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New York, NY -- October 2007. Widespread misinterpretation of health-related research, especially reports that conflate association with causation, leads to confusion and mistrust of health advice, according to physicians and scientists associated with the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH).

An October 22, 2007 piece by Jordana Miller pushes the idea of an epidemic of chemical-caused childhood disease but quotes Dr. Whelan on a skeptical note:
Elizabeth Whelan, president of the American Council on Science and Health, a public health advocacy group, disagrees.

An October 18, 2007 item by blogger Elisa quotes Brain, Child magazine's Jennifer Niesslein quoting ACSH's Jeff Stier on HuffingtonPost.com about the downside of giving kids report cards for their weight:

An October 9, 2007 article by Becky Bell on the website of Southern Arkansas University describes a visit by ACSH's Jeff Stier to participate in a panel on smokeless tobacco as a means of harm reduction:

An article in Skeptic Volume 13, Number 3 by Sidney Zion quotes ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan on exaggerations about secondhand smoke's effects:

New York, New York—October 15, 2007. Scientists and physicians associated with the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) question whether typical asbestos exposures pose a substantial risk to human health.

It is difficult for a group like ACSH to present "hard data" on the impact ACSH's publications have on improving public knowledge on topics related to chemicals, nutrition, the environment, lifestyle and public health. But one possible measure for evaluation is the extent of coverage ACSH receives in major Internet search engines such as Google, the top-ranked Internet search engine, which accounts for over a third of all Internet searches performed.

On the second anniversary of the use of anthrax as a bioweapon in the US, physicians and scientists associated with the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) today alerted government officials and the public that the risks associated with another anthrax attack should not be underestimated.
ACSH scientists noted with concern that the hypothetical threat of a smallpox attack has overshadowed the threat of anthrax, even though we have already experienced a domestic terrorist attack with anthrax.

Robert Palmer died suddenly of a heart attack last week at the age of fifty-four, which is a bit young to die of a heart attack -- at least for non-smokers. But Palmer, who performed "Addicted to Love" and other hit songs of the 1980s, was a smoker.

Should cigarettes be made illegal and currently-illegal drugs be made legal?
Defenders of cigarettes used to joke about such a scenario coming to pass, but with smoking bans becoming more popular and the idea of medical marijuana gaining some ground, it doesn't seem like such a far-fetched, mirror-universe idea anymore. And much as I hate to sound like my own thinking is on the cutting edge of absurdity, that outcome doesn't sound as unreasonable to me as it once did.

An October 15 New York Times piece by Marian Burros contained misleading information about the safety of irradiated foods. Ms. Burros must have been convinced about the toxic effects of irradiated foods, since she quoted and echoed the views of Public Citizen and the Center for Food Safety, well known for their stances against food irradiation technology.
The facts, contrary to Burros' article, are:

Last month, a company called Freedom Tobacco International, Inc. offered celebrities lifetime supplies of their cigarettes and paid women to smoke the brand in hip Manhattan bars and nightclubs in an effort to draw attention to the brand.

Here at the American Council on Science and Health, we have repeatedly found ourselves engaged in correspondence like the following, so we thought we'd share...

Dear Dr. Whelan,

Ah, if only ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross could edit all the nation's health headlines! Below, he offers examples of the sorts of tweaks he might make, using some recent real headlines and article summaries from the Food and Drug Law Institute's SmartBrief newsletter as his raw material:
Lecithin May Help Lower Cholesterol [Then Again, It May Not]
"...Although no large-scale study has been conducted, some say it may be useful in the fight against Alzheimer's..."

Proposition 65 is the California law that requires a label on any product containing "known carcinogens" or chemicals that could be a reproductive hazard. Multitudes of warning labels litter the California landscape, since virtually any chemical, natural or synthetic, can probably be either toxic or carcinogenic. But now, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) wants even more labeling.

This year has seen whooping cough outbreaks in New York, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, and elsewhere. Whooping cough is a serious disease that, in the past, killed many children and caused considerable suffering for many others. A program of immunization had just about eliminated whooping cough in the United States, but this year the disease is making a comeback: the number of reported cases has greatly exceeded those reported in recent years, a scary reminder of another era.

"We always hear that motherhood and apple pie was something we respected...But any speech about apple pie would be punished by a tax penalty because I'm sure they feel it is too high in sugar."
Dan Jaffe, a v.p. of the Association of National Advertisers, reacting in an October 15 Adweek article to a proposal by the American Obesity Association that would end business tax deductions for the advertising of foods low in nutritional value.

October marks the two-year anniversary of the anthrax attacks that followed the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Two years ago, some Americans realized for the first time the amount of animosity felt in some places toward the United States. What have we done since then to prevent such incidents and prepare for the future? President Bush embarked on his "war on terrorism," airlines have increased security, and now the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has released a report suggesting that the U.S.

In October of 2000, ABC News broadcast a television horror story depicting terrorists pitching bottles of anthrax spores onto the tracks of an American city's underground railway, releasing an invisible cloud of deadly bacteria that would kill 50,000 people within a week. The show served its purpose, horrifying viewers, so much so that ABC had to publicly clarify that the program was pure fiction. One year later, in October 2001, hypothetical bioterrorism became grim reality with one person at ABC's New York headquarters, the child of a producer, among the infected.

In 2001, the Surgeon General issued a call to action in response to what has come to be known as the "obesity epidemic." The call to action heightened public debate over obesity, which causes health problems that threaten to reverse many of gains made in recent decades against heart disease, several forms of cancer, and various chronic health problems. While much is being done to combat obesity as a whole, the most dramatic part of the epidemic has remained hidden.

Executive Summary 

Products containing Olestra, the zero-calorie fat substitute, will no longer bear a label informing consumers of purported unpleasant gastrointestinal (GI) side effects. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), after reviewing a six-week study that involved 3000 people, ruled that Olestra "caused only mild, infrequent GI effects," according to an FDA press release. The FDA also decided to continue the requirement for food manufacturers to add vitamins A, D, E, and K to counteract Olestra's effects on the absorption of these specific vitamins.

Barbara Seaman's credentials in the anti-estrogen community go way back. She and her colleagues in women's empowerment organizations deserve credit for getting clearer information to the public about potential side-effects of prescription hormones in the early 1970s. She also helped to publicize the dangers of putting pregnant women on the estrogen DES, an all-too-common practice in the 1950s and 60s.

Chefs at some of New York's finest restaurants including Blue Water Grill, Atlantic Grill and Blue Fin are practicing the latest form of culinary political correctness: banning farmed salmons from their menus, to supposedly protect their patrons' health.
The cause? A flurry of media reports that an environmental advocacy organization, the Environmental Working Group (EWG), found unusually high levels of PCBs the long-banned industrial chemicals that news reports claimed "caused cancer" in farmed salmon.