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Vitamin D is a ubiquitous compound found throughout our bodies. It’s tantalizingly featured in many studies to promote health – or not. But why the ambiguity? Is it a super-vitamin or is it simply misunderstood? Let’s take a look.

The COVID-19 pandemic remains in the nightly news and is always there in our daily lives. Charts, tables, and statistics dominate the discussion; some emphasize counts and quote short-term percentage changes such as a 20% drop in hospitalization. Statistics and pictures may tell COVID-19 stories, but the message may depend on how you look at them. Here we present some examples and discuss the various lessons to be learned. 

Japan is planning to release tons of water from the Fukushima nuclear site into the Pacific Ocean – water contaminated with tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen. This has led to protests by China, South Korea, Russia, and other nations; an outcry from a variety of environmental groups … not to mention seafood lovers concerned about the safety of their sushi. Given these concerns, it seems reasonable to dig into the subject a tad to see how serious a concern this is.

A little chemistry anyone? Here's everything you never wanted to know about iodine. But it's not as dreadful as you'd think. Iodine and its compounds disinfect surgical sites, seed clouds, and can protect you from certain nuclear fallout. And it's great for blowing up stuff, too! And there's a quiz with a very special prize for the winner!

To speed COVID vaccine uptake and bring the pandemic to an end, some commentators are calling on the government to mandate immunization as a condition for participating in society. This may seem like a reasonable policy, but there's compelling evidence that it could backfire.

It's time to rethink Earth Day. Let's celebrate the innovations that make sustainability possible and spend less time fretting about the future.

As a native Californian, I was raised being concerned about water. That concern has not changed significantly over my lifetime. As Robert Glennon, a professor of law at the University of Arizona writes, as the drought in the West continues, the battle over water is increasingly being fought in the Courts. The article comes from The Conversation.

Since the start of 2021, the media has regularly urged Americans to get their COVID shots as soon as possible. But this effort won't be very effective unless reporters begin changing how they frame their coverage. 

Fish + bacteria = 25% mortality.
Fish + bacteria + rocks = 5% mortality.
What magic lies within the rocks? What can farm-raised fish teach us?

Perhaps you remember the snail darter, a tiny endangered fish that delayed the final construction and opening of the Tellico Dam in Tennessee. It was also the proximate reason that the Supreme Court upheld the Endangered Species Act. How has our understanding of the science of ecologic habitats shifted in the past forty-eight years? 

It was another busy month for us, as we dove into topics ranging from COVID-19 vaccines and their relative effectiveness (as compared to viral infection), to pain medication, to questions related to toxicology. Here are some of the media outlets in the U.S., on Wall Street, and even in Europe that recently featured, interviewed or referenced ACSH during the month of March.

Dr. Jeffrey Singer, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and ACSH advisor, was asked to submit a statement to the Subcommittee on Health of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which was holding hearings on substance use (and misuse) in the US. Dr. Singer emphasized that illicit fentanyl, not prescription opioids, is responsible for the surge in overdose deaths.

Another steroid has been found to prevent serious COVID, but this one is different. Unlike dexamethasone, which is a systemic steroid, budesonide, a drug commonly used for asthma, is dosed directly to the lungs, which makes it much safer. And it seems to work rather well.

The anti-vaccine group Children's Health Defense is mis-using preliminary research to fuel doubt about the efficacy of COVID-19 shots. Let's break down one of its latest attempts to distort the facts.

The CDC just announced the pause of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the U.S. because of six blood clots among seven million people vaccinated.  If you're shaking your head trying to figure out why the CDC pulled a life-saving vaccine after a few adverse events so rare -- where you'd have a much greater risk from dying from crossing the street or getting into a car -- you are not alone. Is the U.S. shifting regulatory policy to the Precautionary Principle?

A seemingly simple, seemingly non-controversial story from a local news outlet in New York talks about efforts to ban glyphosate (aka Roundup) from the city's parks and public places. But if you dig a little, the facts change. Plenty.

Everything today comes with ratings, from 5-star hospitals to hotels, films, and screwdrivers. Like grade inflation, the problem is that nearly everyone is “best.” For marketing, it may be that the truth lies not in our stars … but in our accompanying words.

Where does the Earth’s magnetic field come from, why do we think it’s going to reverse itself (and what in the world does that mean, anyway?), and what’s any of that got to do with me or cosmic radiation?

Data has suggested for a while that millennials have some mental health concerns. The pandemic didn’t help. But not to worry, increasingly, there’s an app for that.

We are all beginning to venture out. Some of us look around, and in addition to seeing Spring’s arrival, we see pandemic pounds – 10 or more. Everyone seems to be on a diet. Is there a best?

Once we leave the atmosphere and travel beyond the cocoon of Earth’s magnetic field, the radiation environment changes dramatically. With talk increasingly turned towards a return to the Moon and manned trips to Mars, what radiation problems will our astronauts encounter?

Google Maps and privacy, mRNA vaccines - an overnight + 40 years sensation, can plants solve our CO2 problem, the cost of subscription services.

Our country continues to be plagued by maternal deaths, and there are disparities in outcomes when stratified by race or ethnicity. So what’s going on? A new study that looks back over 18 years searches for some answers.

America eats a lot of potatoes, well over 100 pounds per person annually. According to Harvard’s School of Public Health, a potato is not to be considered a vegetable. What up with that?

It is far easier to view the past, with 20-20 hindsight, than to be able to predict the future. That's especially true for COVID-19, as it continues to challenge the human race.