In the wake of the hepatitis A outbreak that has killed three people and sickened over 500 in the Pennsylvania area in recent weeks, it is important to remember how useful it is to be able to track cases of disease and identify their sources. For a reminder of how not to track disease (that is, in an anecdotal and highly subjective fashion that may confuse coincidence with causality), see ACSH's booklet on Cancer Clusters.

If he could read Michael Fumento's new book, "Bio- Evolution: How Biotechnology Is Changing Our World," Thomas Robert Malthus would be forced to say, "Never mind."
Malthus (1766-1834), renowned for his pessimistic predictions regarding the future of humanity - particularly about the prospects for having a sufficient food supply for the growing population - would be shell-shocked to learn how very off-base he was.

Editor's note:
Victor Herbert, M.D., an ACSH Advisor, passed away on November 19, just a few days after we posted this item about an amusing stunt Dr. Herbert once pulled. We intend no disrespect by leaving the item up and trust that Dr. Herbert would have been delighted to know that new readers are learning about one of his many efforts to lampoon quackery and pseudo-science.

...Whelan argues that what Philip Morris really is seeking through regulation is a government seal of approval for a dangerous product. "Philip Morris wants FDA regulation because they want to get the blessing from the FDA when they come up with what they're saying is a safer cigarette," she says...
ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, Reason's Jacob Sullum, and others appear in John Berlau's Insight magazine article on the current battle over subjecting tobacco to FDA regulation:

A new report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute* supports what we've been saying right along if you want the benefits of the nutrients in foods, you're better off eating the food than popping pills with one or a few selected nutrients.

New York's mayor Mike Bloomberg has joined the list of public officials seeking to import drugs from Canada where even American-made pharmaceuticals are subject to price controls in a quest to provide cheaper drugs for New Yorkers. And not just for government employees, as other civic leaders have planned, but potentially for the millions treated within the huge NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation system.

New York's mayor Mike Bloomberg has joined the list of public officials seeking to import drugs from Canada where even American-made pharmaceuticals are subject to price controls in a quest to provide cheaper drugs for New Yorkers. And not just for government employees, as other civic leaders have planned, but potentially for the millions treated within the huge NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation system.

It is difficult for a group like ACSH to present "hard data" on the impact ACSH's publications have on improving public knowledge on topics related to chemicals, nutrition, the environment, lifestyle and public health. But one possible measure for evaluation is the extent of coverage ACSH receives in major Internet search engines such as Google, the top-ranked Internet search engine, which accounts for over a third of all Internet searches performed.

Should cigarettes be made illegal and currently-illegal drugs be made legal?
Defenders of cigarettes used to joke about such a scenario coming to pass, but with smoking bans becoming more popular and the idea of medical marijuana gaining some ground, it doesn't seem like such a far-fetched, mirror-universe idea anymore. And much as I hate to sound like my own thinking is on the cutting edge of absurdity, that outcome doesn't sound as unreasonable to me as it once did.

Information Tobacco Companies Don't Want Teens to Know About the Dangers of Smoking
Prepared by the American Council on Science and Health
Foreword by Justin Guarini