Biotech company AquaBounty has spent the last decade seeking FDA approval for what would become the first genetically engineered animal to be used for public consumption Atlantic salmon. Genetically modified to produce growth hormone year round, the modified salmon grow to conventional market size twice as fast as regular fish.

The New York State Legislature this week unanimously voted to ban BPA in products for use by children under the age of three. If Gov. David Patterson signs the measure, New York will become the sixth state to ban BPA in children s products. ACSH staffers are disappointed, again. ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan questions the rationality of the ban. BPA has been safely used and tested for 50 years, but by banning BPA the state is, by default, endorsing the use of new substitutes that may have less scientific review.

The EPA is longer accepting studies that use humans as guinea pigs in chemical tests, such as those for dose-response analyses, which determine how much of a chemical is safe for humans.

It has been brought to our attention by one of our supporters in Washington that new research fails to support the concept of the crack baby and generally concludes that the risks of cocaine, heroin, and other illegal drugs during pregnancy has been overstated.

A federal judge certified a class-action lawsuit that asks cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris to pay for chest scans to screen for early signs of lung cancer in Massachusetts smokers.

A: The 50 House members and six senators who sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asking him not to approve Monsanto s genetically modified alfalfa seeds. While the USDA s initial findings are that the alfalfa wouldn t pose an environmental threat, the legistlators argued the crop would contaminate organic crops, devastate organic dairy producers, [and cause] significant economic harm.

Perhaps Dan Mitchell was watching ACSH's Jeff Stier on yesterday s CNBC segment covering the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) threat to sue McDonalds over Happy Meal toys when he observed that CSPI s tactics were a bit much in Slate's The Big Money.
According to Stephen Gardner, CSPI s litigation director, McDonald s is the stranger in the playground handing out candy to children.

Despite its preventability via vaccination and booster shots, whooping cough has become an epidemic in California. There have been 910 cases recorded of the highly infectious disease as of June 15. So far, five babies all Latino under the age of 3 have died from whooping cough in 2010, which might be attributed to a lack of information on inoculation in the state s Central Valley, a region comprised of a high Latino agricultural worker population.

In a June 17 letter, the FDA charged Boyd Haley, founder of CTI Science, with five violations related to his product, OSR#1 a dietary supplement targeted as a therapy for autism now deemed a toxic, unapproved drug.

The NYC Health Department is proposing a penny-per-ounce tax on non-diet soda, following a Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health study outlining the adverse health effects associated with the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages.