Michelle Obama's "organic" White House garden was designed to promote a green agenda. In order to provide safe food to children in the community, the First Lady wouldn't use chemical pesticides or fertilizers. Green groups cheered. In an ironic twist, all of that has now backfired.

The following letter first appeared on July 21, 2009 in Annals of Internal Medicine:
To the Editor:

According to a news release from the EPA Office of Public Liaison Notices, For the first time in more than thirty-five years, EPA has proposed to strengthen the nation s nitrogen dioxide (NO2) air quality standard that protects public health.
The proposed changes reflect the latest science on the health effects of exposure to NO2, which is formed by emissions from cars, trucks, buses, power plants, and industrial facilities and can lead to respiratory disease.

FDA s Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory committee is meeting to discuss how to address the public health problem of liver injury related to the use of acetaminophen in both over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription (RX) products, noting that they are not seeking to remove it from the market, as it is safe when used as directed.

Japanese scientists reported in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that the new transgenic rice designed to fight a common pollen allergy appears safe in animal studies. Transgenic plants have genes from different species artificially inserted into their DNA in order to improve their resistance to environmental threats or increase their nutritive value to humans.
The interesting thing about this is that more and more plants will be produced to make pharmaceuticals if regulatory strictures are relaxed, says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross.

An article published on Friday from Associated Press medical writer Mark Stobbe reports that 600 million swine flu vaccinations may be distributed for the upcoming flu season in addition to the approximately 115 million seasonal flu vaccinations offered each year.

In a blog entry published on Friday, Anrew Van Dam with the Association of Health Care Journalists finally noticed the media bias against bisphenol-A (BPA) that ACSH staffers almost alone against the crowd have been condemning for some time. In a review of American media coverage of the controversy of bisphenol-A, researchers at STATS (a nonprofit, nonpartisan Statistical Assessment Service affiliated with George Mason University), say the media failed to properly weight different studies based on their size and research methodology.

Researchers from the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD reported that a diet high in fat can increase the risk of developing pancreatic cancer. According to the article from dbtechno.com, this study finding is interesting because it contradicts previous studies that have found the exact opposite.
I ve never heard of any study that would indicate the opposite, says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross, so I don t entirely trust this report. To whatever extent it is true, it s a good reason not to overdo your fat intake.

According to an article in today s Wall Street Journal, the Nestle unit that is being inspected for the origin of the E. coli bacteria found in their Toll House Cookies refused FDA requests for access to pest-control records, environmental-testing programs, and other information during regular inspections over the past five years: David Elder, director of regional operations at the FDA s Office of Regulatory Affairs, said many food companies do open their records to inspectors.