Sometimes it's good to recognize your limitations.
For example, I could describe how DNA works, or how to make crystal meth, poison your neighbor or blow stuff up. I won't, but I could. And I'd know what I was talking about.
Perhaps I could also write something about teapots from the Ming Dynasty if I read about it on Wikipedia, but in reality I wouldn't know one if it fell off the Chrysler Building onto my head.
Chemicals & Chemistry
Year in and year out, agricultural pesticides have been the subject of considerable fear-mongering, leaving the typical consumer with the impression that these chemicals taint much of our food supply and are harmful to human health.
In fact, just the opposite is closer to the truth. The published scholarly literature has failed to turn up evidence of adverse human health effects from use of modern pesticides in the real world. Furthermore, in light of the current economic perturbations, as well as the progressive severity of worldwide food shortages and the resulting malnutrition and spiking prices of basic food commodities, the claims that these pesticides pose a threat to human health are false, misleading and dangerously irresponsible.
Energy needs worldwide are expected to increase for the foreseeable future, but fuel supplies are limited. Nuclear reactors could supply much of the energy demand in a safe, sustainable manner were it not for fear of potential releases of radioactivity. Such releases would likely deliver a low dose or dose rate of radiation, within the range of naturally occurring radiation, to which life is already accustomed.
New York, NY -- January 14, 2008. When it comes to health issues, who should you trust to give you the truth: celebrities or scientists?
When celebrities weigh in on important health issues, the public takes notice. However, all too often their statements are incorrect. The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) weighs in on one celebrity-touted myth after another in the new publication Celebrities vs. Science.
A class of brominated flame retardants known as polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs) are under assault from environmental activists and regulators both in the United States and overseas. Flame retardants give people more time to escape a fire by delaying flashover, the explosive-like eruption of flames responsible for most of the fatalities and property damage in residential fires. PBDEs are particularly effective flame retardants and have long been widely used in the manufacture of televisions and other electrical equipment, furniture, and mattresses.
Assessing the Safety of the Chemical PFOA
Project Coordinator: Rivka Weiser
Editor: Gilbert L. Ross, M.D.
The American Council on Science and Health gratefully acknowledges the comments and contributions of the following individuals, who reviewed all or part of the longer position paper on which this booklet is based:
Larry Beeson, Dr.P.H., Loma Linda University
Hinrich L. Bohn, Ph.D., University of Arizona
Joseph F. Borzelleca, Ph.D., Virginia Commonwealth University
John Doull, M.D., Ph.D., University of Kansas
Gordon W. Gribble, Ph.D., Dartmouth College
F. Peter Guengerich, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Theodore R. Holford, Ph.D., Yale University School of Medicine