Browse by Date > Health Issues

With a New Ideologue in Charge, It's (Bad) Business as Usual at EPA (from Investor's Business Daily)

Posted: Friday, December 11, 2009

By Dr. Gilbert Ross. The pharmaceutical industry gets blamed for many flaws in America's healthcare system. Witness an editorial in last week's The Lancet...

November

By Gilbert Ross, M.D., Henry Miller

Posted: Tuesday, November 17, 2009

By Henry Miller and Dr. Gilbert Ross. The only things being protected these days by the Environmental Protection Agency are the insupportable, unscientific views of radical activists...

Taxpayer-Paid Prayer? (from the New York Post)

Patients Will Feel Feds' Bullying (from the Orange County Register)

Posted: Monday, November 16, 2009

By Jeff Stier. It turns out that government-run health insurance means politician-decided health benefits...

By Jeff Stier, Esq., Henry Miller

Posted: Sunday, November 15, 2009

By Henry Miller and Jeff Stier. The Pelosi health care juggernaut, if it becomes law, will hurt critical industries and endanger all Americans...

Stop the (Health Reform) Juggernaut (from Forbes.com)

The Pelosi bill will hurt not only drugmakers but patients too.

By Jeff Stier, Esq., Henry Miller

Posted: Friday, November 13, 2009

By Henry I. Miller and Jeff Stier. Politics has been called the art of the possible. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's brand of politics might be dubbed the art of...

Shutting Off the Miracle-Drug Spigot (from New York Post)

By Jeff Stier, Esq., Henry Miller

Posted: Saturday, November 7, 2009

By Jeff Stier and Henry I. Miller. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was right last week...

Christian Science and Health Reform (from FutureofCapitalism.com)

Posted: Tuesday, November 3, 2009

By Jeff Stier. The Los Angeles Times draws attention to news that, as part of the health-care overhaul, "A little-noticed measure would put Christian Science healing sessions on the same footing as clinical medicine"...

The Truth About Phthalates

October

Posted: Friday, October 16, 2009

The Truth About Phthalates There have recently been reports in the media over certain plastic chemicals called phthalates and their potential impact on human health. However, much of the information being circulated on the safety of these chemicals is inaccurate. Phthalates are a softening agent used to make plastic pliable and can be found in a variety of consumer goods from toys to garden hoses to vinyl flooring. But before you begin to rid your home of plastics,

Council Votes to Boost Butts (from New York Post)

Public Enemy No. 1 (from Forbes.com)

Posted: Friday, October 16, 2009

By Jeff Stier. The City Council this week voted 46-1 to ban many flavorings in a variety of tobacco products -- and the result will be far more damaging to safer tobacco forms such as smokeless -- and safer nicotine delivery systems such as e-cigarettes -- than to the cigarettes that really kill Americans...

According to the EPA, it's not influenza or obesity, but chemicals. Right.

NYC's School Snack Attack Is an Insane A-Salt (from the Daily News)

Posted: Friday, October 9, 2009

By Dr. Gilbert Ross. Despite the ongoing epidemics of cigarette-related disease, novel influenza and obesity, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson is focusing on a very different set of purported health risks...

New vending machine rules make no sense

An Empty Nod to Tort Reform (from the American)

Posted: Friday, October 9, 2009

By Dr. Gilbet Ross. This week, the city's Department of Education is rolling out new rules for beverage and snack-food vending machines...

September

Toys, Lead, and Unintended Consequences (from National Review Online)

Posted: Thursday, September 24, 2009

By Dr. Gilbert Ross. In an apparent attempt to sway at least one undecided Republican senator to sign on to his healthcare reform program...

Phthalate Risks, Phthalate Regulation, and Public Health: A Review (from Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health)
Edited by Michael Kamrin
Posted: Tuesday, September 15, 2009
By Michael A. Kamrin, Ph.D. An overview of the facts and health-scare exaggerations related to the chemicals called phthalates...

FDA's Drug and E-Cigarette Warnings Counterproductive (from The Hill)

Posted: Monday, September 14, 2009

By Dr. Gilbert Ross. With enforcement of the misleadingly named Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) now fully in place...

ACSH MOURNS THE PASSING OF ONE OF ITS FOUNDING DIRECTORS, NOBEL LAUREATE DR. NORMAN BORLAUG, 1914-2009

Posted: Monday, September 14, 2009

By Jeff Stier. A major policy shift is underway, and it is bound to have a dangerous unintended consequence...

Posted: Sunday, September 13, 2009

Read Dr. Elizabeth Whelan's "Remembering Dr. Norman Borlaug."

We Can Be Too Safe (from the Washington Times)

Overdosed on pharmaceutical regulation

By Jeff Stier, Esq., Henry Miller

Posted: Sunday, September 13, 2009

By Dr. Henry I. Miller and Jeff Stier. Greater safety is not synonymous with more stringent regulation...

Banning Drug Ads (from Medical Progress Today)

August

The Drugs Do Work (from the Guardian)

Posted: Friday, August 21, 2009

By Gilbert L. Ross, M.D. Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, and his allies say they want to make drugs safer...

Obama's healthcare plan will hurt the pharmaceutical industry's ability to produce new medicines and save lives

By Jeff Stier, Esq., Henry Miller

Posted: Friday, August 21, 2009

By Henry Miller and Jeff Stier. Once upon a time there was a horse that was so productive working in the field that he put all the other horses to shame...

Drugs from Overseas Can Be Cheap, Which Is Part of the Problem (from the Washington Examiner and San Francisco Examiner)

FDA Smoke Screen on E-Cigarettes (from the Washington Times)

Posted: Thursday, August 13, 2009

Sen. David Vitter tacked an amendment easing importation of foreign pharmaceuticals onto an essential funding bill...

Cigarette substitute produces no deadly smoke

Healthcare Reform That's Hard to Swallow (from Los Angeles Times, Detroit News, and Twin Cities' Pioneer Press)

Posted: Thursday, August 6, 2009

By Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. At a time when the government is ostensibly trying to cut health costs, why is it trying to ban something that might help...

Cutting costs at the expense of pharmaceutical firms could lead to drug rationing

By Jeff Stier, Esq., Henry Miller

Posted: Wednesday, August 5, 2009

By Henry I. Miller and Jeff Stier. It has become fashionable at the White House and on Capitol Hill to try to cut costs at the expense of the research-intensive (as opposed to generic) pharmaceutical industry...

July

Unsafe at Any Price (from TCSDaily.com)

Putting Organ Traffickers Out of Business (from the Guardian)

Posted: Wednesday, July 29, 2009

By Dr. Gilbert Ross. Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) is on a quixotic quest to allow foreign drugs into our pharmacies and clinics...

New Jersey's corruption scandal exposes the world of black market organ sales. We can prevent this gruesome practice.

Untrue Blood: Scientists Examine Artificial Blood Options

Posted: Friday, July 24, 2009

By Jeff Stier. Levy Izhak Rosenbaum of Brooklyn was arrested on Thursday for conspiring to broker the sale of a human kidney...

"A safe product would permit vital-sign stabilization in trauma situations"

Posted: Thursday, July 23, 2009

Scientists associated with the American Council on Science and Health today released a report on the fascinating and controversial topic of Blood Substitutes: Hemoglobin-Based Oxygen Carriers...

Is the White House's Organic Garden Toxic to Kids? (from Forbes.com)

No, according to toxicologists. It ought to be, according to environmentalists.

ACSH Bids Farewell to Walter Cronkite

Posted: Thursday, July 23, 2009

By Jeff Stier. Michelle Obama's "organic" White House garden was designed to promote a green agenda...

Posted: Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Revered television newsman Walter Cronkite passed away on July 17, 2009. "We worked with Walter in 1990 on our Big Fears, Little Risks video," says ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. "He was enormously enthusiastic." The video...

Benefits of NYC Trans-fat Ban Are Unclear (from Annals of Internal Medicine)

Posted: Tuesday, July 21, 2009

By Dr. Gilbert Ross. The NYC Dept. of Health passed a regulation restricting the use of trans-fats (TFAs) in chain restaurants...

Free-Riding Lawyers on the Obamacare Bus (from American Spectator)

June

The Latest Toxin Activists Want to Ban (from Forbes.com)

Posted: Friday, June 26, 2009

By Dr. Gilbert Ross. This month, President Obama ventured into the lion's den of healthcare reform...

Letters to the Editor (from Politico)

Posted: Wednesday, June 24, 2009

By Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. The "toxin du jour" these days is bisphenol A, otherwise known as BPA. Environmental activists claim BPA harms babies...

I Choose Risk (from Forbes.com)

Posted: Friday, June 19, 2009

By Jeff Stier. It is so emblematic of Marian Burros' "reporting" for her to rely for info on a comedy show...

Chemical Ban Will Not Help Kids (from TCSDaily.com)

Posted: Friday, June 19, 2009

By Jeff Stier. When it comes to health policy, the government is trying to turn "risk" into a four-letter word...

Another Movie Blasts Food System (from Farm and Dairy)

Posted: Friday, June 19, 2009

By Gilbert Ross, M.D. Activists and some politicians are exploiting parents' legitimate concerns for their children's health...

Posted: Thursday, June 18, 2009

By Jeff Stier. If you're the kind of person who likes a good conspiracy theory, the summer's latest box-office horror flick should suit you well...

Punitive Taxes on Food Won't Change People's Eating Habits (from Cleveland Plain Dealer)

May

By Ruth Kava, Ph.D., R.D.

Posted: Thursday, May 21, 2009

By Dr. Ruth Kava. John F. Banzhaf III errs in assuming obesity and smoking can be treated in the same way...

You Can't Even Talk About It (from ABC's 5/8/09 interview with ACSH's Dr. Ruth Kava)

Posted: Friday, May 8, 2009

This press release from ABC News's John Stossel announced his scheduled one-hour show for Friday, May 8, 2009 -- with the final paragraph mentioning his interview of ACSH's Dr. Ruth Kava...

April

One Flu Over the Piggy's Nest (from Wall Street Journal)

Dietary Supplements: A Source of Regulatory Confusion (from Pharmacology Matters)

Posted: Tuesday, April 28, 2009

By Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. The news is a-chatter about swine flu. Is a pandemic pending--where all of us are at risk of disease and death? There are more questions than answers right now. Here are a few of them...

By Ruth Kava, Ph.D., R.D.

Posted: Monday, April 13, 2009

By Dr. Ruth Kava. The market for dietary supplements is enormous, reaching an estimated $24-25 billion in the U.S....

A Bogus "Anti-Cigarette" Bill (from the New York Post)

House Lights Up FDA Regulation (from the Washington Times)

Posted: Monday, April 6, 2009

By Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. A law ordering the Food and Drug Ad ministration to regulate cigarettes is moving through Congress -- but is it truly good for public health? Hint: Cigarette maker Altria (formerly Philip Morris) is one of the bill's strongest supporters

The Lesser-Known Effects of Obesity (from Consumer Guide to Bariatric Surgery)

Posted: Monday, April 6, 2009

By Jeff Stier. Congress is now considering two rival approaches to altering tobacco regulations...

Non-Industry-Funded Research Can Be Biased, Too (from Clinical Psychiatry News)

Posted: Saturday, April 4, 2009

By Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. There is an old adage that more weight reduction diets begin in the fitting room of a clothing store than in a physician's office...

The Empire Strikes Back (from Forbes.com)

Posted: Wednesday, April 1, 2009

By Jeff Stier. For almost 100 years, industry has been a powerful motivating force in the creation of new technology and the underwriting of scientific research...

March

As we enter a trade war with China, are our toxin fears founded?

New FDA Honcho No Fan of Drug Makers (from Orange County Register)

Posted: Tuesday, March 24, 2009

By Jeff Stier. Scaremongering U.S. regulators have been indiscriminately attacking products from China for years...

By Jeff Stier, Esq., Henry Miller

Posted: Sunday, March 22, 2009

By Henry I. Miller and Jeff Stier. A post-partisan era? National politics today looks more like a barroom brawl to us...

Obama's Latest Troubling Appointments with the FDA (Forbes.com)

The Wrong Way to Fix the FDA (from the Guardian)

Posted: Wednesday, March 18, 2009

By Jeff Stier. The president tapped into broadly held public sentiment in his radio address on Saturday, calling for reform at the Food and Drug Administration. But...

The US food and drug administration needs serious reform. Obama's choices to lead it aren't the right ones.

By Jeff Stier, Esq., Henry Miller

Posted: Sunday, March 15, 2009

By Jeff Stier and Henry I. Miller. The one thing everyone in Washington seems to agree on these days is that the food and drug administration is in trouble...

Blocking Drug Development (from the Washington Times)

Likely FDA Appointees Will Face Scaremongers

Posted: Friday, March 13, 2009

By Dr. Gilbert Ross. The U.S. pharmaceutical industry has replaced the tobacco cartel as the favorite punching bag...

Harmless chemicals depicted as health risks

Posted: Friday, March 13, 2009

New York, NY -- March 13, 2009. Scientists and physicians at the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) call for the reform of a broken regulatory system -- one that now tries to appease advocates of junk science who pressure the Food and Drug Administration...

When Suing Companies Means Harming Patients (from Forbes.com)

February

Obama Curbing Only Lobbyists Who Disagree with Him (from the Orange County Register and TCSDaily.com)

Posted: Friday, February 27, 2009

By Jeff Stier. Consider the current effort to allow consumers in all fifty states to sue over injuries sustained from FDA-approved medical devices...

Avoiding Conflict of Interest, or Conflicting Ideas?

By Jeff Stier, Esq., Henry I. Miller

Posted: Sunday, February 8, 2009

By Henry I. Miller and Jeff Stier. In order to avoid conflicts of interest, President Barack Obama promised repeatedly that he would not appoint lobbyists...

January

How "Child Safety" May Kill NYC Jobs (from the New York Post)

Junk Medicine (from the Weekly Standard)

Posted: Wednesday, January 28, 2009

By Jeff Stier. If Congress doesn't act quickly, tens of thousands of Americans will lose their jobs...

Science is not immune to conspiracy theories.

Insecticide or Suffering? (from the Washington Times)

Posted: Sunday, January 25, 2009

By Jeff Stier. Book review: "Denialism" by Michael Specter: It is popular among politicians on both sides of the aisle and the public to blame corporations, capitalism, and even science itself for our ills...