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An interesting conservative book denouncing humanity's treatment of animals has appeared, and while it makes many good points about the importance of weighing harm to animals in our moral calculations, the author may have too extensive a definition of harm, which in turn causes him to undervalue the benefits to humans of using animals. In particular, he has trouble distinguishing between physical abuse of animals and their genetic modification.
Mice Are Little Men After All

Obesity rates in the U.S. and other nations both developed and developing have been rising dramatically over the past two decades, and this is certainly a matter of public health concern. Lately, attention has been focused on a particularly alarming trend not only are there more obese American adults, but there are increasing numbers of obese children and teens. Weight is increasing at younger ages, as is the appearance of obesity-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus. But how to stop this trend?

It's astonishing how quickly a gullible press, starting with former ABC News science reporter Michael Guillen, rushed to cover the Raelian UFO cult's recent announcement that they had overseen the live birth of a human clone. No peer review, no evidence the cult just made an announcement and the press eagerly spread the word. Not surprisingly, the press soon had to cover the embarrassing news that the cult will not be making the reported clone available for verification by independent tests.

Today's topic: natural pesticides.
At Nutrition News Focus, we were recently questioned about a statement in NNF that 99.99 percent of the pesticides we eat are natural. This has been known by scientists for many years, but some activists try to give the impression that man-made chemicals must be bad while natural ones must be good. Well, chemicals are chemicals. In fact, all of us are just big bags of chemicals held in by skin.

"If plaintiffs were able to flesh out this argument...it may establish that the dangers of McDonald's products were not commonly well known."
Federal judge Robert Sweet, explaining that lawyers for obese patrons who are suing McDonald's, blaming the restaurant for making them fat, have failed to make their case but have thirty days to file an amended complaint (as noted by CNN).

"For practical purposes, the supply of...plaintiffs claiming workplace exposure to asbestos but no injury is essentially infinite. Asbestos litigation will go on until the last dollar is extracted from an ever-widening group of defendants."
Lester Brickman, N. Cardozo School of Law,writing in the January 6 Wall Street Journal

The search for elevated rates of disease among soldiers exposed to Agent Orange is never-ending, and since diseases do not occur at a perfectly uniform rate throughout the population, occasionally there's bound to be a disease that's unusually common among the vets. (For more on the variation in disease rates, see ACSH's booklet on Cancer Clusters.)

Today brought another reminder that people writing for the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal and the reporters responsible for the rest of the paper aren't necessarily on the same wavelength:

Executive Summary

Beef is a highly nutritious food. It is particularly valuable as a source of zinc, iron, and other minerals; B vitamins and choline; and protein. Beef also contains components that may have health benefits, such as conjugated linoleic acid (CLA).

MEMO TO:
Producers "60 Minutes"
555 West 57th St.
New York, NY 10019
From:
Dr. Elizabeth Whelan
President, ACSH
RE: Your Segment on PCB's in Anniston, Alabama - 11/10/02
The CBS/60 Minutes segment which aired on November 10, 2002 - citing public health risks of environmental exposure to PCBs - was completely lacking in scientific merit.

A recently-published study (New England Journal of Medicine, Nov. 21) describes a new vaccine that can prevent persistent infection from a virus HPV, the human papillomavirus known to be a causative factor in about one-half of all cases of cervical cancer. This is a major breakthrough, for the fight against cervical cancer and, more broadly, for the burgeoning field of pharmaceutical products that may be useful in preventing human cancer.
Cervical Cancer

Scientists associated with the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) find no compelling evidence that acrylamide, when consumed in foods such as French fries and bread, poses a risk of human cancer. Their conclusions are presented today in a report on acrylamide in food and its relation to human health: "Acrylamide in Food: Is It a Real Threat to Public Health?"

Plague! Run for your life!
But wait: a plague doesn't necessarily mean the end of the world. We might feel less anxiety about such things if we appreciated the strides science has made and will continue to make in fighting some horrible-sounding scourges.
MMR and Chickenpox

This weeks brings news that Osama bin Laden may be alive, audiotaping new denunciations of the West, and planning new terror attacks. It also brings word that weapons inspectors may be allowed back into Iraq. It seems like a fitting time, then, to ask what we know about biological weapons that might used by our enemies, starting with anthrax, and what we know about ability to defend against such attacks. It's also a good time to hear a few words from Dara Friedman, who worked for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) tracking anthrax during the 2001 attacks.

The following ditty will be performed at the American Council on Science and Health's Christmas Party on December 20, if all goes as planned:

I recently gave a speech about cigarettes to a libertarian discussion group called the Junto here in New York City. I had expected the conversation to pivot on the question of free will not only do libertarians defend the legal right to smoke, many scoff at the idea of addiction, since each individual must ultimately be held accountable for his own decisions, healthy or unhealthy.

Bioterrorism: How Great Are the Risks?
Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan
Remarks Delivered at Debate with Richard Preston, Author of The Demon in the Freezer.
Sponsored by the Donald and Paula Smith Family Foundation
Thursday, November l4, 2002, at the City University of New York

"...it's literally true that something like a thousand people will not die each year that would have otherwise died..."
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, annoucing a sweeping ban on smoking in bars and restaurants, as quoted by the New York Times December 12, 2002

There have been several reports lately about the odd, non-health-related projects that all that settlement money extracted from the tobacco companies went to, such as bridges, sprinkler systems, and even subsidies to tobacco farmers.

Harvey Washington Wiley had long hoped for passage of legislation that would give him police power to enforce a national food purity standard. As the government's chief chemist, he watched ruefully as late nineteenth-century efforts to pass an effective food law met organized resistance in Congress. The nation's major food processors demanded to see the government's scientific evidence justifying a proposed ban on the use of preservatives. Industry was backed by recognized academics like food chemist Ira Remsen, of Johns Hopkins University.

With so much news and discussion focused on obesity in America, not much attention is being given to the 2% of the population who are underweight. Underweight is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of less than 18.5. Health problems are associated with this weight status, though different problems from the ones facing the obese.

From: ACSH President Dr. Elizabeth Whelan
Re: Decisions Related to Distribution of the Smallpox Vaccine
Dear President Bush,
Recent press reports indicate that your administration is on the verge of making a determination about which Americans, if any, should be vaccinated against smallpox.
As a public health professional, I understand the complexity and gravity of the decision you are facing, and I wanted to offer some perspective and advice.

From the Institute of Food Technologists website: