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Something in the water, The neighbors all lament. Can't trust the companies, Can't trust government.
But we know, you know, they know, Though science can't say why we're sick, We'll ferret out the truth This isn't just some lawyer's trick.
Hired that lawyer who wrote A Civil Action, Played in the film by John Travolta. Without him digging up the truth, You think the companies would've told ya?

When a fifteen year-old of Middle Eastern descent who expressed sympathy for Osama bin Laden crashed a small, stolen plane into a Tampa skyscraper last month, killing only himself, few expected acne medication to get the blame. In fact, most people probably thought they had a rough idea what caused the incident: some combination of politics and youthful emotional instability.

A lot of health-related politics has less to do with philosophy than with tribal allegiances. Those tribal allegiances are strong and make people disinclined to listen to each other or to examine the weaknesses in their own arguments.
In a saner, calmer world, for instance, one probably would not have to deal with people who regard it as un-American to avoid eating beef fat nor with people who think that evil corporations will destroy the world merely by sewing genetically-modified corn.
But here we are.

Last month, like most months, saw advances and setbacks in biotechnology.
The cloned sheep Dolly appeared to be developing arthritis, but Japanese researchers found cloned mouse embryos in better shape than previously feared. The best news may have been the cloning of so-called "knockout pigs," pigs modified to eliminate a gene that in normal pigs prevents their organs being transplanted into humans. The worst news was the long-anticipated convening of the President's Council on Bioethics.

Sometimes, a national crisis strikes a sudden reminder of mortality that makes the average citizen stop and rethink his priorities. So it was for many of us recently when President Bush choked on a pretzel.
Indeed, I declare Bush's pretzel-choking incident the rebirth of irony.
After months of Americans fearing death by terrorist pilot and death by anthrax threats, frankly, too large and horrible to be genuinely funny along came the pretzel incident to remind us of three important truths:

Complementary Medicine: An Introduction to the Debate
By Elizabeth M. Whelan, Sc.D, M.P.H.
The January l9th New York Times obituary for Dr. William R. Fair, a renowned prostate cancer surgeon associated with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, raises questions about so-called "alternative" and "complementary" medicine.

George Harrison, the "quiet Beatle" died in December, 200l at age 58. The cause of Mr. Harrison's death a death which clearly by any definition can be characterized as "premature" was cigarette smoking. In their December l0th issues, both Time and Newsweek extensively covered Harrison's death. Coverage noted, among other details, his devotion to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi but neither magazine mentioned the most critical factor: cigarette smoking as the cause of death. Both magazines carry cigarette ads.

The story of the man-breasts was not the first sign that an anti-Aspartame paranoia campaign was growing.
I must confess that my own dear mother recently expressed concern about the sweetener Aspartame, found in many diet sodas, after hearing the testimonials of some daytime talk show guests, who attributed their aches and pains to the substance. The show even inspired my mother to give up diet soda.

Food allergies afflict perhaps 2-2.5% of the U.S. population or 6-7 million individuals. The symptoms can range from comparatively mild reactions such as hives, itching, and gastrointestinal distress to life-threatening reactions such as laryngeal edema (throat swelling), asthma, and anaphylactic shock. An estimated 29,000 Americans visit emergency rooms each year as the result of inadvertent ingestion of foods to which they are allergic; an estimated 150-200 deaths from food allergies occur each year in the U.S. also.

Science was with them, but not the courts. The producers of one of the drugs used in the "fen-phen" weight-loss drug combination, finalized a $3.75 billion settlement last month. Thousands of claimants say they were harmed by the drug. The manufacturers, American Home Products (AHP), have spent a total of $13.2 billion to cover the settlement and individual lawsuits, according to a company spokesman. In August 1999, AHP was held liable by a Texas jury for heart-valve damage alleged to have resulted from the use of its anti-obesity drugs, Pondimin (fenfluramine) and Redux (dexfenfluramine).

According to O'Dwyer's PR Daily, former Greenpeace UK head Peter Melchett has been hired by the PR firm Burson-Marsteller which represents, among other companies, Monsanto, a prominent maker of genetically-modified foods, which Greenpeace regards as evil. The PR firm helps companies sound eco-friendly and socially responsible.
The report says that an internal Greenpeace memo reassures members that Melchett will still tell companies to "go organic" and that he will never help "bad companies avoid the likes of Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth."

Did mysterious fumes from the World Trade Center disaster leave firefighters, aid workers, and others with debilitating, lifelong diseases? Or might the people involved suffer from nothing more than a combination of smoke inhalation, flu symptoms, and (quite understandable) stress? It's too soon to say, but already hype about mysterious illnesses is spreading in the press. Witness last month's Associated Press report by Malcolm Ritter.

Executive Summary

The first issue of Priorities: For Long Life and Good Health was published in l988, with a mandate to fill an information gap left by popular health magazines specifically, to assist consumers in distinguishing between real health risks and phantom ones.

Place:
The Regency Hotel Ballroom
540 Park Avenue
New York, New York

Remarks presented by ACSH President Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan at a special conference convened by Secretary Andrew Cuomo.

In a new report released today, the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) concluded that the dry-cleaning fluid perchloroethylene (also called perc or PCE) is not hazardous to humans at typical levels of use.

The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH), applauded President George W. Bush for nominating Dr. Elsa Murano for the office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA'S) Undersecretary for Food Safety.
Dr. Murano is the director of the Center for Food Safety at Texas A&M University. Her research on food safety has included studies of a variety of disease-causing organisms, including E. coli O157: H7. She is a recognized expert on the use of irradiation to improve the safety of foods, and has edited and authored books on that topic.

Although popular women's magazines state that they have a commitment to general health coverage, they fail to cover the number one cause of cancer death in women lung cancer according to a new study by the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH). Further, women's magazines publish a significant number of cigarette advertisements, while neglecting to include basic information on the negative health-related consequences of cigarette smoking.

A national panel of public health scientists has declared that childhood vaccinations are safe and has urged Americans to continue to protect their children's health by immunizing them against common childhood diseases.

Americans should remain calm in the face of the anthrax exposures reported in Florida, New York, Washington, and other areas, advised the American Council on Science and Health(ACSH), a public-health group directed by more than 350 leading scientists and physicians.
"This is not to say that we should let our vigilance lapse. Indeed, all we should maintain a heightened sense of awareness to possible biological threats," said Gilbert Ross, M.D., ACSH's medical director.

The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) urges the U.S. Postal Service to consider using irradiation technology to sanitize mail and thus protect workers and the public from bioterrorism. ACSH is a public health consortium of over 350 leading physicians and scientists.

The traditional American holiday meal, which typically includes mushroom soup, roast turkey, potatoes, green salad, fruit and pumpkin pie, is really a chemical feast of toxins and carcinogens all courtesy of Mother Nature. Even if it is all certified "organic."

A national public health group has released two new publications, each of which presents evidence that childhood vaccinations are safe, and urge Americans to continue to protect their children's health by immunizing them against common childhood diseases.

Executive Summary

Do Americans really know enough about the dangers of smoking to make an "informed" decision to light up? Of course they should. Even Philip Morris, as we now know from a company-funded study in the Czech Republic that caused an international flap last week, was aware of early death rates among smokers. The rates were touted in the study as "indirect positive effects" that netted the country savings on health care, pensions, welfare and housing for the elderly.