In a blog post that would be funny if the topic weren t so distressing, ACSH advisor Dr. Michael Siegel, professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health, criticizes the FDA s latest announcement warning smokers about the dangers of using electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes).

Sodas have been taking a big hit in the war on obesity lately. Perhaps, then, it s not too surprising that average soda consumption by Americans is on a slow downward trend: As of last year, the average American drank slightly less than two sodas per day a 16 percent decrease from the peak of soda consumption in 1998.

From the UK: Clive Bates, Director General of Sustainable Futures in the Welsh Government, makes some observations on the European Union's ban on snus (low-risk oral tobacco) that we wish someone at the European Commission would listen to. Why? Well, for one thing, as Bates points out:

The latest study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) reports on the prevalence of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug use among pregnant women ages 15 to 44 years. Overall, Hispanic women had the lowest rates of substance abuse in all categories, while white and black pregnant women were slightly more likely to engage in drinking and illicit drug use.

What's a normal blood pressure for a 15-year-old boy? How about for an eight-year-old girl? Many physician's couldn't tell you taking children's blood pressure has never been standard practice.

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.

A November 21, 2006 entry on the Nictotine News blog mentions an observation from ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross:
From the American Council on Science and Health:
Although almost half of all smokers had a routine medical checkup in 2003, only 63.6% of those were counseled by a physician to stop smoking -- and this is an improvement from 2000's rate of 57%!

It s been a long, hard road, but after a few years of rejections, Arena Pharmaceuticals weight-loss drug lorcaserin finally won over an FDA advisory panel: They voted 18-to-4 last week in favor of approving the drug. Though the panel s decision is not final, the FDA which will rule on the matter by June 27 usually follows the advisory committee s recommendations.

Want to know if your kids have been exposed to cigarette smoke? Well, there s a test for that. In a study just published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, researchers analyzed nearly 500 blood samples from children ages one to four for cotinine, a chemical present in the body after exposure to nicotine. Study author Dr.

A Mother s Day garden party at an upstate New York Buddhist monastery took a turn for the worse after 150 attendees fell ill with food poisoning and many had to be hospitalized. And while it seems as though we re always reading about the latest food-borne outbreak (recent stories included listeria-tainted cantaloupe and salmonella-tainted eggs), in reality, the rate of food-borne illness in the U.S. fell by almost 25 percentsince the late 1990s, according to a new report from the CDC.