If anyone doubts the power of letter writing: Wal-Mart cancelled its contract with a cake manufacturer because of my letter (below).
If you would like to take ten minutes and send an "ez-letter" on a smoking issue, go to www.smokefree.org and choose your letter.
Joe

Joe Cherner 375 South End Avenue New York, NY 10280

"If this is a battle between thinning eggshells and human health, we stand firmly on the side of human health...Some of these activists don't pay attention to human life, especially in Third World countries where it's not in their narrow view of life and not affecting them in their backyards in the suburbs."
Jeff Stier, Esq., ACSH's associate director, on activists who banned the malaria-fighting pesticide DDT to protect birds, at a cost of millions of human lives (as quoted by the Greenwire news service, June 14, 2002).

By Todd Seavey

According to a Reuters report (see http://www.msnbc.com/news/761583.asp), the often lamented increase in spending on pharmaceuticals is slowing: "By 2005 and 2006, the spending growth rate is expected to drop to 13.5 percent from increased use of generics and thin product pipelines from branded drug companies."

"The science is very rigorous and this really does give a green light to MMR [the vaccination against measles, mumps, and rubella]...The science on this issue is over; the scientific debate is dead."
Dr. Anna Donald, hired by the British Medical Association to review vaccine research, after completion of the review (reported by the Associated Press, June 12). Also see ACSH's report on vaccines. Our report was a retort to increasingly popular anti-vaccination scare campaigns.

Last month McDonald's was ordered to pay $12 million to Hindus, Sikhs, Jews, and vegetarians who thought they were eating beef-free fries and hash browns. In 1990, McDonald's issued a statement saying they would no longer use beef fat for frying, using 100% vegetable oil instead. However, the company never claimed that the fries they sold were appropriate for vegetarians.

Yesterday's news that an American citizen had been charged with plotting with al Qaeda to obtain a "dirty nuke" is understandably causing increased anxiety in our already skittish nation. Before we start handing out radiation pills to everyone, however, we need to take a careful look at the real risks we face, and how to counter them.

With the thirtieth anniversary of the DDT ban upon us, the Senate is concluding consideration of a treaty that will ban DDT use worldwide a policy that condemns millions of poor children to death.
The Senate's consideration of the treaty, notes the American Council on Science and Health, falls close to the thirtieth anniversary of one of the most tragic public health decisions in history: the Environmental Protection Agency's original ban on DDT, a powerful and inexpensive pesticide.

"[CSPI] has just declared that all that cheese and meaty topping should have only a cameo appearance in a meal, not a starring role. The 'good news' is that they strongly endorse pizza with little or no cheese and lots of vegetables instead of sausage or pepperoni. Isn't that called 'salad'?"
Holly Love, writing in the Philadelphia Inquirer (brought to our attention by http://www.ConsumerFreedom.com ). Also see ACSH's press release on CSPI's pizza report.

A college acquaintance of mine comes from Libby, Montana population 2,700 and isn't accustomed to seeing her tiny hometown on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, but that's where Libby found itself on May 13 because of the ongoing hysteria over asbestos.