A Review of the Greatest Unfounded Health Scares of Recent Times
FOURTH EDITION First published May 1997 Revised September 1997 Revised June 1998 Revised September 2004
Introduction
H. L. Mencken once said that the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety), by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. Unfounded health scares, for instance.

A September 28, 2004 column by James K. Glassman of http://TechCentralStation.com in the New York Post criticizes Marcia Angell's new anti-pharmaceuticals book and quotes ACSH Director Henry I. Miller, M.D.:
"Her diagnoses are wrong," writes Henry Miller of Stanford's Hoover Institution, "and her remedies...are reminiscent of the government controls and centralized planning of the old Soviet Union."

New York -- October 2004. From the great "Cranberry Scare" of 1959 to the present-day fear of chemicals in salmon, the public has been subjected to increasingly frequent warnings about the safety of the food supply and environment. However, such panics are almost never based on good scientific evidence, reports the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH).

Reader Douglas White wrote in about an article describing a survey that suggests urban sprawl causes health problems.

Shaun of the Dead, the funniest movie of the year so far (since the momentous marionette parody Team America has not yet opened), depicts a boring, underachieving British man named Shaun going on with his humdrum life, oblivious to the monstrous army of the walking dead that is taking over the world all around him.

A September 27 article from UPI by Lidia Wasowicz quoted ACSH Nutrition Director Dr. Ruth Kava:
"Parents' most important contribution is probably setting a good example," said Ruth Kava, director of nutrition for the American Council on Science and Health in New York City. "Parents either should make themselves knowledgeable about appropriate nutrition for their kids' ages, or get access to people who are."

The intensifying debate over stem cell research has become a political football.
On one hand, John Kerry portrays President Bush as the obstacle to new treatments for a range of diseases, including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Senator Kerry would have us believe that if he is elected the United States will be catapulted to world leadership in stem cell research and produce an array of miracle cures.

A September 22 article by Abigail Leichman in the Bergen County Register quotes ACSH Advisors Joe Rosen and Gary Smith and ACSH Nutrition Director Dr. Ruth Kava:
If anyone could make you feel like a dope for buying that pricey organic lettuce, it's Joe Rosen.

A September 22 Associated Press article by Christopher Dunagan of The Sun, about mainstream scientists' skepticism about "organic food," quotes ACSH's Dr. Ruth Kava:
Last month, for example, the American Chemical Society sponsored a symposium in Philadelphia titled "Is Organic Food Healthier than Conventional Food?" Nutritionists and toxicologists reported on all the relevant studies they could find.

This review of Marcia Angell's new book, an attack on drug companies, first appeared in the Washington Times.
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE DRUG COMPANIES: HOW THEY DECEIVE US AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT
By Marcia Angell, M.D.
Random House, $24.95, 336 pages