Sweden is one of the countries at the forefront of restricting chemical use in Europe. It has a policy of making its environment ‘toxic-free’ by 2010 and the country led in the preparation of the European Commission White Paper “Strategy For a Future Chemicals Policy.” Yet as Bill Durodie notes, “Sweden has one of the highest levels of self-reported sensitivities to chemicals in the developed world. It would appear, then, that too much risk awareness can quite literally make you sick.” (1)

ACSH Trustee Tom DeGregori spoke on October 27, 2009 at the University of Houston, where he is an economics professor, about what he calls the "greenwashing" of the green agenda (read a draft of the speech here ). By "greenwashing," he means activists' tendency to gloss over the real causes of agricultural and public health progress in favor of environmental, anti-tech narratives.

All of us want to avoid the adverse effects of exposures to naturally occurring and synthetic chemicals but we must also recognize that many of these materials are beneficial and they make our lives safer and more enjoyable. The most logical approach therefore is not to eliminate such exposures but to control them so that we preserve the beneficial effects and avoid the adverse effects.

October 22, 2009
ACS, NY Post, ACIP, DioxinBy Curtis Porter
Brawley and JAMA Against The World
Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society (ACS), is catching some heat after his recent statement in an interview with the New York Times conceding that breast and prostate cancer screenings have historically been oversold by physicians and misunderstood by patients and the media.

Despite the ongoing epidemics of cigarette-related disease, novel influenza and obesity, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson is focusing on a very different set of purported health risks: deadly toxins and chemicals in "our bodies." This effort will do nothing to promote public health while raising needless anxiety and spurring expensive, useless regulation and litigation.

This piece first appeared on October 9, 2009 in the New York Daily News:

A Grist reader heard about irradiation and wanted to know if food irradiation is good enough that we could go back to having rare hamburgers, soft-boiled eggs and unpasteurized milk?
Grist came to ACSH for guidance and we were happy to help. Now if only they would listen on GMOs.

•In September 2009, ACSH was mentioned in venues including a National Post writer's blog ( http://ginamallet.com/2009/09/01/streep-bites-hand-that-feeds-her/ ), National Post itself, the Gazette, New York Times (a comment posted by Dr.

This piece originally appeared on the website of The American.
In an apparent attempt to sway at least one undecided Republican senator to sign on to his healthcare reform program, the Obama administration announced the initiation of a pilot program on tort reform, which the president alluded to in his recent speech to a joint session of Congress.

Is multiple chemical sensitivity real? Some claim it is and that they are crippled by encounters with routine chemicals such as pesticides, perfume, paint, air fresheners and car exhaust. One person afflicted told the Denver Post she had to live in her car to get away from it.
Her car has no chemicals?
Nonetheless, people who believe they have it think they are proof of how toxic the world has gotten. The Denver Post called on ACSH for help in separating science fact from environmental fiction.