In a new report released today, the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) concluded that the dry-cleaning fluid perchloroethylene (also called perc or PCE) is not hazardous to humans at typical levels of use.

Executive Summary
Perchloroethylene (PCE, or perc) has been the subject of close government and public scrutiny for more than 20 years. But government agencies in the U.S. and around the world have not agreed about the potential of environmental exposure to PCE to cause adverse health effects, including cancer, in humans. This report summarizes and evaluates the evidence behind these disparate views, and provides a balanced assessment of the possible risks of PCE based on the best available science.

WHAT IS PERC?

As a public health professional, I was appalled by the intensity of the antagonism over the damages in a Californian's lawsuit against Philip Morris U.S.A., decided last June. Sure, the damages $3.5 billion may seem immense. But this record award will barely dent the tobacco giant's profits.

Caveat Emptor. Consumers and Journalists beware-Biodevastation activists aim to target you over the next few days with false and misleading information about food safety, nutrition and the environment. The same people who brought you a long list of other false health and environmental scares-including the infamous Alar in apples scare, the Dow-Corning breast implant campaign-and dozens of other debunked fears are at it again. This time the scaremongers are targeting such safe foods as milk and other dairy products in your local supermarket and at food retail outlets such as Starbucks.

In July of 1988, at the height of the AIDS epidemic, the estimated number of cases in New York City suddenly plummeted. The city health commissioner soon needed police protection.
Until that July, the city had estimated that 400,000 New Yorkers carried the AIDS virus. Then the commissioner, Dr. Stephen C. Joseph, reviewed the evidence and reduced the estimate to 200,000. He was promptly denounced by leaders of AIDS organizations and gay-rights groups, who accused him of lying to minimize the crisis.

Although AIDS remains a major health problem in New York City (NYC), previous estimates of the number of persons infected with the AIDS virus in NYC were overstated, according to a new report by the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH), AIDS in New York City: Update 2001

"Eat, drink and be wary of those who try to scare you about the safety of your food." That was the message issued today by food safety scientists at the American Council on Science and Health who noted that the scare about bioenginered foods was distorted and exaggerated--and completely without scientific merit.
The Center for Disease Control's (CDC) found this week that there was no evidence that biotech Starlink corn caused allergic reactions in those who consumed it.

The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) has found that, as a group, consumer-oriented and homemaking magazines outrank other types in the quality of their nutrition reporting. The eighth ACSH survey of nutrition reporting by popular magazines ranked 14 of 20 surveyed magazines as "excellent" or "good" sources of nutrition information.

Most of the recent press coverage of the Jenna and Barbara Bush under-age drinking incident has missed the main point: Making it a crime for a 19 year old to buy an alcoholic beverage is not only unrealistic and absurd but it may be an underlying cause of today's serious problem of alcohol abuse on college campuses.
Prohibiting the sale of liquor to responsible young adults creates an atmosphere where binge drinking and alcohol abuse have become a problem. American teens, unlike their European peers, don't learn how to drink gradually, safely and in moderation.