To the Editor:
The column "Keeping Breast Cancer in Perspective" conveys a cogent and long overdue message to women: there is no epidemic of breast cancer in this country. Rather, it is the fear of breast cancer not the disease itself, that has reached epidemic proportions.
The positive effort to increase public awareness of breast cancer has had the unfortunate effect of distorting women's perceptions of breast cancer risk.

To the Editor:
If there are more settlements like the one American Home Products has agreed to in the fen-phen diet pill suit, the public will soon stop benefiting from drug innovation (front page, Oct. 8). Jury verdicts and forced settlements that have no basis in science may hurt consumers by creating a disincentive for companies to develop products.
A new study and editorial in The Journal of the American College of Cardiology confirm what previous peer-reviewed reports found: there was no increased risk of heart valve damage from using fen-phen.

Robert Bork's arguments ("Tobacco Suit Is Latest Abuse of the Rule of Law," editorial page, Sept. 23) concerning the impending Federal lawsuit against the tobacco industry are unscientific and specious. His assertion that smoking is "not addictive as medical science has long defined addiction" is presumptuous, if for no other reason than the tobacco magnates and their subservient "scientists" acknowledged the addictive nature of tobacco in their own internal memos.

Executive Summary

Executive Summary

The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) recently completed two studies in which experts evaluated environmental health sections of textbooks. Below are summaries of each study's findings.
The First Study

Homeopathy is a system of so-called energy medicine developed by German physician Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843). Over the years proponents of homeopathy have put forward various theories concerning homeopathy's alleged ability to cure diverse maladies, but there is little agreement, even among these proponents, as to how homeopathic products might work.

The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) is disappointed, but not surprised, by activists continued attempts to discredit a panel of well-respected, nationally and internationally recognized scientific and medical professionals, headed by the former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop. Once again, there has been an attempt to shift attention from sound science to misrepresentations and half-truths.

To the Editor:
An Aug. 29 Week in Review article reports that the efforts by some environmentalists to clean up ''brownfield'' industrial sites have worsened the economic woes of the mostly poor areas where they are located. Similarly, an Aug. 29 front-page article describes the resurgence of malaria because of the ban on the use of the insecticide DDT (front page, Aug. 29).

To the Editor:
Greenpeace, having succeeded in terrorizing Europeans about genetically modified (GM) food ingredients, is now flexing its muscles in the United States.(Gerber Baby Food, Grilled by Greenpeace, Plans Swift Overhaul; July 30,1999) Its target is not really food manufacturers, but American parents of infants and young children.