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Air pollution remains a contentious issue. While everyone is in favor of cleaner air, there is less unanimity over which pollutants, in what concentrations, can harm our health. The linkage between air pollution and disease is beset with problems of accurately identifying a dose-response (a biologic gradient), a clear temporal connection, and, most importantly, biologic plausibility – how does a pollutant cause a disease.

The risk of colon cancer from nitrite-preserved meat has been debated for so long that even the preserved meat has gone bad. A new study tries to back up this claim -- and fails miserably.

A recent study shows that dramatic changes in income can increase (or decrease) the incidence of cardiovascular disease. And no, it's not about gaining or losing health insurance. Could there be something other than $$$ at play? Let's find out.

The Trump administration is considering a proposal to require all published research that has received federal funding to be made immediately available to the public at no cost. You would think that making our published science available for free would garner applause, but you would be wrong.

The downside of gift-giving, nuclear power redesigned, and a look at one of our first "industrial" foods.

The "activist-legal" complex is real. One of the lead plaintiffs' attorneys, Timothy Litzenburg, was arrested for the attempted extortion of $200 million from a company involved in the production of Monsanto's Roundup. This same attorney collaborates with Carey Gillam and her anti-GMO organization U.S. Right to Know.

In case you've been waiting around for a really stupid article, your wait is over. And a gratuitous shot at Dr. Alex Berezow. Just for the hell of it. Happy holidays!

A new study reveals that nearly 40% of Europeans want to "live in a world where chemical substances don't exist." Another 82% didn't know that table salt is table salt, whether it is extracted from the ocean or made synthetically.

Bisphenol A – a long-used component of polycarbonate plastics, is one of the most studied chemicals in the world. Even the ultra-cautious FDA has declared it safe for people as used. But some scientists have built a career by screaming about how dangerous it is, so we have another paper. Enough already.

American science and industry are under threat by this complex, known to be an unholy alliance of activists and trial lawyers who deploy various pseudoscientific tricks to score multibillion-dollar lawsuits against large companies. No industry is safe from these deceptions.

The next Beyond Science and Decisions Workshop XI will be held on February 18-20, 2020 in Cincinnati, Ohio, at the Taft Auditorium of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

Yes, life is unfair, and that partially explains why billionaires exist. But many billionaires have used their tremendous wealth to help the poor and boost public health. For these reasons, we should not be scornful, but grateful.

Who funds this research? Most would say it's government, but they'd be wrong. ACSH friend Dr. Robert Popovian, vice president of Pfizer's U.S. Government Relations, discusses this perennially controversial topic.

The masters of the Anthropocene, that would be us, have been responsible for decimation and end of many species through our effect on the ecosystem - through hunting, migration, or from the sources of energy we choose.

Can artificial intelligence improve discharge planning? Has AI finally found a role in day-to-day healthcare? The answer is a tentative maybe.

A new study suggests that there is no safe amount of alcohol that can be consumed. Do the flaws of the study mean we can ignore the findings? Pour yourself a glass and read on.

The ubiquitous online portals are always in the news. A new study looks at how we use – and are used by – these virtual conversations that first started taking place around the campfire before moving to the water cooler.

The feats of the athletes in a Netflix documentary cannot be considered to be proof of the benefits of a vegan diet for athletic performance. For every vegan “star,” one can find numerous top-level athletes who gorge on meat.

Understanding the confidence interval will help you grasp what an election poll is -- or is not -- saying. As you might have guessed, the media consistently gets it wrong.

Clickbait – provocative and intentionally misleading headlines online, designed to draw in newspaper or magazine readers – are nothing new to ACSH, or one of our trusted advisors. Have things gotten worse? That advisor, Dr. Jeffrey Singer (pictured), wonders whether scientific studies have stooped to an extremely low level.

Here's today's lineup: Why are there smell receptors in the kidney? ... Men and women see the world differently ... Spotify shows us how big data can inform and delight us ... and robots come for the village blacksmith.

A new paper in the periodical Health Affairs demonstrates the separate universes of patients and information technology policymakers. Before you decide that this doesn't affect you, consider that these "meaningful use" programs have already cost the taxpayer $38 billion.

Gold is known as a noble metal because of its lack of chemical reactivity. But if you treat it right, you can get it to do some cool things. You can chew on it, make some lousy drugs, screw up the environment mining it, and (maybe) even make a super-pricey burger. Really.

Aging, whether you consider it a “natural” biologic process or a disease, is increasingly the subject of scientific investigation that goes beyond epidemiologic studies. Or how diseases impact longevity. Some of the most exciting work comes from studying our metabolism and mapping those changes to specific diseases.

We are reposting a timely article from The Conversation about why telling people with diabetes to use Walmart insulin can be dangerous advice. While data provides facts, stories give them a more human context. Here's a little background to go with the story.