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New York, NY -- July 21, 2008. The latest attempt by proponents of organic agriculture to prove that organically grown crops are nutritionally superior to conventional ones has failed, according to Joseph D. Rosen, Ph.D., emeritus professor of Food Toxicology at Rutgers University and a scientific advisor to the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH).

In a July 6, 2008 letter to the New York Post, Thomas Aldrich, Chair of the New York State September 11th Workers' Protection Task Force, objects to a Post piece by ACSH's Jeff Stier:
The NYS September 11th Workers' Protection Taskforce and its rigorous and balanced efforts are mischaracterized by Jeff Stier ("Exploiting 9/11," PostOpinion, June 26).

In spite of the unimaginable global transformations described in my blog post yesterday, per capita food production and consumption in many parts of Africa has actually declined. Unless there is a massive infusion of aid (from the Gates Foundation and others) for seeds, fertilizer, and infrastructure, the situation could get worse, since in many regions of Africa, farmers are taking more nutrients out of the soil than they are returning. They are mining the soil and destroying its structure.

In describing the current world food situation, let me first give the good news: the long-term transformations that have brought us to the present.

A few interesting nutrition-related items brought to our attention this summer:
As the Olympics began, the group Consumer Freedom noted some amusing differences between champion swimmer Michael Phelps -- a voracious living proof of the calories in/calories out equation for weight maintenance -- and head food nanny Michael Jacobson of the perennially worried Center for Science in the Public Interest.
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MORNING DISPATCH 8/15/08: Strokes, Risks, Babies, Cancer
Mice develop cancer after being predisposed to itA new study alleges that common skin creams cause tumors in mice -- but only mice bred to be prone to skin cancer that were pre-treated with high levels of UV radiation. "They applied the creams after purposely making the mice susceptible to skin cancer," says ACSH's Dr. Ruth Kava. "So is it the cream or the pretreatment?"

The Organic Center is described as a not for profit advocacy group by their supporters in the popular press, which makes them appear to be a bunch of good guys who are interested in promoting good health through organic food. The Organic Center, however, is supported by tax-deductible contributions mainly from organic food companies and their officers, and the main interest of those companies is shareholder profits (as it has to be in our capitalist society), not improved consumer health.

MORNING DISPATCH 7/25/08: Rep. Barton, Dr. Miller, Tomatoes, HIV, Meat, and Candy

Using the untimely death of former White House press secretary Tony Snow from colon cancer as an example, the animal rights activists misleadingly called the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) imply that such a fate awaits children who are fed hot dogs as part of school lunches.
In an egregious attempt to frighten parents, PCRM today warned that allowing children to eat processed meats such as hot dogs or baloney would set them up for cancer later in life.

For many years milk marketers have provided consumers with a plethora of choices -- regular, reduced fat, low fat, nonfat, lactose-reduced, etc., etc. All such products have something real to offer. Unfortunately, for the past few years many have decided to add labeling that their milk comes from cows that "were not treated with rBST" (recombinant bovine somatotropin).

Concern about the increase in obesity in children and adolescents has spurred research into their activity levels. Data garnered from girls' reports of their activity, for example, indicates that as girls mature, their participation in leisure-time and total exercise appears to decrease. Because these studies are based on participants' reports of their activities, it is hard to know how accurate they are.

DISPATCH 7/11/08: Nature and Fluoride for All, Plus Smoke and Life

DISPATCH 6/27/08: Lying Brains, Silent Strokes, Unsafe Sex, and Rotavirus Vaccines

From time to time, the Organic Center publishes State of the Science Reviews.

As the candidates release their medical records, some questions will naturally arise. Senator McCain's report card is no surprise but Senator Obama has a lot more insecurity: He is young, active and looks great but has a documented history as a cigarette smoker. His campaign is claiming he quit, and that should be taken with a grain of salt, but what if he is a former smoker? Did his risks disappear?
Politico came to ACSH to provide insight into what his future might hold.

"[B]ee stings, suburn, boating accidents and an increased risk of food poisoning can all subtract from the fun."

New York, NY -- May 7, 2008. The American Council on Science and Health today presents the first Henry I. Miller Award for Excellence in Public Health Education to Dr. Henry Miller, research fellow at the Hoover Institution.

This piece appeared on NationalPost.com.

This piece first appeared in the New York Post.
It's right to take pride in treating our heroes well. We should certainly compensate first responders who were actually injured as a result of exposure to the air on 9/11 and the following few days.

The e-mails and phone calls I get these days are relentless. Usually triggered by the latest scary headline, panicked consumers want to know how to avoid all the "chemicals" (a term they often use synonymously with toxins) to which we are exposed.

Infertility is a serious issue for many women and it rarely has an easy explanation or a quick fix. Frustrated by years of uncertainty and difficult treatments, women experiencing unexplained fertility problems can be particularly susceptible to claims of miracle cures. If they believe the book The Fertility Diet, they also have a new enemy to contend with: trans fats.

DISPATCH 6/20/08: Natural, Biotech, Asthmatic, Clustered, Immune

The massive outbreaks of E. coli 0157:H7 in spinach and lettuce in 2006 caused several deaths and hundreds of illnesses and devastated the produce industry. Since then, the FDA has been under increasing pressure to approve the petition -- submitted in 1999 -- to allow irradiation of ready-to-eat food. Irradiation technology could be used to ensure microbiological safety of fresh produce.

Once again, we’re told, the pharmaceutical industry is trying to pull the wool over the eyes of Americans. This time the deceit is ghost writing, the practice by which someone other than the named author writes a clinical trial or scientific review article. The purported scandal is that ghost writing activities are supported financially by industry. As an April 15 Washington Post headline proclaimed, "Key Vioxx Research Was Written by Merck, Documents Allege."

Our job here is ranking risks, and here's a little exercise in doing so:
(1) A Real Risk:
Marilyn Larkin provides a balanced New York Academy of Sciences overview of foodborne illnesses: "Health Threats from Domestic and Imported Produce."
(2) A Small But Discussion-Worthy Risk: