Chemicals & Chemistry

A study can be fair and balanced. But often once it's in the hands of the media, it's repackaged to capture eyeballs. It is not fake news – it's just misleading, designed to attract attention rather than to educate. 
The American Council on Science and Health, since 1978 America's premiere pro-science consumer advocacy non-profit, is pleased to announce our new book, "Natural and Artificial Flavors: What's the Difference?", in order to combat growing confusion about health issues related to food. During the last decade, it has become increasingly fashionable to tout "natural" on product labels. It isn't just fringe companies that prey on the chemophobia evident among less-informed members of the public, larger brands have also been exploiting consumers in this fashion.
Anyone who searches long enough can find that pretty much everything has been linked to cancer. Bacon. Cell phones. Wi-Fi. Even looking at our video correspondent, Ana Dolaskie. At some point the insanity has to stop. Unfortunately, we have yet to reach that point. 
The much-anticipated intelligence report, which concluded that Russia tried to influence the recent presidential election, had another startling, yet widely ignored, conclusion: The Russian government promotes anti-fracking propaganda in the United States, via its "news" network, RT.
Four children died in a a tragic accident in Texas, when a father was simply trying to wash away some pesticide from under his home. But the culprit was the water, and the chemistry is simple. 
I am lucky enough to spend the holidays in one of the most beautiful places in the United States - the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Surrounded by stunning natural beauty on all sides - it is incredibly cold, the roads are covered in ice, and the living is uncomplicated. But, when something does happen - such as 50-year-old toxic waste from the ivy league institution down the road creeping into people's backyards - it is big (BIG) news up here. And, that is exactly the story that the neighbors of Dartmouth College are trying to bring everyone's attention.
Who has the safest furniture in America? Apparently poor people.
Four new chemical elements have official names and symbols, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry recently announced. After a five-month review, IUPAC chemists have approved the names for superheavy elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 proposed by the elements' discoverers.
New research published in the American Journal of Infection Control suggests that professionals who administer breath alcohol tests should stay away from hand sanitizers that contain ethanol, as they can cause breathalyzers to produce a false positive result. That's because the active ingredient is often some kind of alcohol.
There isn't a fringe movement that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr doesn't like. He appears to subscribe to conspiracy theories involving the assassination of his uncle, JFK, and he's one of America's most prominent disbelievers in vaccine usage. Now, Mr Kennedy is joining the protesters at the Dakota Access Pipeline.
There are some unanswered questions about the long-term health safety of e-cigarettes. Studies have suggested that "vaping" is safer than smoking because it doesn't expose a person to the inhaled toxins found in cigarette smoke that can cause cancer. A recent study published in Mutation Research has furthered this thinking, showing that e-cigarettes do not cause mutation in DNA. 
In the 1970s, an assay was developed by Dr. Bruce Ames that revolutionized the ability to test if a compound causes cancer or not. Since then, the Ames test has been used on everything from food dyes to pesticides. The test's power is not only that it is incredibly efficacious, but also that it's inexpensive and relatively easy to do.