ACSH staffers had a good chuckle when the less-than-credible U.K.

As the dust settles on the $712 million Ground Zero lawsuit, plaintiffs with no illnesses are complaining that their settlement of $3,250 is being cut 60 percent, to $1,322, due to legal fees.
The New York Post headline covering the news story glared, Lawyer loan fees gouge 9/11 crews.

In another obscure story from the CNN newsroom, anchor Fredricka Whitfield on Saturday asked Dr. Ava Shamban, a Las Vegas dermatologist, which ingredients consumers should avoid in their toothpaste or shampoo. Dr. Shamban showed proclivity for sophistry by responding that “there is absolutely an epidemic of cancer in this country, and we don’t know what contribution all of these products that we use to make yourself more beautiful or to brush our teeth — what they’re doing to us internally.”

As the obesity epidemic becomes a global health care crisis, German economists and parliament members have tried to come up with a solution: let’s hold fat people financially responsible for the extra pounds they’re packing, they say.
One person not onboard with the proposed plan, however, is Walter Willett, professor of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, who says that along with lifestyle, genetics and urban environments also contribute to obesity.

An FDA advisory panel voted 12-to-1 last week to revoke the indication for advanced breast cancer for Avastin, a drug earlier approved for the treatment of advanced lung, colon and brain cancers, which was granted under the FDA s accelerated approval pathway two years ago based on a single clinical trial.

There’s no escaping it: nearly all of our food is processed. Yes, even if you resort to packaged fresh organic chicken breasts, they’re still processed, says Food Insight blogger Lindsey Loving. She also reminds us that contrary to what the media and popular books would have us believe, processed food is actually more nutritious and sustainable.

According to today’s New York Post exposé on indoor tanning, salon employees are not properly warning customers that tanning increases their risk of cancer, nor are they collecting signed parental permission forms from everyone under 18, as mandated by New York State law.

ACSH would like to offer an honorary seat at our table to “Free Range Kids” blogger Lenore Skenazy for expressing the downside of being overly precautionary about child safety. In response to a school’s decision to cancel a shipment of rocks out of a fear of lead exposure, she writes:

ACSH staffers made cruel fun of the sillier aspects of the new food guidelines on Tuesday, but today we have found something to praise. In Tuesday’s Los Angeles Times, addiction and alcohol expert Stanton Peele, Ph.D., J.D., lauds the addition of alcohol guidelines asserting that moderate consumption — defined as one to two drinks per day — may extend life expectancy and retard cognitive decline.