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Smokers shorten their lives by an average of seven years, according to insurance actuarial tables (one of humanity's greatest inventions and a model for rational calculation that the rest of the culture would do well to imitate). At least, seven years is what studies suggest is the handicap insurance companies are putting on smoking. Insurance companies normally don't officially open their actuarial tables to outside inspection, since those numbers are the basis of all the gambling-like choices the companies make about who to charge how much, the odds of having to pay out, and so forth.

This summer saw the comic book character the Incredible Hulk turned into a so-so movie. It strikes me that the beloved gamma-irradiated behemoth combines two common but false fears about biology: (1) that radiation causes completely unpredictable, bizarre transformations and (2) that extra body mass can somehow materialize without any extra mass being consumed by the body.

Biotech boosters have sometimes used the practical argument that if the U.S. imposes heavy regulations on biotech the cloning of human cells or the genetic modification (g.m.) of plants companies and scientists might flee to other nations. That may yet prove true, but it looks like those companies and scientists will have to flee to somewhere less glamorous than Europe.
There have been reminders over the past two months that Europe does not have a laissez-faire attitude toward biotech, whether of the human or plant variety.

Consumers are often inundated by studies touted in the media, promoting certain foods and disparaging others, sometimes frustrating people with credible-sounding but contradictory advice. Often the culprit creating these contradictory bits of wisdom is a flawed method of data interpretation dubbed "data dredging" by its critics.

Faced with a life threatening disease or chronic health problems, many patients decide to take matters into their own hands and experiment with alternative medicine. This is usually the result of one of two scenarios: either conventional medicine has failed to achieve desired results or patients simply feel the need to be more actively involved in the process of healing.

In the early days of what would later become the Food and Drug Administration, Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson would only approve seizures of products from small manufacturers whose hygienic practices were clearly objectionable. But Harvey Washington Wiley, chief of what was then known as the U.S. Bureau of Chemistry, longed to go after "the big boys," as he liked to call them. Prominent on his wish list was the Coca-Cola Corporation.

A century ago, the government's chief chemist, Harvey Washington Wiley, was well-known for his efforts to pass a law regulating the nation's food processors. When pending legislation finally passed in 1906, it was promptly nicknamed "the Wiley Law." Ironically, Dr. Wiley's own scientific extremism and inflexibility had long stood as a principal barrier to the food law's success.

"There is always going to be greasy, fried, salty, sugary food...It is up to the individual to walk in and say 'I don't want those fries'...anyone who's trying to sue the fast food places needs a therapist, not an attorney."
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), paraphrasing diet guru Richard Simmons, as noted by the July 23 Wall Street Journal
Each additional attempt to reformulate food or add another label to existing food in response to government mandates or public fears increases food production costs.

Think back to last year when acrylamide made its debut as a cancer scare, under the auspices of Swedish scientists. It's not hard to recall, since almost every newspaper, radio station, and TV news show reported the study suggesting that our old friend the French fry may be contributing to cancer development in humans. The "probable carcinogen" is found in high-carbohydrate foods that are cooked at high temperatures, including French fries, crackers, and even cereals. The reports started a scare that spread like wildfire and will probably continue for some time.

That's the finding of the recently-completed study "Electromagnetic Fields and Breast Cancer on Long Island: A Case Control Study," published in the American Journal of Epidemiology. The study, part of the ten-year Long Island Breast Cancer Study Project (LIBCSP), is the latest study to come from the project that fails to show a correlation between a perceived environmental risk factor and an actual increased risk for breast cancer. Previous studies discovered no significant association between breast cancer development and exposure to PCBs or to organochlorines found in pesticide.

SHOW: Today (7:00 AM ET) - NBC
June 12, 2003 Thursday
HEADLINE: New York Assemblyman Felix Ortiz and Dr. Elizabeth Whelan discuss a proposed tax on junk food as a way to control the obesity crisis
ANCHORS: LESTER HOLT
LESTER HOLT, co-host:
Felix Ortiz is the New York state lawmaker who will introduce the fat tax tomorrow. Dr. Elizabeth Whelan is president of the American Council on Science and Health.

The American obesity epidemic is a hot topic. Anyone who doubts that views diverge on what should be done about it should have attended the conference on "Obesity, Individual Responsibility, and Public Policy" at the American Enterprise Institute on June 10. Experts from a variety of fields debated the question of whether obesity is increasing, who or what should be held responsible, and what should be done about it.

This month, attorney John Banzhaf, who for years has litigated against tobacco, purportedly in an effort to protect public health, announced his intention to solve another public-health problem obesity by suing fast-food restaurants.
Banzhaf declared that cigarettes were not, after all, the only legally available product that is both addictive and hazardous when used as intended, and that cigarette manufacturers were not the only ones who covered up the hazards of their product.

In light of the ongoing controversy over fast food lawsuits, the media has called upon ACSH to deliver scientific information regarding obesity and fast food. John Banzhaf, a law professor at George Washington University is the proponent of the fast food lawsuits, which seek to shift the blame for obesity from individuals to restaurants.

The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) today characterized as "ludicrous" the assertion by law professor John Banzhaf that high-fat, high-sugar foods are addictive. ACSH dismissed as scientifically unfounded Mr. Banzhaf's demand that "fast food" restaurants alert customers that the foods they serve induce physiological changes that leave consumers vulnerable to overeating. ACSH scientists also noted that it is simplistic and counterproductive to target specific foods and food establishments as the cause of the nation's obesity crisis.

In this newly revised and updated edition the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) continues to challenge the widely held popular wisdom that "Everyone knows the health hazards of smoking." This popular belief has become the mantra of those who oppose litigation against cigarette companies.

To the editor:
"Pressing Concern: Nearly 50% of N.Y. School Children are Overweight" (July 9, 2003) raises legitimate concerns about the obesity epidemic, however some of the remedies suggested are off base.

Re: "Health groups' donor ties questioned":
In light of the distortions promoted by the anti-consumer-choice, left-wing funded, advocacy group, Center For The Science in the Public Interest, below are some facts about the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH). We are disappointed that your reporter did not contact us before publishing misleading information about our work.

The July 1 Health Journal article "Getting Screened for Colon Cancer Isn't Just for the 50-and-Over Set" by Tara Parker-Pope was important. Colorectal cancer is both a major cancer killer and largely preventable with appropriate screening. Deciding who should and should not be screened is crucial, as it would be prohibitively expensive to screen everyone over age 40, instead of the currently recommended age cut-off of 50.

[Editor's note: We don't wish to make light of the suffering of ebola victims, but we're pleased that guest poet Jenny Foreit has found some humor in the most dire of situations. TS]
a fever hemorrhagic with consequences tragic liquefying tummy internal organs runny skin with gooey bubbles and other icky troubles

If you vaguely recall hearing that smokeless tobacco (chewing tobacco, etc.) is about as dangerous as cigarettes, you're hardly alone but it isn't true.
Smokeless tobacco is only about one sixtieth as likely to kill mainly through oral cancers as cigarettes. Cigarettes cause the premature death of about one third of their users and have a host of other ill effects. See ACSH's newly-revised book, Cigarettes: What the Warning Label Doesn't Tell You for more on the risks.

Parthenogenesis, potentially useful as a stem cell creation method, may be considered ethically acceptable by some who previously opposed stem cell and cloning research. Since parthenogenesis involves the division of egg cells that haven't been fertilized and thus do not have a unique, new DNA code anti-cloners are less inclined to view the resulting cell clusters as human embryos.

[Editor's note: Paul Lee, in an article for SkepticReport.com, has argued that complementary and alternative medicine methods are by definition unproven and that we should prefer "evidence-based medicine" but Saul Green cautions that the term "evidence-based medicine" is often used not by responsible mainstream scientists but by CAM adherents who merely go through the motions of performing tests and gathering data without those tests and data producing reliable results in order

A number of companies have taken advantage of consumers' demand for bottled water and desire to lead healthier lives by developing nutrient-enhanced, flavored bottled waters. In fact, the sales of Propel, a vitamin-enhanced water beverage, topped $100 million in 2002, according to a press release issued by Pepsi Co.