One day after the phase six pandemic alarm bells were sounded, Swiss pharmaceuticals company Novartis AG reports that it has successfully produced a first batch of swine flu vaccine using cells rather than eggs. We should be proud of these people, says ACSH s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. They re using new technology, and they re helping people. It s the first good news we ve heard about this whole ordeal.

The Venezuelan government under outspoken U.S.-critic Hugo Chavez has banned Coke Zero from the South American country, citing unspecified dangers to health.

The moment that ACSH staffers have been dreading has finally arrived. The U.S. Senate approved the bill granting regulatory authority of tobacco to the FDA. Senate majority leader Dick Durbin was among those congratulating themselves, claiming, The tobacco companies' days of peddling one of the most deadly products in the world have finally come to an end. ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross is incredulous.

The premier food nannies, those folks at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), are at it again. Not content with disparaging all foods and beverages they don’t like, they’re now agitating to reverse a rule by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to “prevent states from using federal nutrition education funds to discourage soda consumption.” According to their legal affairs director, Bruce Silverglade, such beverages are “the only food or beverage directly linked to obesity.” Well, I doubt it.

As noted in an article featuring ACSH Advisor Dr. Stephen Barrett of Quackwatch, research into the efficacy of alternative medicine has run up a government tab of $2.5 billion over ten years and returned predictably dismal results. You expect scientific thinking [at a federal science agency], said R. Barker Bausell, author of Snake Oil Science and a research methods expert at the University of Maryland. It's become politically correct to investigate nonsense.

The Endocrine Society is calling for the reduced use of bisphenol-A, a chemical used to harden plastics that is frequently and erroneously accused of disrupting hormones. ACSH staffers agree with rigorous FDA studies that BPA poses no risk to humans in low doses.
In this case the endocrine society is completely wrong, says ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross. They re making a scientifically illegitimate statement, and it s profoundly disappointing. This is a poorly disguised restatement of the low-dose phenomenon, which has been repeatedly discredited as a threat to humans.

The newest likely victim of the travesty that is the proposed FDA tobacco regulation bill is a dissolvable nicotine-delivery system developed by R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company that could be a valuable cessation device. The product s detractors, such as Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, are calling it tobacco candy that is marketed to children: For years, tobacco companies have deceived consumers and marketed products to children continually trying to replace the 400,000 customers they lose each year to tobacco-related deaths and illnesses.

Daniel Henninger of the Wall Street Journal argues that the World Health Organization s phase six pandemic label, applied this morning to the H1N1 virus, is a loaded word that will instill a sense of panic that may impede the ability of public officials to assemble a rational response plan for this virus. While ACSH staffers agree the WHO s overwrought and highly public deliberation on this matter has been needlessly melodramatic, the terminology is not to blame.

The FDA's panel of psychiatric experts voted to approve the use of three drugs produced by AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, and Pfizer for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in patients ages ten to seventeen. The drugs, already approved for treatment of adults, represent a remarkable achievement in the struggle against these devastating diseases, which affect 2.4 million and 5.7 million Americans, respectively.

According to self-described citizen journalist Ethan Huff, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine has decided amongst themselves that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) should be avoided by the public and banned until their safety can be confirmed by long-term studies. The article accuses the FDA of complicity in a diabolical plot with big corporations to keep people ignorant about their food, cites some spurious examples of dangerous GMOs, and advises everyone to opt instead for foods that are labeled organic.