What to say of the humble potato? Beneath its skin is potassium, vitamin C, fiber, B vitamins, Thiamin, Niacin, Riboflavin, Folate, B6, fiber, and a full complement of eight essential amino acids. It’s also among the cheapest items in any grocery store. So why has the potato been made a member of the U.S.

A study published today in the journal Environmental Science and Technology has been pounced on by breathless media eager to help chemophobic activists fan the flames of hysteria about chemical flame retardants in baby products made with polyurethane foam.

In case you missed it, listen to ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross talk chemophobia, radiation scares, and the promotion of sound science with beloved chemistry professor and radio show host Dr. Joe Schwarcz on The Dr. Joe Show.

Though today’s New York weather may not look it, spring is in the air and summer is fast approaching. For many, this means that it’s time for spring cleaning. However, as is pointed out in a USA Today article, this season is also a time when many people sustain preventable injuries during their cleaning. For instance, the U.S.

Whether you’re in an all-natural foods store or the ubiquitous big-chain grocery store, you’ll find health claims on all kinds of foods. Are they really true, or are they all hype? According to a lengthy article in Sunday’s The New York Times, these so-called “functional foods” more likely fall under the latter category.

Indiana’s Republican governor (and potential presidential candidate) Mitch Daniels is expected to sign an omnibus bill that includes tobacco harm reduction language specifically stipulating that tobacco taxes reflect the potential for adverse health effects posed by the product. Notably, the bill establishes that moist snuff (known as snus), a smokeless tobacco product, should be taxed at a lower rate than other tobacco products because it poses fewer health risks. ACSH's Dr.

As expected, the FDA has just approved Merck and Co.’s highly anticipated anti-hepatitis C drug, Victrelis (generic name, boceprevir). There are about 3.2 million Americans infected with hepatitis C. The virus is known as a “silent killer” because patients with hepatitis C do not usually present with symptoms until decades later, when it causes liver damage that can ultimately lead to cirrhosis or liver cancer.

U.S. health secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced the World Health Organization (WHO) assembly decision not to recommend the destruction of the last known smallpox virus stockpiles — located in Russia and the U.S. CDC in Atlanta — for at least another five years.

A study just published in the journal Diabetes Care found that diabetic men and women were 10 percent more likely to have had a cancer diagnosis of any kind. Researchers from the CDC, using data from a telephone survey of nearly 400,000 adults, found that 16 to 17 out of every 100 diabetics have cancer — a rate significantly higher than the seven per 100 men and ten per 100 women found among non-diabetics.

The “paper of record” may not yet have broken the news, but it’s terrific news indeed: infant deaths across the world have fallen as life expectancy has increased, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced Friday. Since the last decade of the 20th century, the number of children dying dropped from 12.4 million in 1990 to 8.1 million in 2009 — while the total number of kids increased significantly. As mortality plummeted, life expectancy rose — from an average of 64 years in 1990 to 68 years in 2009.