ACSH staffers were surprised to learn that a city panel in Madison, Wisc. is investigating the toxicity of fireworks.

ACSH s Jeff Stier was so surprised to see the following advertisement on a New York City bus the other day that he ran out onto the street to snap a picture of it with his arsenic-laden iPhone 3G.
It was not until later that he realized that this was not, in fact, a campaign by the New York City Public Health Department to cleanse our food of salt, but a promotion for an upcoming movie starring Angelina Jolie.

The Wall Street Journal reports that while lung cancer rates in men are falling, more women are being diagnosed with the disease but ACSH staffers are skeptical.
According to the article:

American Enterprise Institute resident fellow, former FDA official, and friend of ACSH Dr. Scott Gottlieb evaluates the progress made in cancer treatment in today's Wall Street Journal. Gottlieb highlights the results of studies of two experimental drugs presented at this year s annual American Society of Oncology meeting in Chicago.

A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine finds that the same types of human papilloma virus (HPV) that cause cervical cancer are the most vital predictor of survival for people diagnosed with oropharyngeal (mouth, head and neck) cancer. Analysis of 323 patients with advanced (stage III or IV) oropharyngeal cancer indicated that after three years of treatment, 82 percent of patients with HPV-positive tumors were still alive, compared with 57 percent of patients with HPV-negative tumors.

The annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology presented two studies that may eventually alter the treatment of women with early-stage breast cancer. In the first study conducted by investigators from the University College of London, 991 women were recruited. All of the women had a "sentinel node" removed which showed the presence of cancer cells, but only half of the women received the standard treatment since the 1990s, the removal of additional lymph nodes.

Americans may be receiving too much medical care, and it could be making them sicker, The Associated Press reported in a lengthy article yesterday. Author Lauran Neergaard cites the over-prescription of antibiotics for viruses, needless evaluation and treatment of back pain, fetal monitoring and PSA tests in men over 75 as among the most unnecessary and avoidable treatments performed.

Tech geeks and Apple enthusiasts alike still have a few weeks before they can pitch their tents in front of Apple retail stores nationwide as the company announced yesterday that the iPhone 4 will be released on June 24.

Sunday’s New York Times included a front-page article about the health toll of obesity for pregnant women and their children: “About one in five women are obese when they become pregnant … And medical evidence suggests that obesity might be contributing to record-high rates of Caesarean sections and leading to more birth defects and deaths for mothers and babies.”