The American Council on Science and Health cautions the public to understand the meaning of the WHO's imminent declaration that we are now experiencing a swine flu "pandemic."
"A pandemic simply means that the disease is widespread. It in no way speaks to the virulence of the disease," says ACSH president Dr. Elizabeth Whelan.
Media Contact: Jeff Stier: 212-362-7044

Over the past few weeks, the World Health Organization has been claiming repeatedly that the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, will be declared a level six pandemic, the designation of highest possible concern. The virus has infected 26,563 people in seventy-three countries and caused 140 deaths. ACSH staffers believe that the WHO should take action. We see articles like this every other day, and they re always saying they re on the verge of raising H1N1 to level six. So when will they do it and get it over with so they can stop talking about it? asks ACSH s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan.

Vitamin, herbal, and otherwise non-regulated supplements have fared poorly under increasingly public scrutiny. ACSH staffers have long maintained that these and other alternative medicine products are not worth the money. Most of these supplements are the modern equivalents of nineteenth-century snake-oil, says ACSH s Dr. Ruth Kava.

The British Journal of Ophthalmology has reported that omega-3-fatty acids may slow the progression of early age-related macular degeneration to advanced disease. May is the operative word here, warns ACSH's Dr. Ruth Kava.

The documentary Food, Inc., which argues the evils of big corporations behind America s food industry, hits the box office on Friday. So far, interviews with the creative minds behind the film have failed to impress ACSH staffers. When folks who make movies like this are interviewed about factory farming, animal supplements, and [the protein hormone] rBST, I can safely predict that they will be full of misinformation, says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross.

Today on National Review Online, ACSH s Jeff Stier collaborates with Angela Logomasini of the Competitive Enterprise Institute to analyze the efficacy of the EPA in light of their recent request for a 37% budget increase for greater regulatory efforts: The EPA s public-health mission is misleading, because it is charged with addressing risks that are too small to measure or be regulated away. The agency s current risk-assessment practices compound the problem, harming both public health and our economic wellbeing.

ACSH staffers are interested in how the Obama administration might advise the U.S. Supreme Court concerning a Georgia family s lawsuit against Wyeth and GlaxoSmithKline. The Georgia Supreme Court allowed the case to proceed for a determination of whether the parents claim that the use of the preservative thimerosal in several vaccines is to blame for their son s neurological disorders has any merit. Wyeth and GSK contend that federal law protects vaccine manufacturers from liability.

A study recently published in the journal Cancer indicates that antioxidant supplements may reduce the effectiveness of chemotherapy and radiation therapy by protecting the cancerous cells that the treatments are used to destroy. Heather Greenlee, assistant professor of epidemiology and medical oncology at Columbia University s Mailman School of Public Health and lead author of the study, claims that the data is inconclusive.

A new study posted on the Environmental Health News website is being used to make the case that prenatal phthalate exposure decreases the alertness of newborn girls while increasing it in newborn boys.

ACSH staffers are encouraged by some letters published in the New York Times in response to its coverage of the proposed tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. Those who make the case against the tax are succinct, right to the point, and they can tell that this is a bad idea, says ACSH s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan.
The letters are very much on target, adds ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross. They make the case that there are better ways to ensure the health of our children, including accurate nutrition education and well-funded physical education programs in schools.