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It s Monday morning. No one is in a particularly good mood. This didn't help.
We have been discussing BPA a component of polycarbonate and polyether plastics forever. This should be #1000 on your list of things to worry about (#999 is being hit by a giraffe that fell off a skyscraper.)

Why do healthcare expenditures in the U.S. tower over those of other wealthy countries? And why are the health benefits we receive not commensurate with all those billions spent? Dr. Atul Gawande has some thoughts on this in The New Yorker.

To many animal lovers, it may seem like a no-brainer research on animals should be banned. And this is the stance of over one million Europeans who signed a petition that the European Parliament is currently considering.

Maybe the name Yvette d'Entremont doesn t a ring a bell to you, or maybe you know her by her internet persona: The SciBabe. Whatever your familiarity level is with her you need to dial it way up. Start following and listening to her because she is bringing the heat. Last

We have seen some remarkable medical breakthroughs in the past two decades. In terms of sheer impact, it could be argued that transforming HIV infection from a certain death sentence into a manageable chronic disease, and a cure for hepatitis C, which is four times more prevalent than HIV worldwide, are at or near the top of this list.

The CDC has released its survey data on how many Americans are getting the recommended cancer screening test for cervical, breast and colorectal cancer. They believe too few are following their advice. We think the issue is more nuanced.

We ve written several times about the Disneyland measles outbreak that occurred earlier this year. A total of 147 people were sickened in the US, and infections also spread to Mexico and Canada. The outbreak once again sparked the debate about vaccinations. With

At ACSH, we have weighed in multiple times about our country s bizarre conglomeration of drug laws. Sometimes they make sense. Sometimes they don t. Sometimes you can t even tell.

For all those in science, educating people is a major part of the job. Whether its a professor teaching students in a classroom, a physician teaching a patient about a procedure, or a non-profit, like ACSH teaching consumers the difference between good and junk science, the work of those in the sciences should always be characterized by teaching in some form. When this system breaks down and the

The puzzle that is the cause of Autism is one of the internet s favorite conundrums. A google search into what causes autism will turn up 120 billion hits. Glyphosate and other pesticides are popular choices amongst

Inside Higher Ed is bucking the hurricane that has built up against Dr. Mehmet Oz after four American Council on Science and Health-affiliated doctors wrote a letter to Columbia University asking for him to be reprimanded for promoting alternative treatments and selling bogus cures as miracle products.

The Crane Independent School District in West Texas sent letters to parents confirming an outbreak of chlamydia in the local high school. District officials have reported at least 20 cases of the disease an estimated 1 in 15 students at the school have contracted chlamydia.

Eat This, anti-GMO fanatics! A new study from an international team of experts reports the remarkable finding of bacterial-mediated transgenic components in common sweet potatoes. Their conclusion: genetic modification is an evolutionary, beneficial phenomenon, same as it ever was.

The latest in health news: The very first GMO wasn't grown by a big corporation or in a lab, it came form Mother Nature, autism rates are not on the rase, but detection is, and a Texas high school without a sex-ed program is seeing an outbreak of chlamydia.

Continuing the assault on anti-scientific beliefs and quackery that he thoroughly eviscerated in his previous book, Do You Believe in Magic-The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine, Dr. Paul Offit, the chief of the division of infectious diseases at Children s Hospital of Philadelphia, has now set his sights on another appalling practice the substitution of prayer for proper medical care.

The possible association between nut and peanut consumption and mortality rate in both Caucasian and Chinese individuals was examined by Dr. Hung N. Luu from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and colleagues.

Is chemophobia the fear of chemicals promoted by the forces of ignorance among the majority of Americans who are scientifically-naive on the threshold of winning the war? The past week gives disturbing indications that science is on the retreat.

In 2012, Washington state had an outbreak of pertussis (whooping cough). Nearly 5,000 people mostly babies and children caught the disease. Surprisingly, many of the affected adolescents had been vaccinated on schedule, a new study finds. The recent analysis of that epidemic, published in Pediatrics, reports that the effectiveness of

Back in February, several prominent medical associations made a recommendation that the newly FDA approved HPV DNA test should replace pap smears or co-testing (pap smear and HPV assay) as the primary mechanism for detecting cervical cancer for all age groups.

Football is an extremely popular sport in the United States. The number of boys playing football in the US is greater than the combined number of boys playing the second and third most popular sports, according to the National Federation of State High School Association (NFHS). Approximately 3 million youth athletes play

This week in health news: Oprah Network pulls the plug on the Dr. Oz radio show, the European Commission says sick cattle to be treated with homeopathy, and the FDA takes a closer look at the efficacy of antimicrobial soaps and hand sanitizers

The federal government took another small step in the battle to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria. In the same week the WHO released a statement on the growing global crisis of antibiotic

This week New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo announced an ambitious plan to significantly reduce the state s AIDS population. Several obstacles exist to achieving his goal of reducing the virus prevalence, but one many point out is the high number of people with an

A Columbia faculty Chair and even Oprah seem to be distancing themselves from Dr. Oz. It s about time, given both his unprofessional demeanor and potentially harmful medical advice on his TV show, and his attempt to distract attention from his own malfeasance.

The World Health Organization just issued a statement warning us that the world is failing miserably to adequately fight antibiotic resistance. Although the group does a very fine job in pointing out the consequences of this impending catastrophe, it fails to offer much in the way of a solution.