ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan debated Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, on the CNN special "Toxic Childhood." Watch here.

On Wednesday, the Environmental Protection Agency held a stakeholders phone conference announcing a draft document on the toxicology of formaldehyde inhalation and exposure.

Bloomberg Businessweek reports that Philip Morris USA and RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co. are suing New York City for displaying graphic point-of-sale health warnings about smoking. Citing violations of their First Amendment rights and preemption by federally mandated warning labels, Philip Morris and RJR are calling for an end to the graphic campaign, which features such images of cancerous lungs and decayed teeth.

Once again, the Federal Trade Commission has reprimanded Kellogg’s, this time for advertising that their Rice Krispies possess the ability to “support your child’s immunity.” Yesterday, the cereal company agreed to follow stricter advertising provisions.

A Canadian study appearing in the current issue of The Lancet suggests that a low-dose Avandia-Metformin cocktail could reduce the risk of Type II diabetes by 60 percent with significantly fewer side-effects, but ABC News reports that it is already under fire by long-time pharmaceutical critic Dr. Sidney Wolfe.

ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan appeared last night on the second installment of CNN's special about chemicals, "Toxic Childhood," countering assertions that environmental chemicals are among the main causes of disease and death in children.
Dr. Whelan said CNN placed her in a tough spot: How do you go up against parents who appeared in the previous segment who claim, emotionally, that their daughter died of cancer because of exposure to trace level environmental chemicals?

ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan is among the scientific experts who contributed to the "Second Opinion" feature on the FDA s Bad Ad program in the Manhattan Institute's Medical Progress Today. She wrote:

From the Manhattan Institute's Medical Progress Today "Second Opinion" section
No one wants misleading pharmaceutical advertising, but the Food and Drug Administration's plan to deputize doctors to police drug companies is a misguided effort.
Most physicians and health care workers simply don't have the hard data necessary to judge whether an ad overstates a drug's efficacy or plays down its risks. The hundreds of needless reports will distract the FDA from its core mission.

ACSH staffers cringed last night as the first hour of CNN s Toxic America report broadcast its message that trace levels of environmental chemicals are causing myriad disease in America, from cancer to diabetes and more.
It was worse than I could have imagined, says ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, who was interviewed for tonight s conclusion of the two-part series. The most shocking part of it was that they recruited people from certain towns who thought that they were harmed by chemicals, and brought them all together to talk about how dangerous these substances are.

The CDC reported yesterday that the vaccine against the 2009 H1N1 flu virus presented no greater threat than previous years seasonal flu vaccines in terms of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS).