Syngenta, maker of the herbicide atrazine, just announced a settlement with litigants in a case based on allegations that the widely used chemical caused water contamination despite the fact that it s beensafely used by farmers for over fifty years.
Some may wonder, if atrazine is so safe and important to American agriculture, why did Syngenta decide to pay off the plaintiffs?

Since their implementation in large-scale food production, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) which have helped feed many of the world s starving populations have gotten much flak from environmental groups and the organic industry.

As the global health community works to increase access to malaria treatment and prevention measures, two significant obstacles are becoming increasingly serious.

The nasty bacterial infection, Clostridium difficile (C. diff), is making its way out of the hospital and into the community. Hospital patients have long been at risk of acquiring this infection, but a new study presented at the Digestive Disease Week s annual medical conference indicates that now children who aren t hospitalized are also being infected at increasingly high rates.

As if the health hazards of smoking weren t reason enough to avoid the habit, extensive exposure to second-hand smoke has also been known to have adverse health effects, particularly for children who live with a smoking parent. Now, a new study presented at the ATS 2012 International Conference finds that the respiratory symptoms we often see in children who live with a smoker may actually extend into adulthood.

On his blog, TobaccoAnalysis, ACSH advisor Dr. Mike Siegel, professor at Boston University's School of Public Health, revisits the irony of the current tobacco harm reduction scenario. Namely, Dr. Seigel observes that anti-smoking groups continue to deny even the potential benefits of modified risk tobacco products, while major tobacco companies are actually leading efforts to introduce smokers to such products.

Fear of chemicals in flame retardants has gone viral, it seems. We initially reported on Nicholas Kristof's New York Times column that would have readers fearful of the furniture in their homes, a scare that drew upon a series this month in The Chicago Tribune.

Times have changed since the days when alcoholism was regarded as a failure of will. Thanks to advances in science and medicine, however, alcohol addiction is now recognized as a biologically-based chronic disease requiring long-term management, not unlike diabetes or hypertension. And it's this recognition that has led to recent efforts to develop effective therapies that can assist with the long-term management of this disease.

It appears that women who begin their pregnancies overweight or gain too much during pregnancy put themselves and their newborns at greater risk for adverse health effects, according to a newly published study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Here's more evidence that people tend to worry most about risks that are small or nonexistent, instead of paying attention to the risk factors that they can and should control: Injuries are actually the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of one and 44, and the third leading cause of death overall.