbtechno.com, “this study finding is interesting because it contradicts previous studies that have found the exact opposite.”
 

“I’ve never heard of any study that would indicate the opposite,” says Dr. Ross, “so I don’t entirely trust this report. To whatever extent it is true, it’s a good reason not to overdo your fat intake.”


June 26th, 2009
 

Twitter, Fawcett, Toll House, Swine Flu, HIV, and a Bag of Lead
 

By Curtis Porter
 

 
 

T.G.I.F.
 

Be sure to check out Jeff Stier’s Twitter page for news and personal insights throughout the weekend.
 

Seat at the Table
 

ACSH staffers would like to offer a seat at the breakfast table to Alessandra Stanley. Her article in today’s New York Times about the life of Farrah Fawcett had this important message concerning Ms. Fawcett’s now ended struggle with anal cancer: “NBC, never shy about exploiting a celebrity tragedy, overproduced and overpromoted her film in _Farrah’s Story_, but never made the public service point that, besides abstinence, the HPV vaccine is the most promising form of prevention against this type of cancer, which in most cases is sexually acquired.” Though we respect the tragedy of the situation, we are pleased that it can be tactfully used to deliver an important public health message.   
 

Regulation by Request
 

According to an article in today’s Wall Street Journal, the Nestle unit that is being inspected for the origin of the E. coli bacteria found in their Toll House Cookies refused FDA requests for access to pest-control records, environmental-testing programs, and other information during regular inspections over the past five years: “David Elder, director of regional operations at the FDA’s Office of Regulatory Affairs, said many food companies do open their records to inspectors. But the agency, he said, doesn’t have explicit authority to access any records during regular food-safety inspections, with the exception of infant formula, seafood, juices, and low-acid canned food.”
 

“The key word here is ‘request,’” says ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross. “Why shouldn’t the FDA be able to demand such information? It seems like regulatory agencies should have access to information that could control contamination. If it’s an issue of proprietary information, I’m sure they could find a way to hide it from the public record.”
 

As ACSH’s Todd Seavey heard in a private conversation with an anonymous marketing agent for the food industry, though, “There are pretty much constant, ongoing incidents of contamination and food poisoning. The FDA can pick which ones to make into a big deal. Conventional wisdom among industry insiders is that they are announced during ratings time,” something easier to do with constant access to company records and an eye on failures to comply with regulations.
 

Swine Flu: Stable and Stubborn
 

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, when asked at a news briefing on Tuesday if there were any signs of the swine flu virus mixing with other strains such as avian flu, responded, “The virus is still very stable...But as we all know, the influenza virus is highly unpredictable and has great potential for mutation.”
 

“This is somewhat reassuring,” says ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. “At least we know that there aren’t any big surprises for the fall flu season, so far.”
 

“The article specifically mentions the H5N1 ‘avian flu’ virus because it is highly pathogenic,” explains Dr. Ross. “In combination with swine flu, that would indeed be a devastating virus, but they’re being alarmist again. They simply have to monitor the virus to see if there’s any change in genotype or virulence.”
 

Yesterday in Atlanta, Lyn Finelli, a flu surveillance official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, voiced the estimate based on mathematical modeling that over one million Americans have now been infected with the swine flu virus. The virus has cause 127 deaths in the U.S., a relatively low number but disturbing in its uncharacteristic concentration in younger patients.
 

“This is a frightening statistic,” says Dr. Ross. “The median age of fatal cases is quite discordant with usual seasonal flu, which hospitalizes and kills older people in general. That’s a little concerning.”
 

HIV Testing
 

CDC officials estimate that nearly half of HIV-positive U.S. adolescents and young adults are unaware of their infection, and less than a quarter of sexually active high school students are tested for the virus, based on an analysis of data from a 2007 survey of high school students. According to the Reuters report, the CDC recommends that doctors offer HIV screening as part of routine checkups for U.S. high school students.
 

“This article tends to blur the risk factors for HIV,” says Dr. Whelan. “That can make people think this is an equal opportunity disease, which it is not and never has been. Underlying an increasing call for universal HIV testing is the myth that heterosexually transmitted aids is prevalent in the U.S. when it isn’t. If you want to talk about people being tested, you should talk about the fact that there are some groups at a higher risk than others -- men who have sex with men, and intravenous drug users.”
 

 
 

CEH to Protect the World Against Your Purse
 

The valiant folks over at the Center for Environmental Health claim to have “found yet another unnecessary lead risk: high levels of lead in name-brand handbags and wallets purchased from Target, Macy’s, Wal-Mart, and many other retailers,” and they recommend that we “TELL THESE STORES TO GET THE LEAD OUT OF PURSES!” They go on to make a demonstrably false claim: “Scientists are increasingly convinced that there is no safe level of lead exposure.”
 

“This is a new wave of people who are arguing against the classical toxicological principle that dosages are significant,” says Dr. Whelan.
 

Dr. Ross adds: “We strongly disagree with that thesis on the grounds that it is unscientific and is basically analogous to a revocation of the laws of thermodynamics -- by which I mean they can’t just get away with saying that a tiny exposure is worse than a large one -- it’s nonsense. There is no evidence to support it.”


June 25th, 2009
 

Deca, Menthol, DDT, and Benzene
 

By Curtis Porter
 

 
 

 
 

EWG's Crusade Against Everything
 

Richard Wiles of the Environmental Working Group (EWG)  sent a letter yesterday to FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg urging her to restrict the food industry’s use of large plastic pallets -- used to ship, cool, and store produce -- that contain decabromodiphenyl ether (Deca), a flame retardant chemical alleged by some to be a neurotoxin.
 

“I don’t know how EWG can maintain credibility,” says ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. “They have a different scare every week. They’re basically saying everything is hazardous. These flame retardant reports are clearly based on animal testing and have no relevance to humans.”
 

“People become numb to this kind of report in general until the scare hits the fan,” says ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross. “In the meantime, people don’t pay attention to it. That’s why celebrities are getting all the attention when these issues get big. The scientists don’t stand up and refute it like they should.”
 

For more information, see ACSH’s publication on flame retardants.
 

Same Great Flavor, Now with Legal Protection
 

One provision of the tobacco bill signed into law with much pomp and circumstance on Monday is the prohibition of flavored cigarettes that supposedly appeal to younger smokers -- with the notable exception of menthol, which continues to enjoy its 28% market share of the cigarette industry and 80% preferred status among African-American smokers. With irony befitting this week’s celebration of the law, Philip Morris simultaneously released its latest “Marlboro Blend No. 54,” a menthol-flavored cigarette, with perfect impunity under the law.
 

“The lawmakers are so happy with themselves for outlawing strawberry cigarettes that no one smoked in the first place, while menthol is the most significant flavor by far,” says Dr. Ross. “Menthol is the only flavor that successfully entices smokers, especially younger smokers, and it’s the only one not banned. This law is supposed to protect children from manipulation by tobacco companies. Who’s going protect children from being manipulated by our politicians when they work hand in hand with cigarette companies?”
 

The product is even named so as to evoke a response from inner-city youths. Some supposed slang definitions of the term “54” include “a very hot girl with a really fine ass,” according to online “urban” dictionaries. This serves as a reminder that these products target specific ethnic groups as well as age groups. “You’re automatically targeting young African-American smokers when marketing mentholated cigarettes,” says ACSH’s Jeff Stier, “and that is perfectly legal under the new law.”
 

EPA Doesn't Understand DDT
 

On Tuesday, the EPA proposed a $36 million plan to cap a deposit of the pesticide DDT on the ocean floor off the coast of Southern California by covering the seventeen-square-mile area -- declared a Superfund site in 1996 -- with sand and silt. According to Mark Gold, executive director of the watchdog group Heal the Bay, the cap won't clean the site, but it could reduce the health risks for people who eat fish caught off the Palos Verdes coast.
 

“This would be laughable if it wasn’t so sad,” says Dr. Ross. “What health risk are they going to reduce? DDT is possibly the most studied chemical known to man. It is as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow that DDT poses no harm to humans in any concentration. The only way it can be dangerous to you is if you are a mosquito carrying malaria or typhus. This whole spectacle is just a holdover from the era of Rachel Carson. At this critical juncture, doesn’t California have anything more serious to worry about?”
 

For more information, see ACSH’s publication on DDT.
 

EPA Doesn't Understand Benzene
 

According to a report released yesterday by the EPA, two million Americans face increased cancer risks from exposure to toxic air pollution. “The statistics here are just bizarre,” says Dr. Ross. “They’re making gross estimates based on gross estimates and so on until they turn out this absurdly precise number and all these figures about specific threats.”
 

For example, the report claims that “mobile emissions account for about 30% of the overall cancer risk...The majority of that risk comes from benzene, a carcinogen that is released into the air by burning coal and oil.”
 

“The cancer that benzene is known to cause is acute myelogenous leukemia, which requires long-term exposure to high amounts usually found in an occupational setting,” explains Dr. Ross. “The number of people who die from AML each year is about 9,000 across the nation as a whole, and they’re saying it accounts for over 15% of environmental cancer risk. Their numbers are completely off.”
 

For more information, see ACSH’s publication on cancer clusters.


June 24th, 2009
 

Paranoiac, Geriatric, Pancreatic, Bariatric -- and Nuclear

By Curtis Porter

 

 

Dr. Whelan in Forbes

ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan had an article published on Forbes.com yesterday explaining the pervasive pseudoscientific stigma associated with bisphenol-A (BPA). Dr. Whelan summarizes: “Basically, there are two ways of looking at BPA. There is the rational, scientific approach, which says that there is no known danger associated with BPA, and then there is the more common, emotional point of view that is to blame for all of this unfounded panicking and product banning.”

ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross believes that the latter is attributable to manipulation of the public by anti-chemical activists: “If you do enough studies on enough animals, eventually you’ll get some statistically significant results that are irrelevant to humans. A junk science journal will publish your results, and then you can get some media personality to assume this focused crusade against it. Eventually, it will make its way to Congress and get banned.” This same formula has recently worked against phthalates in soft plastics.

Attack of the Geriatrics

Census data suggests that the number of people aged sixty-five or more will triple by 2050. That age group has already expanded by more than double the growth rate for the general population since 2000, and the trend is expected to continue with more Baby Boomers and China’s Red Guard generation. Likely with these demographic data in mind, President Obama has said that overhauling Medicare and Social Security is critical.

“This is a tremendous demographic shift with significant implications for health care,” says Dr. Whelan. “For one thing, drug companies are going to have to rearrange their priorities to focus on Alzheimer’s and dementia research.”

For more information, see ACSH’s publication on Alzheimer’s disease.

Obesity and Cancer: Pt. 1

Obesity seems to be the medical concern of the day. One New York Times article references a study to be published in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association that determined that “adults who were overweight as teens were twice as likely as similar adults who had never been overweight to develop pancreatic cancer later in life, and people who were obese as young adults were at more than twice the risk of adults who had never been obese.”

“We’ve known for some time that obesity is a risk factor for pancreatic cancer,” says Dr. Whelan. “This study says that, even in adolescence, obesity puts you on the fast track for pancreatic cancer. That is really frightening, considering the increasing numbers of obese children.”

Obesity and Cancer: Pt. 2

On a related note, Swedish researchers published a study in today’s Lancet Oncology medical journal that seemed to indicate that women who had their stomachs stapled were at a reduced risk for cancer, though the same results were not obtained for men.

“In a way, that would make sense, since being overweight is a risk factor for many cancers,” says Dr. Whelan. “However, so many journalists fall into the trap of treating cancer like one disease, and this article does the same.”

Dr. Ross agrees: “This is an imprecise, unscientific article. It’s based on a case control study, and a small one, so I don’t put much stock in it at all.”

New Nukes

Venture capitalist Bob Metcalfe has an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal that champions the use of modern nuclear energy as a means to alleviate the economic and environmental strain of fossil fuels: “[I]f it’s cheap and clean energy we want, we should clear the way for fission energy start-ups. We should lower the barriers at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the approval of new nuclear reactors, especially the new small ones.”

ACSH staffers are relieved to see such a valuable -- yet disregarded -- energy alternative discussed practically. “A lot of people are afraid of nuclear power for reasons that we don’t find realistic,” says ACSH’s Dr. Ruth Kava. “For some reason they’re concerned about the leakage of radiation. We need to remind everyone that the Three Mile Island scare basically brought development to a halt for no reason, since there was no serious leakage, and that no one was hurt.”

For more information, see ACSH’s publication on Nuclear Energy and Health.


June 23rd, 2009
 

Health Advice Futility, E. Coli Reality, Rebellious Eating, and 3/D
 

By Curtis Porter
 

 
 

Health vs. Hunger
 

Yesterday, Mintel Menu Insights revealed in a press release that people overwhelmingly disregard the health quality of food when dining out, opting instead for certain menu items based on taste, hunger satisfaction, and price. This revelation comes as no surprise to ACSH’s Todd Seavey: “America loves donuts. The rest of this public health haranguing is as irrelevant and futile as confessing to a priest once a month about impure thoughts and serves much the same guilt-acknowledging social function.”
 

ACSH staffers hope this will help disabuse the public of the notion propagated by some activist groups that the food industry is to blame for unhealthy meal options. ACSH’s Jeff Stier once had a conversation with the head of nutrition at Burger King, and he recalls the lesson he learned about failed attempts to market healthy alternatives in fast food chains. “People will eat what they want to eat,” says Stier. “The effort to blame companies for selling people what they want is a misguided approach.”
 

ACSH’s Dr. Ruth Kava agrees: “This underscores the point we’ve been trying to make, which is that simply putting things like calorie content on a menu board doesn’t mean that people will automatically choose a healthy diet. We need to work on motivating people to choose healthier food by making nutrition seem as important as taste and price.”
 

Former FDA commissioner David Kessler is among those attacking the food industry, likening their marketing techniques to those of the cigarette companies. But the comparison between deadly products like cigarettes -- which are designed to be addictive -- and food is disingenuous at best.
 

“That argument is way out of line,” says Dr. Kava. “Food makers are, of course, trying to produce foods that appeal to people, but foods are not cigarettes.”
 

Nestle Responds to E. Coli Threat
 

Recently, Nestle USA voluntarily recalled its prepackaged, refrigerated cookie dough products after they had been linked to E. coli infections across twenty-eight states. Nestle is fully cooperating with FDA and CDC efforts to inform people of the dangers of eating this and other raw foods intended to be cooked before consumption. ACSH staffers are glad to see this being addressed, and we view it as an unfortunate example of occasional contamination that no degree of oversight could prevent every time.
 

“The food safety legislation that Congress is considering would not have prevented this,” says Stier. “The corporation is withdrawing the product on its own. It goes to show you that even a big company that has the best resources available to track and recall products can never ensure 100% safety of their food. If this was made in China, there’d be an uproar calling for more regulation, but it is likely that the contamination came from the United States. Country of origin labeling wouldn’t help. These things happen. Any system will have some failure.”
 

Heart Attack Grill
 

In an unabashed rejection of nanny-state diet micromanagement, a restaurant in Arizona called the Heart Attack Grill uses hospital themes to make light of eating the egregiously unhealthy food they serve. Menu items include the “quadruple bypass burger” that tops out at about 8,000 calories, and unlimited “flat-line fries.” Customers -- called “patients” -- are even warned before entering that “this place is bad for your health.”
 

“This is their form of rebellion against government intervention,” says ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. “These people are tired of being told what to do, and in some sense, they should be.”
 

Dr. Gilbert Ross adds: “Obviously we don’t think people should be eating unhealthy food all the time, and I would not advise anyone to even visit the Heart Attack Grill -- who needs that kind of temptation? But we do believe that in a well-balanced diet that will not promote obesity, there is room for so-called junk food, better termed ‘fun food,’ every once in a while.”
 

Vitamin D, Omega-3 Study
 

A large, government-sponsored study has been designed to test the effects of vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acid supplements on a patient’s risk for heart disease, cancer, or stroke. The study’s co-leader, Dr. JoAnn Manson of Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, is excited about the potential benefits that might be discovered, but she seems to share ACSH staffers’ concern for scientific integrity: “We should be cautious before jumping on the bandwagon to take mega-doses of these supplements. We know from history that many of these nutrients that looked promising in observational studies didn’t pan out.”
 

“We’re glad they’re looking into it. These are becoming popular supplements, but we still need more data before we’re sure that they’re actually beneficial,” says Dr. Whelan.
 

“Also,” adds Dr. Kava, “vitamin D in high doses over long periods of time can definitely have harmful effects. It’s important not to fall for the ‘if a little is good, a lot is better’ myth.”


June 22nd, 2009
 

Friends, Rubber, Pot, and Junior High Breast Exams
 

By Curtis Porter
 

 
 

Good Advice from Some Friends
 

There was a host of familiar names decorating the Forbes.com opinion page over the weekend. ACSH Advisor and AEI fellow Dr. Sally Satel takes on the issue of organ donation, recommending incentives to boost availability in light of a staggeringly deficient supply highlighted by Apple's Steve Jobs' recent liver transplant.
 

ACSH Trustee, Hoover Institution Fellow, and former FDA official Dr. Henry I. Miller suggests ways by which the FDA might increase efficiency without compromising service or financially penalizing valuable industrial sectors.
 

Finally, ACSH’s Jeff Stier explains the increased risk of trying to eliminate risk by imposing government regulations that stifle innovation.
 

Meanwhile, in another corner of cyberspace, ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross attempts to calm the needless panic surrounding bisphenol-A in plastic products. This article is especially apt in light of yet another misguided ban of phthalates, this time in Canada.
 

Rubber and Lead
 

According to an article in this morning’s USA Today, documents released under the Freedom of Information Act to the advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or PEER, indicate that rubber used to surface playgrounds can be contaminated with lead and other toxins: “The Environmental Protection Agency has endorsed rubber play surfaces since 1991, both to protect children from head injuries and prevent tires from ending up in landfills, where they can catch fire or become breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Yet EPA officials say they can’t vouch for the safety of recycled rubber.” ACSH staffers have heard of similar concerns before.
 

“For some time, we’ve danced around the issue of the alleged danger of Astroturf because there are supposedly trace levels of lead in it,” recalls Stier.
 

Dr. Ross doesn’t see any cause for alarm: “There is probably a miniscule amount of lead in Astroturf and other recycled rubber products. The question is, how much of a threat do they pose, if any, and what safer material might replace them? Any other material will probably come under similar criticism.”
 

Stier’s article on Forbes.com will look increasingly relevant as risk-tradeoff becomes a more prevalent theme in child safety. “The problem is that parents will see this as a risk for their kids’ safety, so they won’t take kids to a playground,” says Stier. “Instead, they’ll sit at home and be deprived of healthy exercise.”
 

“That’s the problem with trying to keep kids too safe,” says ACSH’s Dr. Ruth Kava. “They’re never 100% safe, and trying to make it that way can sometimes have adverse effects.”
 

ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan sees the hype in simpler terms: “Another slow news day, another scare.”
 

Prop 65 and Pot
 

California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment declared on Friday that the smoke from Marijuana is carcinogenic and therefore falls under the purview of the state’s Proposition 65, which requires all products with suspected carcinogens to carry warning labels.
 

“Prop 65 is an unproductive law which provides no health benefit – except to lawyers,” says Dr. Ross. “It has done nothing but encourage California’s thriving bounty hunter litigation so that companies can be sued for not using the right warning labels.”
 

For more information, see ACSH’s publication on California’s Prop 65 and ACSH’s monograph on America’s War on “Carcinogens”.
 

Breast Cancer Screening in Junior High
 

Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Senator Amy Klobuchar have not withdrawn their proposal to introduce breast cancer screening in junior high school, despite the warnings of the chief physician of the American Cancer Society, an NIH cancer prevention expert, and a prominent breast cancer epidemiologist, all of whom believe that the bill could do more harm than good. As usual, ACSH staffers agree with legitimate medical professionals. “This is a ridiculous proposal,” says Dr. Whelan. Still, it is difficult to criticize an idea that sounds so proactive.
 

“This legislation is getting support because who could oppose an effort to reduce breast cancer?” asks Stier.
 

Though a worthy endeavor, the bill might not be as effective as hoped. “If they start screening junior high students, the number of false positives would go up dramatically,” explains Dr. Ross. “So will health care costs when young women are incorporated into the health care system for tests and treatments that they don’t need and which are quite likely to do more harm than good.”


June 19th, 2009
 

Weekend Reading, Flu, CSPI, Stier V Burros Redux


By Curtis Porter


 


Weekend Reading


Happy Father’s Day weekend, from all of us at ACSH.


ACSH advisor Betsy McCaughey has an op-ed in the New York Times about medical spending.


Be sure to follow ACSH’s Jeff Stier on twitter at http://twitter.com/JeffACSH for up-to-the-minute articles and insights.


 


No New Flu


The CDC recently rejected reports from Brazilian scientists who claimed to have discovered a novel strain of the H1N1 virus. ACSH staffers were skeptical of the report when it was released, and we are pleased to see such an issue addressed objectively without unnecessary media attention.


More Flu News


In other Swine Flu news, an article from Reuters pointed out that the virus is displaying persistence uncharacteristic of the more common seasonal influenza. Cases continue to present themselves even as the weather warms up, and younger people are being affected. “One reason it’s so different is that it is heavily striking children,” says ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, “which is due to the fact that older people have some degree of immunity, but children have never been exposed to anything like this.” Thankfully, however, this novel influenza virus does not seem to be any more virulent than the common seasonal flu virus – indeed, maybe a bit less dangerous, so far.


 


CPSI and ACSH Join Hands, Figuratively


 


The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CPSI) is threatening to sue Bayer Healthcare if they continue to advertise a multivitamin as a method of prevention against prostate cancer based on the fact that it contains selenium, a supplement whose prevention abilities have been thoroughly refuted. This is a rare instance of harmony between ACSH staffers and CSPI. “We join CSPI in criticizing Bayer and we’re not at all reluctant to do so,” says Stier, “which undermines CSPI’s argument that we aren’t willing to criticize industry because we receive money from them. This is a case of bad science used to deceive consumers, and we condemn it just as we would in every other situation.”


 


Setting the Record Straight


 


Our own Jeff Stier has issued a rebuttal to Marion Burros’ inept attack on him and other levelheaded critics of the organic food movement in Politico’s letters to the editor. Stier clearly addresses the numerous mistakes of Burros’ argument point by point, but there is more than just poor journalism at fault here. “She’s biased,” says Dr. Whelan. “She’s been promoting organic farming for 30 years. She shouldn’t be allowed to report on these things, since there’s no chance that all sides of the argument will be represented.”


Burros’ sole source of information regarding ACSH's position was a partial transcript of Stier’s appearance on The Daily Show, which was heavily edited for comedic effect. “Going on The Daily Show, I didn’t expect to get my whole point across,” says Stier. “It’s a comedy show, so I knew they’d mock me. I just wanted to stir things up so that we could enter into the organic food debate, as we have now done in one of Washington's key newspapers”


ACSH staffers believe that it is important to defend scientific principles regardless of the context. “Being on the show meant that our voice was heard, which is what we’re here for,” says Stier. “Recently, we took a survey among you, our supporters, and you wanted us to get our message out more clearly in Washington. This letter is merely one example of how we act on your feedback.”


June 18th, 2009
 

Milloy vs. Burros; Carrots; FDA Watching Menthol, Food, and BPA
 

 
 

By Curtis Porter
 

Thanks, Steve
 

In an article in Politico yesterday, New York Times food reporter Marion Burros lambasted critics of the organic food movement, targeting ACSH’s Jeff Stier. She chose to substantiate her ridicule of Stier with a partial transcript of his heavily edited appearance on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. “It is emblematic of Burros’s reporting to rely on a comedy show for research,” says Stier. “I knew The Daily Show would mock our opinion, but I didn’t expect a  New York Times reporter to take the show seriously. If she had cared to ask me, I would have explained our position directly, but clearly she wasn’t interested.”
 

Steve Milloy responded to Burros’ shoddy journalism with a defense of Stier followed by harsh criticism of Michelle Obama’s activism. “While we don’t agree with everything he says, we appreciate his support and understand his distaste for lazy reporting,” says Stier.
 

Great News!
 

In an exciting new scientific development, researchers at Newcastle University have cracked the code as to why carrots that are cooked whole are so much more scrumptious than those that are first cut and then cooked: Uncut carrots retain more sugar. As a special bonus for carrot fans, this culinary trick also locks in some nutrients. “The cooking process releases some of the nutrients of carrots,” explains ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan.
 

“It’s called bioavailability,” says Stier. “The same is true for lycopene in tomatoes.”
 

The breakthrough represents a devastating blow to the raw-foods-only contingent. “There is no scientific evidence to support the raw food movement,” says ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross. “But I wouldn’t exactly join a cooked foods movement either. You can’t take a definite position about only raw or only cooked food because there’s no generalization that applies to all food.”
 

Spotlight on Menthol
 

Under the tobacco regulation bill recently passed by Congress, flavoring in cigarettes will be banned to diminish the attraction of smoking to youth smokers, with the exception of menthol. Menthol-flavored cigarettes represent 27% of the market and are the product of choice for 75% of African-American smokers. When the bill is signed into law, the FDA will be required to study the medical effects of menthol -- which has a mild anesthetic property that could exacerbate the dangers of smoking by reducing the harshness of the tobacco -- and the FDA will have the authority to ban it if they find it unhealthy.
 

“Cherry and clove flavors can go, but the tobacco industry wouldn’t tolerate menthols being banned,” says Dr. Ross. “They’re too big a market, and since they’re predominantly used by African-Americans, there’s a racial discrimination aspect to the issue of restricting them. Whichever way the FDA goes on menthol, it will create an uproar -- which is why it was carved out of the current bill so as to guarantee its passage, so fervently desired by Altria.”
 

Food Bill
 

The bill granting the FDA expanded oversight of food industries won the approval of the House Energy and Commerce Committee yesterday. ACSH staffers are concerned about a number of provisions contained in the bill. Among them is the assignment of a research project to the FDA to further investigate possible health effects of bisphenol-A (BPA), a chemical used to harden plastics that has been repeatedly confirmed as safe in its current application.
 

“It was an eleventh-hour thing where they snuck BPA into the legislation,” says Stier. “They were already studying it for academic purposes, and now there’s a legislative initiative to have the FDA write up a report for Congress.”
 

Dr. Ross thinks the study will do more harm than good, even if it does corroborate the safety of BPA: “This will raise the profile of the issue, giving momentum to BPA opponents and offering credence to the disproved idea that this is a dangerous product that needs to be tested.”
 

Dr. Whelan doubts the study would convince anyone either way: “The FDA will take two years to turn in this report and some states will have banned it by then. Up until a few months ago, the FDA was good about paying attention to the evidence concerning BPA. Now the hype could start all over again.”
 

The bill also has a provision to enforce country-of-origin labeling (“COOL”), which would require food products to have their ingredients’ origins noted on the package. “The underlying reason for the legislation is an irrational fear of Chinese imports,” says Stier. “I reject the notion that we are safer because we know where food comes from. Food should be safe no matter where it’s from.”


June 17th, 2009
 

School Children, Swine, Colons, and Smell
 

By Curtis Porter
 

 
 

 
 

Zicam: Now with Odor-Eliminating Power
 

Matrixx Initiatives is on the defensive since they were ordered to stop selling Zicam intranasal cold remedies after more than 130 reports of people who lost their sense of smell after using the zinc-based, homeopathic products. A public health advisory posted on the FDA website said the products “have all been associated with long-lasting or permanent loss of smell” and “have not been shown to be effective in the reduction of the duration and severity of cold symptoms.”
 

“The manufacturers marketed Zicam as a homeopathic treatment so that they didn’t need FDA approval,” explains ACSH’s Jeff Stier. “This is a problem because homeopathic supplements are like other diet supplements under the Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act of 1994 in that they don’t need to be proven effective or even safe. This law’s deferential treatment of dietary supplements is based on the unscientific notion that ‘natural’ cures are somehow safer.”
 

“I would like to know just how dangerous this stuff is,” says ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross, “but we will probably never know, since they aren’t required to tell us.”
 

“Either way, the benefits are unproven, so even a small risk is enough to take it off the shelves,” says Stier.
 

Vaccines in Schools
 

School children may be a priority for next flu season’s vaccinations, according to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “Young people are petri dishes for flu incubation,” says Dr. Ross. “Last year the CDC decided to focus on kids in order to prevent the spread of flu, and that may be their strategy again, especially if they decide to vaccinate against swine flu.”
 

Flu vaccination clinics may even be operated out of schools. “I think that’s a brilliant idea,” says Dr. Ross. “It’s a convenient location, and giving an intramuscular flu shot is a straightforward procedure. School nurses are more than qualified to do it.”
 

New Strain of Swine Flu
 

Brazilian scientists reported on Tuesday that they have identified a new strain of the H1N1 virus after examining samples from a patient in Sao Paulo. It is not yet determined if the mutated form is more virulent.
 

“Influenza viruses are notoriously plastic. They change quite readily,” explains Dr. Ross. “If you analyze the genome of the currently circulating flu virus you’re going to find variability. So if the swine flu virus does mutate to become more virulent, it will most likely still contain many of the same antigens. The vaccine being developed and produced for this new H1N1 variant should still provide substantial protection, and it should still prevent a lot of cases.”
 

Virtual Colonoscopies
 

Italian researchers reported on Tuesday that “virtual” colonoscopies performed with computed tomography scans might be a viable alternative to traditional, invasive methods that use a tiny camera threaded through the colon.
 

“We’ve heard of this before, but this is the first time I’ve seen an article that says screening ability is comparable to regular colonoscopy,” says ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. “It’s known to be less reliable, you still have to go through the same unpleasant prep, and the CT scan doesn’t have the ability to remove a polyp. If they did find one, they’d have to start all over to remove it the standard way.”
 

Dr. Ross sees this as a potentially beneficial discovery: “This is a case where we can’t let the perfect become an enemy of the good. The virtual scan will still miss some polyps that the traditional colonoscopy would catch. However, less than 50% of adults over fifty who should be screened are getting the procedure because they are embarrassed, or they mistakenly believe that it’s uncomfortable. If you could get those people in to their doctor to have one, it’s a good thing.”


June 16th, 2009
 

FDA, CTFK, MDRs, AMA-ACSH, AA?


By Curtis Porter


 


A Toast to the FDA


ACSH staffers are doubly impressed with the FDA today. Regulators have advised parents to continue medicating their children for ADHD despite the risk of sudden death suggested by a study that used questionable methods.


“This is a legitimate benefit-risk analysis by the FDA,” says ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross. “The study [to which they are reacting] used dubious methods and argued from inconclusive data. The FDA should be applauded for saying that this is not a cause and effect study and parents should not change their children’s drug regimen.”


In yet another display of regulatory competence, the FDA has been targeting websites that peddle fraudulent swine flu prevention and treatment products. “We are committed to aggressively pursuing those who attempt to take advantage of a public health emergency by promoting and marketing unapproved, uncleared, or unauthorized products,” said FDA chief Margaret A. Hamburg, in a news release yesterday.


These are red-letter achievements for the FDA in the battle against bad science. “Two cheers for the FDA,” declares Dr. Ross.


Free Speech for Tobacco Companies


Duff Wilson reports in today’s New York Times that advertising restrictions imposed on tobacco companies by the latest FDA regulation law are likely to be challenged as infringements on free speech. ACSH staffers noticed one particular defense of the law, made by Matthew L. Myers of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the group that teamed up with Altria to draft the legislation: “In this case, great care was taken to permit black-and-white text advertising that permits them to communicate whatever truthful information they have.”


“That isn’t true,” says ACSH’s Jeff Stier. “Certain companies have a vested interest in being able to advertise that smokeless tobacco has been proven less harmful than smoking, and they will not be permitted to do that.”


Supporters of the law also cite studies going back to 2001, indicating that youths were influenced even by tobacco advertisements specifically designed to appeal to adults, as justification for the law’s very broad prohibitions on advertising. “If they’re saying youth are affected by advertising aimed at adults, where does it end?” asks Stier. “Why not ask for a complete ban on advertising?”


“People like us who opposed this bill because of the lack of benefit to public health acknowledge that there are some health benefits involved with limiting advertising,” says Dr. Ross, “but then again, that sort of provision would have already come with the Master Settlement Agreement of 1999, without having to sacrifice helpful cessation products.”


Functional Foods


The Wall Street Journal published an article yesterday examining the latest trend of fortifying foods with extra nutrients. The article quotes ACSH advisor Dr. Adam Drewnowski, a nutrition professor at the University of Washington, who points out that the issue isn’t so much whether these calorie-dense functional foods work, but how individuals perceive them: “The trend is so new, we’re waiting on this data, but because people assume their nutritional needs have been met, there’s a chance they’ll make poorer choices for the rest of their meal.”


ACSH’s Dr. Ruth Kava adds: “There are no daily requirements established for many of these added compounds, so there’s no way for a consumer to know if the amount in a particular food will be too little, just right, or excessive.”


For more information, see ACSH’s publication on functional foods.


AMA Agrees with ACSH


At their annual meeting in Chicago on Monday, the American Medical Association echoed ACSH staffers’ assessment that there's no scientific evidence to justify the claims of anti-aging hormones, including the so-called “bio-identicals” touted by celebrity non-expert Suzanne Sommers.


“This is a good thing for the AMA to recognize,” says Dr. Kava. “I just hope it has an effect on public perception. These hormones are not just ineffective for their touted purpose, they can also be dangerous when used without medical direction.”


Scientists Against Moderate Drinking


Some scientists have expressed doubt about the conventional wisdom that moderate alcohol consumption can provide health benefits. “They think there’s a healthy-person confounder in these epidemiological studies,” explains Dr. Ross. “In other words, it’s difficult to distinguish the health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption from those of other healthy practices when you’re dealing with people who have good health habits in general.”


Just as smokeless tobacco companies are prohibited from mentioning the relative harm reduction accompanying use of their product, companies selling alcohol are not allowed to state the current evidence concerning the benefits of moderate consumption of alcohol.


ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan thinks the skeptics might be too dubious: “The reality is that there are those people in public health that believe that something which is harmful in excess cannot ever be healthy, even in moderation.”


Some scientists have called for a definitive study to test the effects of drinking, but Dr. Ross doesn’t think such an experiment is feasible: “You can’t do a controlled randomized trial, since no ethical committee would condone the use of a test group to contrast the effects of heavy drinking versus moderate drinking.”


For further reference, see ACSH’s publication on the health effects of moderate alcohol consumption.


June 15th, 2009
 

Broke But Still Organic; Flu; Food Prize; Labels of Dread
 

By Curtis Porter
 

 
 

This Just In: Unhealthy Eating Habits Are Still Unhealthy
 

Hallie Levine Sklar of Self  has successfully followed the formula for writing yet another article that connects economic distress with unhealthy eating habits. Her list of dejected stress-eaters yields this quote, which ACSH staffers found interesting: “I’m buying whatever organic food is on sale, whether it’s healthy or not...Last night I was making macaroni and cheese, thinking, am I so broke that I’m really eating this?”
 

“Her first problem is that she’s only buying food labeled as ‘organic’,” says ACSH’s Jeff Stier. “She’s paying extra for a product that doesn’t provide any extra benefit. At least she recognizes that there is some organic food that is unhealthy, which organic food proponents rarely admit.”
 

ACSH’s Dr. Ruth Kava adds: “Financial trouble doesn’t mean you have to neglect nutrition. The principles of healthy eating and managing calorie intake remain the same, and there are always affordable options to help keep them in consideration.”
 

Miller Confirms our Suspicion
 

Dr. Henry Miller of ACSH’s Board of Trustees and Stanford University's Hoover Institution is a molecular biologist and former flu researcher who argues in the Washington Times that the swine flu pandemic was labeled as such too readily. He writes, “[WHO’s] official declaration of a pandemic...illustrates that WHO's fundamental paradigm is flawed: A warning system based solely on how widely a virus has spread and not considering the nature of the illness it causes is prone to false positives.”
 

ACSH staffers agree. “We took a more nuanced approach but essentially agree with his point. If the WHO has these flu standards, then why not apply them? Maybe this rationale will spur them to change the rules,” says Stier.
 

ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross adds: “If the WHO actually applied their own rules, the annual seasonal flu epidemics which strike the northern hemisphere each winter (and the southern hemisphere during their winter) would also be labeled as ‘pandemics.’ They aren’t, due solely to tradition and the fact that WHO doesn’t want to scare everyone each year.”
 

Ejeta Wins World Food Prize
 

Ethiopian geneticist Gebisa Ejeta of Purdue University was honored with the 2009 World Food Prize for developing strains of sorghum that are resistant to drought and the parasitic weed Striga. The prize was established in 1986 by agronomist and ACSH founding trustee Dr. Norman Borlaug, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his production of a high-yield variety of wheat, which marked the beginning of the Green Revolution and has saved some 1 billion lives to date.
 

Striga has been a considerable bane of African agriculture. “Having discovered the bio-chemical basis of Striga's parasitic relationship with sorghum, [Ejeta] produced many sorghum varieties resistant to drought and to Striga with yields ten times greater than local varieties,” explains Kenneth Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation.
 

“Environmentalists should be applauding this achievement, since it uses less land, water, and pesticides to grow the same amount of crops and therefore aids conservation efforts,” says Stier.
 

Dr. Kava adds: “It could also allow farmers, especially sustenance farmers, to save money by using less herbicide against Striga, for those fortunate enough to have access to herbicide.”
 

“This is something that people across the spectrum from the left to the right should be celebrating,” says Stier. Even so, ACSH staffers doubt that we'll hear any endorsements of this lifesaving research from the anti-chemical activists at Greenpeace and similar groups.
 

 
 

Dangerous Side Effects, Dangerous Labels
 

According to an Associated Press article on Friday, “After fifteen months of investigation, the Food and Drug Administration said Merck & Co. Inc., AstraZeneca, and Cornerstone Therapeutics will have to raise label warnings about psychiatric problems reported by a handful of patients taking their [asthma] drugs.” Potential problems include depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and insomnia.
 

ACSH staffers fear that this, like other warnings with similarly horrific language, might discourage patients from seeking much-needed medication. “It’s important for any doctor to discuss the risks of a medication with patients,” says Stier, “but it’s also important to discuss the benefits of the medication as well as the risk of _not_ taking it.”
 

“Hopefully, this won’t follow the trend of counterproductive and unanticipated effects of excessive black-box warnings from the FDA,” says Dr. Ross. “Some people correctly read them as alerts that there can be these effects, but some doctors and parents of sick children will be so fearful that they won’t give kids the medication they require.”
 

“The most effective solution to a problem like this is for parents and doctors to pay attention to possible effects that a medication might be having on their child,” says Dr. Kava, “but of course, that’s true for any medicine.”
 

For more information, including asthma treatment options, see ACSH’s publication on asthma.


June 12th, 2009
 

Pandemic Alert, Our Brilliant Interns, Coke Zero, and Tobacco Mistake


By Curtis Porter


Novartis to the Rescue


One day after the “phase six pandemic” alarm bells were sounded, Swiss pharmaceuticals company Novartis AG reports that it has successfully produced a first batch of swine flu vaccine using cells rather than eggs. “We should be proud of these people,” says ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. “They’re using new technology, and they’re helping people. It’s the first good news we’ve heard about this whole ordeal.”


ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross believes that this bodes well for the approaching flu season: “By the end of this year, we should have mega-doses of vaccine against swine flu in addition to the usual seasonal flu vaccines.”


Check it Out


ACSH staffers would like to take a moment to toot our own horn, if we may. We’ve always known that our interns are brilliant, but it’s nice to see others catching on as well. We’ve missed Lizzie Wade for a whole week now as she travels to Mexico to begin studying comparative literature with a Fulbright scholarship, and today we were reminded of former intern and Rhodes Scholar David Robinson, who composed our publication on cancer clusters with super-human speed and verve. David has a book review about viral internet sensations published in today’s Wall Street Journal, which reminds us to remind you to check out Jeff Stier’s ACSH blog here, now at www.twitter.com/jeffacsh. And of course we have to mention Wyatt Yankus who just graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude from Princeton! In the course of one brief summer, Wyatt produced our booklet on counterfeit drugs.


Zero Tolerance for Coke Zero in Venezuela


The Venezuelan government under outspoken U.S.-critic Hugo Chavez has banned Coke Zero from the South American country, citing unspecified “dangers to health.”


“This couldn’t possibly be an actual health issue,” says Dr. Whelan. ACSH’s Jeff Stier recalls similar, politically motivated threats to American marketing abroad, which he related in a Forbes article last March: “At first glance, this looks like the familiar old junk science used to justify protectionism, but it’s not protectionism, it’s strictly political. Chavez is known to dislike American industry.”


Giant Step Backward


The moment that ACSH staffers have been dreading has finally arrived. The U.S. Senate approved the bill granting regulatory authority of tobacco to the FDA. Senate majority leader Dick Durbin was among those congratulating themselves, claiming, “The tobacco companies' days of peddling one of the most deadly products in the world have finally come to an end.” Dr. Ross is incredulous. “I’m sure Phillip Morris will be heart-broken,” he said, referring to the fact that Altria, parent company of Phillip Morris, coauthored the bill, making sure to secure their market against competitors and smokeless tobacco alternatives.


A New York Times editorial quotes Congressional Budget Office estimates predicting an 11% decline in teen smoking and a 2% decline in adult smoking over the next decade. “Where’s the miracle here?” asks Dr. Ross, “Slightly over one percent of teens per year is not a dramatic accomplishment, and those are rosy estimates to begin with.”


Dr. Whelan is not as optimistic as the Congressional Budget Office: “The passage of this bill will make harm reduction education much more difficult. It is an absolute travesty that the FDA, the organization responsible for ensuring the safety of our food and medicine, is now overseeing a leading cause of death in America. That sort of oversight implies that the product is safe.”


The bill reinforces this illusion from another vantage point as well. “Altria put out a press release saying that they were going to comply completely with the law,” says Stier, “thereby portraying themselves as an innocent company that is abiding by FDA standards. They’re basically immune to litigation.”


Dr. Ross doesn’t doubt that Altria will abide by the law: “They’re more than happy to comply with FDA. It’s a business contract for them. Financial analysts predict great things for Phillip Morris, so that says it all. Despite this setback, we’ll continue to work with other anti-smoking groups that are not just interested in politics in order to reduce smoking in America.”


June 11th, 2009
 

NCCAM, BPA, FDA, WHO, GMOs, and Mental Health for the Young


By Curtis Porter


 


High Price of Nonsense


As noted in an article featuring ACSH Advisor Dr. Stephen Barrett of Quackwatch, research into the efficacy of “alternative medicine” has run up a government tab of $2.5 billion over ten years and returned predictably dismal results. “You expect scientific thinking [at a federal science agency],” said R. Barker Bausell, author of Snake Oil Science and a research methods expert at the University of Maryland. “It's become politically correct to investigate nonsense.”


ACSH staffers couldn’t agree more. “Our tax dollars are going to evaluating these supplements instead of legitimate medical research,” says ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan.


“Maybe they should be held to the same head-to-head standard as pharmaceuticals,” suggests ACSH's Jeff Stier, referring to the federally mandated “comparative effectiveness” research requirement that pharmaceuticals not only be proven safe and effective, but also superior to other drugs in the same class. “Then people will know once and for all what a scam these supplements are.”


 


More Attacks on BPA


The Endocrine Society is calling for the reduced use of bisphenol-A, a chemical used to harden plastics that is frequently and erroneously accused of disrupting hormones. ACSH staffers agree with rigorous FDA studies that BPA poses no risk to humans in low doses.


“In this case the endocrine society is completely wrong,” says ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross. “They’re making a scientifically illegitimate statement, and it’s profoundly disappointing. This is a poorly disguised restatement of the low-dose phenomenon, which has been repeatedly discredited as a threat to humans.”


Dr. Whelan asks, “If they have real medical doctors among them, why are they tolerating this junk science?”


 


Brown: Keep Smoking for the Children


The newest likely victim of the travesty that is the proposed FDA tobacco regulation bill is a dissolvable nicotine-delivery system developed by R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company that could be a valuable cessation device. The product’s detractors, such as Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, are calling it “tobacco candy” that is marketed to children: “For years, tobacco companies have deceived consumers and marketed products to children -- continually trying to replace the 400,000 customers they lose each year to tobacco-related deaths and illnesses.”


Dr. Ross takes issue with that assertion: “This product is unlikely to come with any significant health risk -- certainly far less than those caused by smoking -- and it could help people quit smoking. That he would associate it with deaths caused by the product it replaces shows that his motivations are entirely political.” The FDA bill will impose regulative barriers that make it difficult for innovative products such as this to enter the market, and ACSH staffers dread the disastrous public health effects that will inevitably result from restricting viable cessation alternatives under the false pretext of “protecting the children.” Dr. Ross notes: "While continuously harping on the threat to ‘our children’ and ‘our kids,’ these hypocritical, politically-motivated allegations ignore the 45 million addicted adult smokers -- Sen. Brown obviously adheres to the ‘quit or die’ approach to cigarette addiction”


 


Sticks and Stones...


Daniel Henninger of the Wall Street Journal argues that the World Health Organization’s “phase six pandemic” label, applied this morning to the H1N1 virus, is a “loaded word” that will “instill a sense of panic that may impede the ability of public officials to assemble a rational response plan for this virus.” While ACSH staffers agree the WHO’s overwrought and highly public deliberation on this matter has been needlessly melodramatic, the terminology is not to blame.


“Calling this a pandemic is not irresponsible behavior,” explains Dr. Whelan. “That’s merely the system in place. All it says is that swine flu is in a predetermined number of countries. So either modify the criterion or use it as it is intended.”


Stier agrees: “It’s not even a decision, just an application of the standard, and it should have been applied a while ago to prevent all of this fuss.” ACSH staffers agree with the WHO director, who has said that modifying the terminology to reflect the virulence of the epidemic in addition to the geographical spread would benefit efforts to educate the public and calm needless fears.


 


Breakthrough Medications


The FDA's panel of psychiatric experts voted to approve  the use of three drugs produced by AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, and Pfizer for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in patients ages ten to seventeen. The drugs, already approved for treatment of adults, represent a remarkable achievement in the struggle against these devastating diseases, which affect 2.4 million and 5.7 million Americans, respectively.


“There are significant obstacles to getting drugs for children approved,” notes Dr. Whelan, “so it’s always wonderful news that drug companies are making these breakthroughs and showing them to be safe.”


 


Intrepid Journalist Stands Up Against Facts


According to self-described “citizen journalist” Ethan Huff, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine has decided amongst themselves that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) should be avoided by the public and banned until their safety can be confirmed by long-term studies. The article accuses the FDA of complicity in a diabolical plot with big corporations to keep people ignorant about their food, cites some spurious examples of “dangerous” GMOs, and advises everyone to opt instead for foods that are labeled “organic.”


Dr. Ross weighs in: “The only interesting thing about this piece, which was complete garbage, is that it claims that ‘children are the most likely people to experience the adverse effects of GMOs,’ so therefore ‘children become the experimental animals’ to test these things. It ignores any facts whatsoever and jumps right into trying to scare people.”


“These so-called activist groups just form their own societies and journals in order to get around the Daubert standard,” says Dr. Whelan, referring to a legal precedent regarding the admissibility of expert witnesses’ testimony in court. “This is completely irresponsible reporting.”


June 10th, 2009
 

WHO, Supplements, Food Inc.

By Curtis Porter

WHO Prepares to State the Obvious

Over the past few weeks, the World Health Organization has been claiming repeatedly that the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, will be declared a level six pandemic, the designation of highest possible concern. The virus has infected 26,563 people in seventy-three countries and caused 140 deaths.  ACSH staffers believe that the WHO should take action. “We see articles like this every other day, and they’re always saying they’re on the verge of raising H1N1 to level six. So when will they do it and get it over with so they can stop talking about it?” asks ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan.

ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross understands why the WHO is stepping lightly: “They’re trying to prepare the public so that the declaration doesn’t cause a panic, since the level six designation is really just a statistical consideration.”

Some delays have been attributed to a modification of the scale used to label the outbreak. “Last week they said they incorporated into the scale not only the frequency of cases but also the virulence,” says Dr. Whelan, “which would actually diminish the virus’ status, since it does not appear to be highly virulent thus far.”

Dr. Ross adds, "But this new influenza strain will likely recur with more intensity in the fall and winter, so complacency -- especially in developing and producing an effective vaccine -- is not in order."

Whatever the reasons for dragging this out, ACSH staffers have grown weary of hearing the WHO constantly crying wolf. Dr. Whelan advises: “Do it or be quiet about it.”

The Supplement Trifecta: Useless, Mislabeled, and Dangerous

Vitamin, herbal, and otherwise non-regulated supplements have fared poorly under increasingly public scrutiny. ACSH staffers have long maintained that these and other “alternative medicine” products are not worth the money. “Most of these supplements are the modern equivalents of nineteenth-century snake-oil,” says ACSH’s Dr. Ruth Kava.

Now it seems that some quality-control groups such as ConsumerLab.com have taken notice of the products, and they are learning that they don’t necessarily even contain what the label claims. For example, the entire world’s supply of hoodia, the African plant at the center of the latest diet craze, would at most suffice to create 10% of the supplements purported to contain it. “I hate to talk about quality control,” says Dr. Ross, “because even if the products did contain what they claim to, they are still useless. What is the recommended daily allowance of hoodia? It’s not a medical supplement.”

The same organization also found toxic contaminants in many of the products tested. Harmful metals like lead and mercury, fungal toxins, arsenic, and even dead insects were discovered in the products, which under the Dietary Supplement Health Education Act of 1994 are classified as food products and so are basically unregulated by the FDA. “It’s getting out of hand,” says Dr. Ross. “It’s one thing to market useless placebos, but when dangerous contaminants start showing up, the FDA should get involved.”

Study Reveals That Researchers Are Desperate for Results

The British Journal of Ophthalmology has reported that omega-3-fatty acids may slow the progression of early age-related macular degeneration to advanced disease. “‘May’ is the operative word here,” warns Dr. Kava.

“The problem with this study,” explains Dr. Ross, “is that the primary endpoint was apparently a controlled random trial to see which supplement -- placebo, antioxidants, zinc, or antioxidants plus zinc -- slowed macular disease. They found that none of them worked, but the pre-study food frequency questionnaires showed that diets with high amounts of omega-3’s were the only thing with any positive correlation whatsoever. That wasn’t even what they were researching, so there was no data about how many patients had any benefit or what kind.”

“This is a pretty clear case of data dredging,” says Dr. Kava.

Dr. Ross agrees: “I have no problem with omega-3’s, but that study isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.”

Big-Screen Debut: The Rant Against Corporate Food Suppliers

The documentary Food, Inc., which argues the evils of big corporations behind America’s food industry, hits the box office on Friday. So far, interviews with the creative minds behind the film have failed to impress ACSH staffers. “When folks who make movies like this are interviewed about factory farming, animal supplements, and [the protein hormone] rBST, I can safely predict that they will be full of misinformation,” says Dr. Ross.

“They just assume that big corporations have too much control, so they get away with demonizing mass-production techniques -- which are used in organic farming, too, incidentally,” says Dr. Kava. “This sounds like it will just be more propaganda for anti-industrial farming and anti-food-corporation activist groups.”


June 9, 2009
 

EPA, the Supreme Court, Antioxidants, and Phthalates


By Curtis Porter


Jeff Stier on the EPA


Today on National Review Online, ACSH’s Jeff Stier collaborates with Angela Logomasini of the Competitive Enterprise Institute to analyze the efficacy of the EPA in light of their recent request for a 37% budget increase for greater regulatory efforts: “The EPA’s public-health mission is misleading, because it is charged with addressing risks that are too small to measure or be regulated away. The agency’s current risk-assessment practices compound the problem, harming both public health and our economic wellbeing. The agency issues extremely high benefit estimates for its regulations. But these estimates are out of touch with reality.”


The article recounts several recent attempts by the EPA to address environmental and health concerns that merely resulted in the realization that expanded regulation is an impractical solution. “There is only so much money to be applied to these issues,” says Stier, and “it should be used wisely.”


Science v. Bureaucracy


ACSH staffers are interested in how the Obama administration might advise the U.S. Supreme Court concerning a Georgia family’s lawsuit against Wyeth and GlaxoSmithKline. The Georgia Supreme Court allowed the case to proceed for a determination of whether the parents’ claim -- that the use of the preservative thimerosal in several vaccines is to blame for their son’s neurological disorders -- has any merit. Wyeth and GSK contend that federal law protects vaccine manufacturers from liability. “This case could shed some light on the Obama administration’s position on issues of vaccines,” explains ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross, “so we fervently hope he comes down on the side of vaccine safety.”


The Supreme Court’s hesitation to accept the case is a testament to the gravity of the legal ramifications that could result. “It’s not a clear-cut issue,” says Stier. “If they allow it to proceed, it might mean that they think these cases should be heard entirely in the court system.”


Dr. Ross thinks that this could set an unfavorable precedent: “Epidemiology is very clear on the dangers of thimerosal, and there are none. I sure hope the administration agrees that scientifically resolved issues do not need to be retried in the U.S. judicial system.”


New Study Is Anti-Antioxidants


A study recently published in the journal Cancer indicates that antioxidant supplements may reduce the effectiveness of chemotherapy and radiation therapy by protecting the cancerous cells that the treatments are used to destroy. Heather Greenlee, assistant professor of epidemiology and medical oncology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and lead author of the study, claims that the data is inconclusive.


“I’m still waiting for some evidence that antioxidant supplements are beneficial at all,” says Dr. Ross. “This just seems like another reason to doubt all the hype surrounding these products. ‘Antioxidant’ is starting to seem like more of a marketing term than a medical term.”


ACSH’s Dr. Ruth Kava agrees: “People like the idea of antioxidants because they are marketed to appeal to their intuition about healthy eating. Healthy foods like fruit aren’t necessarily beneficial just because they have antioxidants, and some of the supplements have been proven to have no effect at all.”


Phthalates: Chauvinist Pigs?


A new study posted on the Environmental Health News website is being used to make the case that prenatal phthalate exposure decreases the alertness of newborn girls while increasing it in newborn boys.


“The analysis used here is bizarre,” says Dr. Ross. “At the root of it is the meaningless notion of an ‘endocrine disruptor,’ which is invoked to explain inconclusive results on alertness based solely on the fact that boys and girls have different hormone levels. They didn’t mention which of several phthalates had an effect on any specific hormones, which isn’t surprising since no gender-specific hormones have anything to do with alertness.”


Dr. Ross doubts that this will cause much of a stir among legitimate medical researchers: “If this rationale was presented in a medical context, as opposed to an environmental one, it would be dismissed as nonsense. What we have here is the epitome of junk science in the service of a particular anti-chemical agenda. Unfortunately, as we have come to expect, this ridiculous 'study' will now be quoted back and forth among the ‘environmentalist’ coterie as though it somehow ‘proves’ that phthalates are evil -- no matter how inane the evidence in support.”


June 8th, 2009
 

Soda, Alt-Med, Tobacco Regs, Frieden at CDC


By Curtis Porter


Voices of Reason


ACSH staffers are encouraged by some letters published in the New York Times in response to its coverage of the proposed tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. “Those who make the case against the tax are succinct, right to the point, and they can tell that this is a bad idea,” says ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan.


“The letters are very much on target,” adds ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross. “They make the case that there are better ways to ensure the health of our children, including accurate nutrition education and well-funded physical education programs in schools.”


One particularly impressive letter came from Susan Neely, President and Chief Executive of the American Beverage Association, who correctly asserts: “Taxing soda is not the solution. It will have no impact on public health. It will only take our eye off the ball and deter us from meaningful solutions.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. ACSH staffers hope that these voices of reason are considered when the tax is debated in Congress.


Alternatives to Truth


“Alternative medicine” has once again crept into popular fashion, to the chagrin of legitimate medicine. “The only thing that these practices provide is placebos,” says ACSH’s Dr. Ruth Kava, “which is not something most people seek from medical professionals.”


Dr. Ross has noticed the regrettable trend: “Despite the fact that there’s no such thing as legitimate ‘alternative medicine’ -- only real medicine and fake medicine -- it seems that more and more people and even doctors are buying into the power of superstition.”


The latest surge in popularity of pseudoscientific remedies is partially attributable to the Dietary Supplement Health Education Act of 1994, which allowed supplements and herbal nostrums to be sold without FDA approval and resulted in a market saturated with useless pills and misinformation. “No complementary or ‘alternative medicine’ supplement has ever been shown effective to treat or cure any disease,” explains Dr. Ross, “and if any supplement were scientifically proven to be effective, it would fall under the category of real medicine. People need to be wary of ‘medical’ advice that doesn’t come from medical doctors. Some of these so-called remedies can be harmful.” For a reference on the interactions between drugs and various supplements, see ACSH’s publication on drug-supplement interactions.


Strange Bedfellows


The FDA’s tobacco regulation bill will not provide immunity from consumer lawsuits even for the tobacco companies that comply with the FDA’s requirements. “The law does not grant preemption to tobacco companies,” explains ACSH’s Jeff Stier. “They can’t veer from federal law, but if they are sued [at the state level, for instance], they have no guaranteed federal protection.” The arrangement will be a Catch-22 for the cigarette manufacturers. “They can’t even say things to protect themselves from liability, since the law dictates what they’re allowed to say,” says Stier.


Those who take exception to that situation seem to be making a specious case. “I can’t see what this law would expose cigarette companies to that they aren’t already,” says Dr. Ross. “Of course, the soon-to-be-passed FDA-tobacco bill remains a terrible bill that will be harmful to public health.”


The tobacco regulation bill has led to some odd couples already. Senator Charles Grassley is an Iowa Republican who represents agricultural interests, so he is sympathetic to the complaints that representatives of tobacco farmers are making about the bill. Grassley has also criticized the FDA as inept, claiming yesterday on NPR: “They can’t walk and chew gum at the same time”. This is difficult to reconcile with his favorable opinion of the bill, which broadens FDA powers. “You would think someone like Grassley who is against regulation and who claims to be interested in public health would dislike this bill,” says Stier. ACSH staffers remain strictly opposed to the bill, which is nothing more than a tool to tighten the stranglehold that cigarette companies have on their customers by locking in already-dominant forms of tobacco and creating regulatory hurdles for (potentially safer) newcomers and alternatives.


Frieden’s War


Former New York health commissioner and current CDC chief Dr. Thomas Frieden plans to continue on a national stage the battle against smoking that he waged in New York. ACSH staffers are concerned about how he plans to approach the smoking issue. “If he’s going to make it a top priority to get people off cigarettes, we can’t object to that,” says Dr. Whelan, “but we hope he goes about it in the right way.”


Stier hopes this is not a repeat of highly successful yet highly dubious tactics already used: “If he does what he did in New York, he’s going to use junk science, exaggerate the effects of secondhand smoke, and hide behind the excuse that the end justifies the means. This strategy would harm the credibility of CDC.” Frieden also neglected to acknowledge smokeless tobacco as a means of cessation in favor of less effective methods.


ACSH staffers hope that honest, effective smoking education and help is on the horizon but remain skeptical of Frieden’s record. Dr. Whelan reflects: “Let’s just hope he doesn’t go off on wrongheaded tangents about trans fats and sugared sodas like he did in New York.”


June 5th, 2009
 

Cosmetic Changes, Vaccination Litigation, Tiny Dancers, and Rx Innovation


By Curtis Porter


All natural lies


ACSH staffers are generally disinclined to dignify frivolous Internet gossip with recognition, but in the case of a “natural” cosmetics peddler’s recent blog post attacking synthetic chemicals in cosmetics, which has been getting some undeserved attention, we figured we’d point a few things out before it gets out of hand. “This shouldn’t be too surprising. She’s a salesperson for ‘natural’ cosmetics, so she has to spread rumors to sell her products,” says ACSH’s Jeff Stier.


“You can tell it’s illegitimate for many reasons, but one is that she cites the increasing cancer rates. She just made that up,” notes ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross. “These people think they can get away with saying anything, no matter how false or misleading. Any scientist who has read medical literature knows that cancer rates are going down. Even when we did go through a ‘cancer epidemic’ from the 1950s until the 1990s, that was almost entirely attributable to smoking -- which is also on the decline in the U.S., at last.” In fact, her entire list is misleading. “None of the chemicals she mentions have been found to be harmful to humans in the amounts present in cosmetics, and these have been used in these products for decades without any reliable record of health effects,” says Dr. Ross.


ACSH’s Dr. Ruth Kava reminds us that medical advice should be left to credible medical professionals: “Be careful about believing what you read on the Internet. Anyone can write anything they want.” For further reference: ACSH’s report on the safety of cosmetics.


Vaccination vs. litigation


The World Health Organization recommended that new rotavirus vaccines made by GSK and Merck be included in all national immunization programs. The original vaccine against rotavirus, which kills over half a million children under five around the world each year, was removed from the market ten years ago because of a rare, potentially deadly side-effect.


“The side effect presented in approximately one in 10,000 cases,” says Dr. Ross, “which you would think is a minimal risk when hundreds of thousands of lives are at stake. But ‘consumer’ groups forced Wyeth to withdraw the vaccine out of fear of litigation. Unfortunately, this is merely one example of how fear of American activists and litigators ties in to a major cause of death all over the world.” A decade later, ACSH staffers are pleased to see that something is finally being done to protect sick children.


Starving artists


Dr. Anne Hoch of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee reported on a study of ballerinas that indicated they are especially vulnerable to the “female athlete tetrad,” a medical syndrome involving combinations of premature heart disease, osteoporosis, disordered eating, and menstrual dysfunction.


ACSH headquarters is a mere two blocks north of New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, so ballerina sightings are common, and staffers have noticed other trends as well. “Every ballerina that I see is smoking,” says ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. The practice is common among the dancers.


“The article should have mentioned the high smoking rates among ballerinas,” says Dr. Ross. “It’s a problematic fashion in that artistic sphere.”


There’s no question that smoking compounds the health problems endemic to the profession. “Smoking only adds to the other health issues they face, and that should be pointed out in studies like this if anyone is interested in a comprehensive solution to the problem,” says Stier. For further reference: ACSH’s publication on the many unknown and unspoken dangers of smoking.


Weekend Reading


ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross discusses the dreary outlook for innovative science and technology in an age of unchecked paranoia and litigation at TCS Daily.


ACSH’s Jeff Stier keeps you updated with news links and personal insights on Twitter.


June 4th, 2009
 

FDA, BPA, PC, and Milk

By Curtis Porter

FDA ambitions

Dr. Margaret Hamburg, the new FDA commissioner, has eagerly joined the debate on how to correct food safety problems. “Food safety legislation is something we’ve been following closely,” says ACSH’s Jeff Stier, “and there’s no doubt that the country needs improvement in food safety. The question is: how do we do it? Some of the proposed provisions are problematic.”

One troublesome provision is the country of origin labeling (COOL) program, which would require that the country of origin for all ingredients to be written on the package. “The problem with COOL is that foods today have ingredients from lots of different sources that can shift quickly,” says Stier, “so this is a false way to address a real problem, and it disregards the fact that all food distributed in this country, whether local or foreign, needs to be safe.” And of course, even ineffective ideas aren’t free. Stier points out that “at a time when we’re especially concerned about cost, this will only add to the cost of food without improving safety, so these provisions must be stripped out.” Stier made this point before on CNBC.

While on Capitol Hill, Dr. Hamburg also spoke out on bisphenol-A (BPA), a chemical that has been publicly scrutinized for years and has yet to be proven harmful. The smear campaign against BPA is a pet project of Rep. Henry Waxman, who harbors the unfounded suspicion that FDA considerations of BPA were unduly influenced by BPA-invested chemical companies. “The FDA is under pressure from Henry Waxman and others to reevaluate BPA so that he can cast himself in the role of champion of the people,” says ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan.

At this point in the BPA debate, ACSH staffers are having a hard time believing that public health is the real concern. “This argument is no longer about the science of BPA, it’s about the role of industry, and I’m afraid this fight is going to be a proxy for the issue of corporate regulation,” says Stier.

Dr. Whelan agrees: “BPA mania keeps going on because of conspiracy theories against chemical companies whose studies have been repeatedly confirmed.”

Speaking of BPA...

To the surprise of none of the ACSH staffers, an article recently published in the Journal of Urology found no evidence of so-called “endocrine disruption” as a result of exposure to BPA and certain phthalates. We don’t expect this result to be mentioned by many mainstream media sources, though, since we seem to remember making a similar assessment of the improbability of these dangers ten years ago. At the root of the issue is the whole concept of an “endocrine disruptor.”

“I have said from day one that this is a bogus term. It means nothing physiologically or medically. It’s just a term to make people sound erudite and give them license to cause panic about low doses of naturally-encountered chemicals,” says ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross.

Dr. Whelan sees the motivation behind finding new chemical suspects: “It’s a fresh idea, relatively speaking. It was launched as a new endpoint, because the cancer endpoint was getting stale, especially considering all the good news about the decline in cancer rates, contrary to the ‘cancer epidemic’ the alarmists predicted.” A dangerous result of this brand of irresponsible reporting is a perceived lack of credibility for legitimate future discoveries.

ACSH’s Dr. Ruth Kava remarks, “The thing that irks me about the whole issue is that there might be a grain of truth that some compounds could affect the endocrine system, but there’s no reason to think that these particular chemicals are the culprits. Indeed, naturally-occurring chemicals in foods would be just as valid as subjects for research.”

Milk = cola?

Senators Max Baucus and Charles Grassley of the Senate Finance Committee have proposed an excise tax on sugar-filled drinks as an initiative to curb childhood obesity, and flavored milk has been caught in the crossfire.

“When most people hear about this idea they only think of sugared sodas, so it seems plausible,” says Dr. Whelan. But having the tax extended to include chocolate milk is undesirable collateral damage.

“It’s important for kids to drink milk, and if flavored milk is what it takes to get them to drink it, this will be financially burdensome on families or discourage kids from getting necessary nutrition from milk,” says Stier.

Dr. Kava adds: “Flavored milks have all the nutrients of regular milk, so it’s a great beverage for kids to drink.” See also: Jeff Stier discussing this issue during his appearance on CNBC.

Politically Correct advice

According to a study presented at the American College of Sports Medicine’s annual meeting in Seattle, exercise for women over thirty may help stave off breast cancer. Of course, ACSH staffers recommend regular exercise for everyone, but the connection to breast cancer seems dubious. “It’s getting a decent amount of coverage but not a lot of skepticism. Health reporters tend to give a free ride to claims that things society accepts, like exercise, are good -- and things we don't like, such as synthetic chemicals, are bad, regardless of the strength of the evidence.” says Stier.

Dr. Whelan notes, “All too often, this sort of reporting is accepted based on the assumption that the end justifies the means. If it inspires people to exercise, no one cares if the science is credible.” While this may seem fairly harmless, it undermines the credibility of the public health community. So, by all means, exercise regularly, but not just because it’s politically correct.


June 3rd, 2009
 

Oprah vs. Science, Regulation vs. Health, plus CT Scans and Transparency

 By Curtis Porter

Invitation to our breakfast table

The ACSH staff would like to offer a seat at the breakfast table to Peggy Northrop, editor in chief of Reader’s Digest, for her refreshing interview with Dr. Manny Alvarez on yesterday’s edition of Fox’s Health Talk. She conducted herself with remarkable aplomb and openly addressed some recent instances of celebrities championing bad science, ranging from Oprah’s misguided presentation of crackpot "bio-identical" promoter Suzanne Somers' bizarre theories of hormone replacement therapy to Jenny McCarthy’s dangerously misleading indictment of traditional childhood vaccinations as a cause of autism. We were also relieved to hear her echo our long-held belief that the media -- including the book publishing industry -- is to be reproached for providing a platform for uninformed and unchallenged celebrity opinions. For further reference: ACSH’s treatment of Celebrities vs. Science, which will soon be updated,  with more celebrity misstatements on science.

Regulation without consideration

Those who follow our work are well aware that ACSH experts have been dreading the imminent approval of a bill in the Senate which would establish FDA regulation of tobacco products. The bill is a result of an unfortunate effort by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids -- conspiring with Phillip Morris/Altria -- to "regulate" tobacco.

"The common misconception is that if cigarettes are bad, it must mean that regulation is good," says ACSH's Jeff Stier, who watched as the Senate began the debate yesterday. Stier goes on to mention the suspicious haste with which the Altria Group (parent company of Philip Morris) has cooperated to draft and pass the bill: "Altria’s support will be a great fundraising tool and will guarantee some special treatment for cigarettes if it passes."

One such subtle provision is the severe limitation put on potential cessation products that might compete for tobacco consumers. "The biggest hit here will be the difficulty of marketing harm-reduction products," notes ACSH president Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, "especially smokeless tobacco or snus, which has helped to reduce smoking in Sweden."  This bill also fosters the insidious pretense that a regulated product is a safe product, perhaps encouraging the same false sense of security that previous anti-smoking efforts have. "This bill is as bad as the one passed in the 1960s requiring warning labels on cigarettes, which was the biggest gift to cigarette companies in the past century in that it granted them immunity from lawsuits," says Dr. Whelan.

ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross cites the problem common to tobacco legislation in general: "The people who are endorsing it do not want the actual data on smoking, they just want to say they've addressed it." Dr. Ross predicts an outcome similar to that of previous anti-smoking efforts: "It's going to set public health back on tobacco issues for a decade."

Lung cancer (maybe)

On a related note, the National Cancer Institute declared that computed tomography (CT) lung cancer screenings have a disturbingly high rate of false positives. This comes as no surprise to the staff at ACSH. "The data is obvious," says Dr. Ross, "we've known this to be an unreliable test when it comes to false positives. Of even greater concern is false negatives."

Dr. Whelan agrees: "You can't say that enough. So many smokers are on such a guilt trip that they want to go get a CT scan, and we have to tell them that we're not there yet in terms of certainty." The rate of false positives after one CT scan was 21% compared to just 9% after x-rays, leading some patients to pursue unnecessary and potentially dangerous treatment.

The trend of transparency

The FDA claims to be taking steps to increase transparency to the American public. While overwhelming media coverage would indicate that this is the appropriate response in a time of anxiety about the safety of medication and imports, the ACSH staff fears that this could ultimately be harmful, a viewpoint you won't find in mainstream media sources. Stier is quick to point out that health policy and economic policy often go hand-in-hand: "When drug companies can no longer rely on proprietary information, they're going to have less of an incentive to invest in that information, which is bad for public health and the companies in general." While the FDA is calling this a "transparency" initiative, there's more to it than that. "What do they mean by transparency?" asks Stier. "Transparency has become a buzzword. These are political concerns, not health concerns."

The plans for increased transparency remain ambiguous, but ACSH staffers believe that this is little more than anti-pharmaceutical  political maneuvering.


June 2nd, 2009
 

E-Cigarettes Doomed?  Swine Flu at 6?  Gardasil for More Adults?

by Curtis Porter

E-Cigarettes are promising and probably doomed

ACSH staffers noticed that today’s issues of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal both address the increasingly contentious issue of e-cigarettes, smokeless nicotine vaporizers that simulate a cigarette in order to circumvent smoking bans and aid cessation. Ironically, various anti-smoking groups are calling for e-cigarettes to be removed from the market, citing a lack of information about the safety of the product, but the ACSH staff believes that such an action would be a mistake. “The key issue is that nicotine is not the dangerous part of smoking,” says ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. “Though it is addictive, it is not linked to cancer or any other important cigarette-related health effect.”

The e-cigarette does not involve combustion as do real cigarettes, but the experience of smoking is simulated with an LED light and vapor. ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross notes, “It’s not just the nicotine that’s habit-forming, it’s the whole behavioral pattern.”

The effect seems convincing. “You know they’re not real cigarettes, but it’s impressive how accurately they simulate the real thing," says ACSH’s Jeff Stier, who held one in his hand (but did not inhale) during a recent meeting on the topic.

ACSH’s Dr. Ruth Kava agrees. “This could be a real boon to those who are trying to quit smoking.”

The articles state that the ingredients in a typical e-cigarette device include water, nicotine, flavorings, and propylene glycol, but activist groups claim that it is still too risky. According to Dr. Ross, “Nobody knows what the inhalation of propylene glycol does, though it is generally regarded as safe as a food additive. Is it better than smoking? We think so, but we don’t know. However, we do believe that it would be better for smoking adults to have this option.”

Still, the outlook is not promising for the e-cigarette. “The e-cigarette is in trouble and probably won’t make it past the FDA,” says Dr. Kava.

Swine flu pandemic?

The new strain of the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu, has officially made an appearance in all fifty of the United States, but the more immediate concern is the rapidly inflating number of cases in southern hemisphere countries where the winter flu season is setting in. Australia and Chile are both posting record numbers of flu cases that may prompt a response from the World Health Organization.

“There is no question in my mind that this is a level six pandemic,” says Dr. Whelan, referring to the WHO’s highest designation, a global epidemic to which most people have no immunity, “but they’re reluctant to call it a level six because they’re afraid it will cause a panic.”

Dr. Ross agrees and advocates a cautious and practical approach to address the issue here at home: “When winter comes, we know it’s going to recur and get worse. I would recommend distributing a vaccine for H1N1 the same way I would for the seasonal flu in general.”

Gardasil for older women

Researchers in Colombia have reported that the Gardasil vaccine against the human papilloma virus (HPV) may be effective for women between the ages of twenty-six and forty-five. The FDA has not approved the vaccination of women over twenty-six, nor is the practice addressed in CDC guidelines.

Dr. Ross was impressed by the reported 90% protection rate for women who have shown no signs of cervical disease. “Hopefully, it will spark a movement for approval by the FDA,” he says. He also thinks that measures to prevent the spread of the virus should go even further: “Males should be vaccinated, too, since women can’t get the virus alone.” The evidence seems to agree with Dr. Ross, since HPV has been shown to cause cancer in men as well as women, and similar results have been demonstrated as to the efficacy of the vaccine for men.

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Founded in 1978, ACSH is a consumer advocacy organization directed and advised by over 350 physicians, scientists and policy advisors. ACSH promotes the use of sound, peer-reviewed science in the formation of a full  spectrum of  public health policies, including those related to food, pharmaceuticals, environmental chemicals, lifestyle factors, consumer products and terrorism preparedness and response.