DISPATCH: Environmentalists, Budget-Planners, and Candidates
Quote of the day:
Patrick Moore, one of the founders of Greenpeace, said, "But I later learned that the environmental movement is not always guided by science. As we celebrate Earth Day, this is a good lesson to keep in mind." --the _Wall Street Journal_, April 22, 2008.
Earth Day
Happy Earth Day! There are many stories in the news about the environment and what impact we have on it and vice versa.

The latest chemophobic scare has centered on bisphenol-A (BPA), a component of strong, shatter-resistant plastic bottles. BPA has been in common use--one might call it ubiquitous--for several decades now, and no human being has ever been harmed by exposure to it. This doesn't matter to the panel members of the National Toxicology Program's Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction (CERHR), who released a draft report yesterday announcing their "concern" that exposure to BPA might affect fetuses and infants adversely.

This piece first appeared in the New York Post.
Get your plastic grocery bags while you can. By Earth Day, that is, Tuesday, the national chain Whole Foods Market will no longer offer shoppers plastic bags -- leaving consumers who don't want reusable canvas bags one choice: paper.
Unfortunately, paper has its own drawbacks, such as: it's preferred by cockroaches -- like those contributing to New York City's asthma epidemic.

It should come as no surprise that overweight and obesity are linked to a less active lifestyle. A new report in the journal Pediatrics (Laurson, et al., 2008) quantifies the relative effects of physical activity (PA) and screen time (ST) -- time spent watching TV and playing video games -- on the likelihood that children will be overweight or obese.

Originally devised to help hypertensive patients lower their blood pressure, the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) dietary pattern includes relatively large amounts of plant-derived foods, moderate amounts of low-fat dairy foods, and low amounts of animal protein. A new study by Dr. Teresa Fung and colleagues (Arch Intern Med 2008; 168:713) indicates that women who adhere to such a dietary pattern may lower their risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke as well.

We've gotten some encouraging responses to the ACSH report on Scrutinizing Industry-Funded Science:
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We seem to agree on the major issues.

It may be hard to believe, but apparently there really are officials in both the UK and France who are not afraid of the use of biotechnology to improve and expand the food supply.

This morning, the folks who produce NBC's Today show allowed me six seconds (out of a six-minute segment) to comment on an astoundingly alarmist and unscientific "report" on the alleged dangers of plastic water bottles.

This piece first appeared in the Washington Times.
A new scientific McCarthyism is alive and well in America today. Nowadays, the inquiring mantras come from journal editors and government panel chairmen. It goes like this:

For about a century, industry has played an important role in creating new technology and funding scientific research.