WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, when asked at a news briefing on Tuesday if there were any signs of the swine flu virus mixing with other strains such as avian flu, responded, The virus is still very stable...But as we all know, the influenza virus is highly unpredictable and has great potential for mutation.
This is somewhat reassuring, says ACSH s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. At least we know that there aren t any big surprises for the fall flu season, so far.

CDC officials estimate that nearly half of HIV-positive U.S. adolescents and young adults are unaware of their infection, and less than a quarter of sexually active high school students are tested for the virus, based on an analysis of data from a 2007 survey of high school students. According to the Reuters report, the CDC recommends that doctors offer HIV screening as part of routine checkups for U.S. high school students.

The valiant folks over at the Center for Environmental Health claim to have found yet another unnecessary lead risk: high levels of lead in name-brand handbags and wallets purchased from Target, Macy s, Wal-Mart, and many other retailers, and they recommend that we TELL THESE STORES TO GET THE LEAD OUT OF PURSES!
They go on to make a demonstrably false claim: Scientists are increasingly convinced that there is no safe level of lead exposure.

This piece first appeared on the site of American Spectator.

Richard Wiles of the Environmental Working Group (EWG) sent a letter yesterday to FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg urging her to restrict the food industry s use of large plastic pallets used to ship, cool, and store produce that contain decabromodiphenyl ether (Deca), a flame retardant chemical alleged by some to be a neurotoxin.

One provision of the tobacco bill signed into law with much pomp and circumstance on Monday is the prohibition of flavored cigarettes that supposedly appeal to younger smokers with the notable exception of menthol, which continues to enjoy its 28 percent market share of the cigarette industry and 80 percent preferred status among African-American smokers.
With irony befitting this week s celebration of the law, Philip Morris simultaneously released its latest Marlboro Blend No. 54, a menthol-flavored cigarette, with perfect impunity under the law.

On Tuesday, the EPA proposed a $36 million plan to cap a deposit of the pesticide DDT on the ocean floor off the coast of Southern California by covering the seventeen-square-mile area declared a Superfund site in 1996 with sand and silt. According to Mark Gold, executive director of the watchdog group Heal the Bay, the cap won't clean the site, but it could reduce the health risks for people who eat fish caught off the Palos Verdes coast.

According to a report released yesterday by the EPA, two million Americans face increased cancer risks from exposure to toxic air pollution. The statistics here are just bizarre, says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross. They re making gross estimates based on gross estimates and so on until they turn out this absurdly precise number and all these figures about specific threats.

This article first appeared on Forbes.com.

Census data suggests that the number of people aged sixty-five or more will triple by 2050. That age group has already expanded by more than double the growth rate for the general population since 2000, and the trend is expected to continue with more Baby Boomers and China s Red Guard generation. Likely with these demographic data in mind, President Obama has said that overhauling Medicare and Social Security is critical.