Search results

A January 2, 2008 piece noted ACSH's annual list of top health scares:
The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) has included alleged links between meat consumption and cancer on its list of "Top 10 Unfounded Health Scares of 2007." ACSH ranked the unjustified media coverage on meat consumption third behind stories about lead in cosmetics and fluoridated water causing health problems.

New York, NY -- January 14, 2008. When it comes to health issues, who should you trust to give you the truth: celebrities or scientists?

This week's announcement by Philip Morris that it plans a "global blitz" to dramatically increase the number of cigarette smokers around the world represents the ultimate public health nightmare.

Today, I sent the following letter to Renée R. Jenkins, M.D., of the American Academy of Pediatrics, who led the effort to chastise ABC for its plan to air an episode of its new lawyer drama, Eli Stone, this Thursday, in which anti-vaccine zealots who think vaccines cause autism are valorized:
Dear Dr. Jenkins,
We are writing to congratulate you on your bold, science-based statement regarding the premiere episode of the new drama series Eli Stone on ABC.

Too much caffeine during pregnancy could increase the risk of miscarriage, which is a pregnancy loss before twenty weeks of gestation, according to a new study being published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology). But if you pick up the most recent issue of the journal _Epidemiology_, you will find a study stating that there is no link between miscarriage and caffeine consumption -- so what should a woman contemplating pregnancy believe?

A Denver man, Wayne Watson, is suing the grocery store where he bought microwave popcorn which he ate daily -- about two bags per day. The popcorn was flavored with diacetyl -- naturally found in butter and some other dairy products. Diacetyl, when inhaled in large amounts, is thought to be responsible for a rare lung disease -- bronchilitis obliterans. It has been diagnosed at unusually high rates in workers in a factory that produced the butter-flavored snack.

Reuters' wire service does a good job of finding and reporting on health stories -- perhaps too good. This morning, for example, I received a short story about a New Zealand study on older women, which found that those who took calcium supplements for five years were more likely to experience a heart attack than those who did not. What the story didn't say, though, is where this study was published -- or even if it was. Perhaps it was just a report presented at a scientific meeting -- which would mean it hadn't been peer-reviewed, and thus could be considered preliminary.

"Oh great, my child's going to be a mutant," says Lou Terrier as the woman explains to him why she wants to look inside his car.
--First line of a "Men's Health" article
The current issue of Men's Health magazine contains an article that, while making every effort to be scary and authoritative, actually contains no good advice about anything relevant to men's -- or anyone's -- health.

Nora Ephron's many-faceted career includes acclaim as a film director, producer, screenwriter, and novelist. Now she may also claim fame as an intuitive epidemiologist -- thanks to her recent column in the New York Times ("The Chicken Soup Chronicles" ).

Along the lines of "you can have too much of a good thing," a recent report in the British Medical Journal describes the result of over-consumption of sugarless gum sweetened with sorbitol, a sugar alcohol.

The Food and Drug Administration has finally taken action against pharmacies that sell so-called bio-identical hormone therapy. Last week, letters from the FDA were sent to seven compounding pharmacies, instructing them to stop using false and misleading terminology such as "bio-identical" when selling their products. Furthermore, the FDA told the pharmacies to discontinue the use of estriol, a form of the hormone estrogen, which is essentially an unapproved drug.

Now even Christmas trees have carcinogen warnings. And that's bad for public trust in science.

This piece first appeared on HuffingtonPost.com.
Be careful!

This piece first appeared in the New York Post.

This piece first appeared December 27, 2007 in the Washington Times.

•Dr. Elizabeth Whelan was cited in Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, Vol. 36, No. 4.
•Jeff Stier was on the Vicki McKenna radio show in December 2007.
•Joe McMenamin and Andrea Tiglio co-wrote a report contrasting obesity and smoking for ACSH that was cited repeatedly at an FDA hearing about gastric banding.
•New York Times' Freakonomics blog linked to ACSH's Riskometer.org site in December 2007.
•Dr. Elizabeth Whelan and Jeff Stier weighed in about obesity and teens, food technology, and more on MSNBC in December 2007.

A December 10, 2007 entry on Wes Phillips' blog plugged ACSH's Riskometer:

What are the chances of your dying from various causes? Riskometer tells you.
"Why use death (mortality) and not illness (morbidity)?" 'Cause the question fits the data, that's why.
Gosh, I does love me some statistics.

A Seed magazine Daily Zeitgeist post from December 11, 2007 lists ACSH's Riskometer among items of note:

Riskometer. Gauge your risk.

On December 10, 2007, the Freakonomics blog plugged ACSH's Riskometer site, saying:

Riskometer helps put health warnings in perspective.

New York, NY -- December 19, 2007. Americans are constantly bombarded with alarming news about the dangers of the everyday products they encounter as consumers. In order to shine light on the health fear frenzy portrayed by the media, the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) has published The Top Ten Unfounded Health Scares of 2007, a roundup of the most frightening and prominent -- but groundless -- health scares in the media this year.

The annual number of new HIV infections in young men who have sex with men has increased dramatically over the last five years, according to an article in the New York Times. This increase was particularly significant in blacks and Hispanics.

December 24, 2007 : "Dangerous" Toys, Snacks and Races; Common Sense on Food Contamination

• Quote to Note: “Industry scientists and many federal regulators say these exposures are harmless.” – Amy Schoenfeld in the New York Times about chemicals in everyday household products.

December 10, 2007: A Nice Note of Support, a Less Than Nice Flu Season
- Quote to Note: "I've been a constant reader of [ACSH's website], loving every minute, learning valuable information, finally agreeing with something I read about science/health, and rolling my eyes at the rabid misinformation out there with the knowledge of how much this costs me and ignorant or scared people everywhere." --Anthony, a fan of ACSH.

At last, there is a reliable source of information to help us differentiate real health threats from alarmist nonsense. The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) has researched and published a reliable reference to help the consumer discern the comparative risk of dying from various illnesses, behaviors and exposures. On our new website, Riskometer.org, a simple graphic-illustration diagram of relative threat magnitudes is accompanied by clear text and references to source material.