According to HealthDay News: "As many as one in four U.S. teenage girls have had a sexually transmitted disease (STD), many infected soon after their first sexual encounter, a new government report shows." The report will be published in the December issue of the journal Pediatrics.

A USA Today/Gallup Poll shows why a vast majority of women plan to ignore the new recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force about mammograms for women aged forty to forty-nine. USA Today reports: "Seventy-six percent of women said they believe that the panel based its conclusions on cost, even though the task force's report included only scientific studies. Women also perceive their breast cancer risk to be higher than it really is.

ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross points out the contrasting science-based educational values of two columns in the Wall Street Journal. "The Informed Patient" by Laura Landro is about the "growing field of nutritional immunology" and all of the ways you can boost your immune system with the right diet.

Government health officials in Hungary are recommending that Santa should avoid contact with children in order to prevent the spread of the flu.
"H1N1 has prompted some unusual advice this season," says ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. "This is somewhat whimsical. But it's true that the primary means of transmission of H1N1 is sneezing and coughing, so it's important to keep that in mind."

A mutated strain of the H1N1 virus has killed two people and made one person very ill in Norway. Researchers are unsure if the mutated strain is circulating or if it arose spontaneously in each case, but they say they have no reason to suspect that the it has any implication for the effect of the vaccine or antiviral drugs like Tamiflu.

Lincoln University in Pennsylvania is requiring that clinically obese students take a "Fitness for Life" course that provides information on exercise, nutrition, and other lifestyle topics. The Associated Press quotes an article in the student newspaper by Tiana Lawson, a twenty-one year-old senior, who wrote that she "didn't come to Lincoln to be told that my weight is not in an acceptable range. I came here to get an education."

The Consumerist relays the accounts of two Apple computer owners who were refused service on their machines because the company claimed that residues from cigarette smoke in their house created unsafe working conditions for Apple employees, and therefore voided the computers' warranties.
"This has to do with nicotine being listed as a hazardous substance," says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross. "Obviously, the home of a smoker is going to have some kind of residue."

November 20th, 2009
EPA, Breast Exams, Cervical Exams
By Curtis Porter

Each year, the American Council on Science and Health likes to remind you that your holiday meal is absolutely filled with "carcinogenic" chemicals -- whether you're eating organic food, conventional food, meat, vegetables, or anything else. None of these chemicals are made by man or added to the foods. Indeed, all of these "carcinogens" occur naturally in foods. But ACSH scientists have good news: these natural carcinogens pose no hazard to human health.

American women, and their doctors, have been thrown into a state of confusion by the release of a new study of the likely benefits--and possible harms--of screening mammography among 40-49 year olds. A federal panel--the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF)--analyzed examined recent studies and came to a very different conclusion than they did seven years ago: mammograms for women under 50 should be deferred, and women over 50 need only get the exam every two years.