Reuters reports, “Cases of six common food poisoning agents have dropped sharply since the U.S. government started to monitor them closely in the 1990s, [CDC] officials reported on Thursday.”
“Plaintiffs’ lawyers are scrambling because they don’t know what to do with this,” says Stier. “They’ve been trying to make the case that food poisoning is a bigger and bigger problem in the U.S., when it fact it has declined.”

Thanks in large part to vociferous anti-chemical activists, a new bill in Congress seeks to reform the thirty-four-year-old Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). According to the Washington Post, The plan, contained in legislation that Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) is set to file Thursday, would require manufacturers to prove the safety of chemicals before they enter the marketplace.

A survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics indicates that more than 40% of U.S. adults who have depression are also smokers. By contrast, the overall national smoking rate is around 20%.

The sustainable and organic agriculture activist group Cornucopia Institute released a report revealing that many soy products like tofu and veggie burgers are processed with hexane, which is used to extract oils from the soybeans and can be toxic in high doses.

A study released Tuesday by the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes shows that about 24% of 600 cardiologists surveyed admitted to ordering unnecessary heart tests in order to avoid litigation.

The New York State Attorney General put the kibosh on a charity called the Coalition for Breast Cancer Cures that raised over half a million dollars, which it used for luxury shopping, travel, restaurants, and other personal living expenses.

Yesterday at a hearing, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) called on Major League Baseball to ban the use of smokeless tobacco, saying that the free publicity for the product when players use it leads many teenagers to become addicted to nicotine.

An op-ed in today s New York Times argues, Medical personnel need to get vaccinated for two reasons beyond protecting themselves and their families. If they become ill, they will be unable to work at a time when their institutions most need them. And those who have direct contact with patients especially need immunization lest they spread illness and death among already vulnerable sick people.

The Washington State Senate is expected to pass a tax package that includes a sales tax on candy.

Angela Logomasini of the Competitive Enterprise Institute defends BPA in the Washington Examiner in light of this week’s possible Senate vote on an amendment to the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act that would ban the chemical in food packaging.