Guess what we don't need: How about an inexpensive, addictive drug called fenethylline (aka captagon) that's pouring out of Syria and addicting hordes of people in Saudi Arabia and neighboring countries? If that's not bad enough, it's also used to make jihadist fighters more "effective." There's considerable concern that captagon could be headed to Europe and the U.S. And it's super easy to synthesize. Wonderful.

The rising tide of nearsightedness.
Given a choice, I would rather shop online rather than in person. How come?
Are big box stores the new main street?
We are not the center of the universe.

Whether it's better in the mind’s eye to know one’s biological origins (if born of a donated sperm or egg) – or not – is the subject of much debate. The answer depends on where you were born.

The courts have found that FDA's tobacco policies are arbitrary and capricious. The medical community calls them unscientific and harmful.

Reporters like to portray themselves as truth tellers who hold the powerful accountable. In reality, many of them are hired guns who publish propaganda under the guise of doing journalism. The good news is that a growing number of Americans are abandoning the legacy media for better sources of information.

Another week, another disparity of care. In this case, it's attributable to a measure known to be flawed: pulse oximetry. Does the flaw lie solely in the tool – or how it is used? Let’s take a deeper dive into the latest study of healthcare disparity.

If you’ve been following the news, you’ll have noticed that Japan started discharging its tritiated water into the ocean last week, over the objections of China and South Korea and with the concurrence of the International Atomic Energy Agency. I noticed there were a few comments on my recent ACSH piece on this matter and thought I’d address a few of the points raised in the comments.

Wildfire smoke has been in the news this summer, with horrifying accounts of damage and chaos but little about public health. As a long-time student of environmental health and given the extensive reports of unhealthy air, I wondered why we have not heard about adverse air pollution impacts from these events, especially here in the crowded cities of the Northeast. Google reports no civilian deaths from the Canadian fires and only 1 in California this year.

Once a long time ago, doctors made house calls. If you couldn’t reach the office, the doctor came to you. Telemedicine has been a pale but viable replacement. A new smartphone attachment brings a more helpful home visit closer to reality.

The Guardian's August 17 headline, “Drinking Water of Millions of Americans Contaminated with Forever Chemicals”, was based on newly released data from EPA’s Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule. Contrary to the headlines blasted in the media, the actual data from this rule shows that Americans have nothing to fear from these chemicals.