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America's technological prowess and enviable high standard of living are now under unprecedented assault by an array of self-appointed "consumer advocates" who claim our food, water, air, and consumer products are making us sick.

Once again it seems Hollywood "scientists" and so-called environmentalists (tied closely to advocacy groups) are trying to sell a bill of goods to a gullible public, in the guise of science fiction. Hollywood, of course, uses fiction to get huge audiences and big-buck bottom lines. The motives of the activists are far more devious. We all enjoy science fiction movies (except, I suppose, for certain scaredy-cats like my wife who hide under their seats when monsters threaten).

Some of you may recall my battle with Whole Foods Market, the poster child for the "health food" movement. I threatened to sue them for violating California's ill-advised Proposition 65, which requires warning labels on just about anything that might harbor, even in an infinitesimal amount, a substance that can cause cancer at high doses when given to lab rats. (For more on that, please see: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,58760,00.html.) The company claimed I was picking on them unfairly.

By Brad Rodu, Ph.D.

Yesterday, I received a cloning update newsletter that contained the title "Hollywood clunker spreads fear and misconception." At first, I was confused as to how a film as God-awful as the new sci-fi film Godsend could spread anything other than contempt among those who paid to sit through it. But after exploring the movie's elaborate marketing, the confusion was easier to understand. A website for the Godsend Institute, which looks as real as Ebay, offers that fictional organization's cloning services.

Recently, I attended a meeting in Trinidad dealing with counterfeiting not of currency, which is what most of us associate with the word "counterfeit." This conference dealt with counterfeit drugs fake pharmaceuticals and I was one of the speakers. I was supposed to speak about "consumer aspects" of drug counterfeiting, but in truth I spoke mainly about the wild and wooly world of the Internet, and its relationship with drugs real, counterfeit, and in-between.

Research shows that while European consumers are getting drug prices up to a third below U.S. levels, their nations are paying a cost by losing research and development jobs to countries where better profits are being made. Price controls and slow approval processes are viewed by drug companies as hurting Europe's ability to compete with the U.S., and in the long term, the study shows, Europe will pay an economic price for lower drug prices.
Financial Times (London), April 28

Earlier this month Mississippi State Department of Health officials identified a bird in Marion County with West Nile virus the first official identification of the virus this year. Health officials in Ohio have identified one probable human case of West Nile virus and are awaiting confirmatory test results.
Last year the number of cases of West Nile virus (WNV) in the United States doubled, marking the worst, albeit not the most deadly, outbreak ever recorded with 8,649 cases and 206 deaths, up from 4,156 cases and 300 deaths the year before.

The public, who too frequently look to the five o'clock news, local papers, and magazines as sources of health information, is left wondering if it is safe to drink tap water, to heat food in plastic containers, or even to eat fried foods for fear of encountering a myriad of so-called carcinogens. How can the average American separate the wheat from the chaff to determine which of the unnerving tales hyperbolized by the press, if any, are valid, and which would better be fodder for the next sci-fi flick?

Earlier this week, the New York Times editorial page opined about the effectiveness of banning smoking in public places as a means of cutting down heart disease risk. Citing a very small, six-month study of heart attack admissions to a hospital in Helena, Montana, the Times editors concluded that "a six-month ban on smoking in public places...appears to have sharply reduced the number of heart attacks."

Two preliminary studies suggest that eating foods containing acrylamide, recently discovered to be common in fried foods rich in carbohydrates, does not increase the risk for several types of cancer, a scientist said Monday.

Economists told a Department of Health and Human Services panel on April 27 that allowing reimportation from Canada of pharmaceuticals so that they can be purchased by Americans at the low prices mandated by Canadian would hurt the research and development of new drugs in the lung run.

A new study finds that cholesterol-lowering statins can lower the risk of breast cancer by up to 30% for women who were on the drugs for more than five years. (See http://www.ajc.com/health/content/shared-auto/healthnews/drug/518552.ht….) Surely, these findings are preliminary; it is only one study and surely there are holes that can be poked in the methodology.

Is New York City s new deal with Snapple hypocrisy, nutritional naivete, or just a financial a boost to the educational system? Perhaps all of the above.

Earlier this year a documentary called Supersize Me won awards at the Sundance Film Festival. The producer and star, Morgan Spurlock, gorged his way to fame by overeating at McDonald's restaurants for a month, putting on nearly thirty pounds and developing a fatty liver in the bargain. In about a week, the movie will be released to the public. To get a nutritionally sound view of Mr.

At times it seems as though even scientific journals can morph into fiction. An article appearing in the April 24th issue of the medical journal The Lancet, entitled "Uganda considers DDT to protect homes from malaria," is so incredible to anyone interested in public health as to have been written by Asimov or Crichton. Using the impending "celebration" of "Africa Malaria Day" (April 25th) as a rationale, the story describes the current status of malaria-control measures in Uganda, an impoverished land in eastern Africa best known to Americans for AIDS and Idi Amin.

The headline in the April 11 New York Times Magazine said it all: "What the World Needs Now Is DDT." Given the prestige of the Times, one hopes that it reopens the public discussion on the use of DDT for control of the mosquito vector for malaria and for control of other insectborne diseases. For some of us over the last three decades, the issue was never closed, but we were voices in the wilderness, unheard except occasionally to be condemned as strange or worse.

The belief that some foods are better than others indeed that some foods are inherently good while others are inherently bad has become a well-accepted underpinning of current nutrition lore. What does it mean to speak of a food as being good or bad? How can you tell if the food you are eating is good or bad? Is it helpful or even possible to think about foods as being good or bad?
The Good, the Bad, and the Confusing

For the past four or five years a clarion call to eat more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains has been heard throughout the U. S. Often it is coupled with "and avoid saturated fat" or "avoid dairy and meat because of saturated fat." All versions of the call, one way or another, are urging us to reduce meat and milk products in our diets. No doubt one purpose of the fruit-and-vegetable cry is to help deal with the obesity epidemic, a very worthy objective, but it doesn't seem to be working. Americans are reported to be getting fatter all the time.

If it's difficult to deal successfully with overweight and obesity in adults, it can be even harder to help overweight children attain and maintain age-appropriate, healthful body weight. Is a given child really at risk for unhealthy weight gain, or is he or she simply putting on a few extra pounds in anticipation of a growth spurt? Is the family prone to obesity and related diseases? Are family members willing to change their lifestyle if necessary to help the child attain and maintain an appropriate weight?

An April 16, 2004 article by Arnold Kling on regulation notes an article from Reason magazine by ACSH's Todd Seavey:

The Natural Resources Defense Council report cited in your March 9 article "The Old Yellow School Bus as a Threat" is an unreliable source. The report was not reviewed by peers for accuracy and does not offer sufficient data or details to support its assertion that exposure to diesel fumes on school buses increases childhood risk of cancer.

"I cannot explain to my mother any longer why she should pay twice or two-thirds more than what is paid in Canada and Mexico. I'm switching my position." United States Senator Trent Lott (R-Miss.), March 11th, 2004.
Dear Sen. Lott:
It pains me to hear that your concern for your aged mom has caused some confusion on your part about the risks and benefits of importing drugs from Canada and elsewhere. You suggest that your inability to explain your earlier position to your aged mother is justification for your change in position

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King isn't the only film I'll be rooting for to win an Oscar or two. Nominated for Best Foreign Film and Best Screenplay is the smart, funny, poignant French-Canadian film Barbarian Invasions by Denys Arcand. The film's positive reception with U.S. critics teaches one very important lesson: If a film harshly criticizes socialized medicine and other follies of the left but has subtitles and is a little artsy, even capitalism-hating U.S. film critics may like it. That's useful information.