After the Liggett Group announced a settlement last month of the Medicare reimbursement suits brought by 22 states, a press release from the American Cancer Society reflected the near universal response of the public health community: This action "will significantly advance [our] goals for curtailing the death and disease caused by tobacco use." After all, the health advocates argued, not only was Liggett breaking ranks with the industry by admitting that cigarettes cause disease, are addictive, and are peddled to kids, but Liggett was also planning to pay compensatory damages to the states

In March 1996 a 20-year-old Long Island, New York, college student died after ingesting eight tablets of Ultimate Xphoria, a dietary supplement whose main ingredient is the stimulant herb ephedra, also called "ma huang" and "Chinese ephedra." Practitioners of Ayurveda (traditional Indian medicine) and traditional Chinese medicine have used this herb for millennia to treat respiratory ailments. And a health food industry representative has stated that every day roughly five million Americans consume ephedra products. Should ephedra dietary supplements be reclassified and regulated?

Vegetarianism has taken on a "political correctness" comparable to the respectability it had in the last century, when many social and scientific progressives advocated it. Today, crusaders extol meatless eating not only as healthful but also as a solution to world hunger and as a safeguard of "Mother Earth." The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) aggressively attacks the use of animal foods and has proposed its own food-groups model, which excludes all animal products.

The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) today opposed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s proposed changes to ambient air quality standards for ozone and its adoption of a standard for "fine" particulate matter (referred to as "PM2.5"). ACSH President Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan declared that "there is no public health benefit to be gained from the proposed stricter standards. Furthermore, adoption of the proposed standards will place severe economic burdens on hundreds of counties throughout the U.S. and on U.S.

Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Jon Franklin has spoken out to condemn the scare tactics practiced by today's journalists. In a pulls-no-punches lead story in the latest issue of Priorities, the quarterly magazine of the American Council on Science and Health, Franklin exposes what he terms the "Poisons of the Mind"-those "lies, illusions and poison paranoias" that so often grip our society." ACSH President Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan has remarked: "Jon Franklin's panoramic essay is therapy for technophobes and a treat for skeptics."

The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) has announced the formation of an affiliate group, the New York City Advisory Council on Health Priorities ("Advisory Council"). This affiliate, funded by grants from two private New York City foundations (The Bodman and J. M. Foundations), will focus on public health issues of particular importance to New York City.

Scientists associated with the American Council on Science and Health today rejected as alarmist and unscientific the claims espoused in the new book Toxic Deception: How the Chemical Industry Manipulates Science, Bends the Law, and Endangers Your Health. The book was written by reporters Dan Fagin and Marianne Lavelle and the Center for Public Integrity.

Scientists associated with the New York City Advisory Council on Health Priorities, a new affiliate of the American Council on Science and Health, reject a recent call by the NY Green Party to ban milk from cows injected with rBGH (recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone) from New York City schools. But-as ACSH President Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan points out-NY Green's claims are in opposition to the actual facts on rBGH milk.

This material has been published in Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 38, 71-84 (1997), the only definitive repository of the content that has been certified and accepted after peer review.