Today marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. But a movement that was once about cleaning up rivers and recycling has lost focus and become radicalized, hijacked by extremists committed more to ideology than science. So it is no wonder that recent polls have found Americans more concerned with the economy than the environment. Earth Day has been losing its credibility.

ACSH staffers have written before about the unfortunate consequences of the 2008 Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA).

A new code of ethics announced yesterday by the Council of Medical Specialty Societies seeks to limit the influence of medical drug and device makers over patient care. The Associated Press mentions a few of the new standards: “No more letting industry help pay for developing medical guidelines.

An article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) by researchers at Emory University and the CDC concludes that people with higher intakes of added sugars are more likely to have lower levels of HDL (good) cholesterol and higher triglyceride levels.

ACSH staffers are proud of the Coca-Cola Company for standing up to pressure from a minority faction of their shareholders who demanded that they disclose information about BPA in their packaging.

Yesterday we received a fundraising letter asking us to celebrate Mother's Day by honoring the greatest mom around -- Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.
Why is the senator such a great mom? Because, the missive said, she protects kids from dangerous toys and foods and has promised "to keep our drinking water safe and chemical free."
Guess that means the good senator would disallow the presence of dihydrogen monoxide (H2O) in water ...

A new study concludes that a female whose grandmother consumed a high-fat diet will also be at higher risk for breast cancer herself. Well, that is, if she's a rodent...

Retired military officers say school lunches have put the nation's security at risk because they've left so many young Americans too fat to join the military. We're not making this up, folks.

Politico reports that a measure to ban Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical used to manufacture certain food and beverage containers, could be introduced on the Senate floor by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) as early as this week.
"I introduced my bill to ban BPA from being used in food containers because I feel very strongly that the government should protect people from harmful chemicals," Feinstein told Politico in a statement.

Two studies released this week link specific forms of cancer with the consumption of certain meats, but ACSH is skeptical.