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What a Fall it's been - in every sense of the word - for drug giant Merck: late September saw its withdrawal of the blockbuster anti-arthritis and pain-relieving drug Vioxx. Then, last week, a new report revealed that a Merck vaccine against the virus that causes almost all cervical cancer was completely effective in a 4-year trial among over two-thousand patients.

To the Editor: Your editorial ("The Merck Case" Nov. 15th) correctly deplores the tactics of tort lawyers in their quest to dismember Merck and get a piece of the billions likely to be re-distributed subsequent to the Vioxx withdrawal. But you are wrong to conflate the needless and unjust assaults on the pharmaceutical industry with the well-justified litigation against the tobacco industry.

Practitioners and adherents of traditional, so-called alternative medical systems often promote their practices as being more natural and safer than Western medicine. They claim that such systems have been used for thousands of years and that therefore they must be safe. But this is not necessarily the case, as reported in the December 14 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Now, I do not want to sound like everyone's mother, but let's face it, a lot of what Mom taught us was true.

"It's the world's first significant health treaty. It's a moment we hope will change global health."
Denis Aitken, World Health Organization1

When regulators began looking for traces of potentially-harmful substances to ban a half-century ago, scientists were capable of finding traces as small as parts per million. Unfortunately, activists continue to panic -- and make news -- each time science improves our ability to detect minuscule traces, even if there's no new evidence these smaller and smaller traces can harm us. Now that we can detect parts per quintillion, it isn't hard to find traces of virtually any substance on the planet in virtually any place on the planet, if that's your hobby.

A November 13, 2004 Star Tribune article, "Summary of Vice President Dick Cheney's Heart Problems" recently reported that Cheney suffered four heart attacks in 1978, 1984, 1988, and 2000 -- with a history of heart surgery and treatment since the last heart attack. Just this month Cheney was admitted to the hospital because of concerns about his heart due to shortness of breath.

Anyone who reads magazines, watches TV, or listens to the radio must have come across ads for a myriad of diet aids that promise effortless weight loss -- sometimes even while one sleeps -- no dieting or exercising required. Although we, and many others, have warned consumers that such products are bound to be scams, there are still plenty of them out there. And with the increasing prevalence of obesity in America, the market for such scams is surely growing.

"Despite all the controversy about diet...a calorie is a calorie is a calorie."
--Dr. Ernst Schaefer of Tufts University in Boston, who led a study that found that restricting certain food groups is not an effective weight loss approach, as quoted November 9 by Reuters.

The way some groups discuss the risk of exposure to mercury one might think that all Americans face a variety of immediate, dire health consequences. In particular, some groups have warned that Americans should avoid all fish likely to contain any mercury. But with mercury, as with any toxic compound, the danger is proportional to the dose to which a person is exposed. The segment of the population that is most likely to be affected by mercury exposure includes young children and women of childbearing age.

Project Coordinators:
Gilbert L. Ross, M.D.
Elizabeth M. Whelan, Sc.D., M.P.H., M.S.
Executive Summary

This letter by ACSH Nutrition Director Dr. Ruth Kava was published in the October 31, 2004 New York Times Magazine in response to an article by Michael Pollen about American vs. French food fetishes:
Your amusing description of past and present American food phobias didn't go far enough. The present fear of genetically modified crops has fueled support for organically produced foods. One hundred years from now, Americans may view this penchant for supposed purity as strangely as we now view the discredited theories of Fletcher and Kellogg.

Hot-button health issues during this frenetic political season include spiraling health-care costs, importation of drugs from foreign countries, and the feds' war on obesity. Rapidly heating up is the controversy over stem-cell research.

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson this week declared that the sudden shortage of influenza vaccine in the United States is "not a health crisis." He argued that anxious Americans should be patient while the government works to reallocate the nation's limited supply of vaccines.
To his credit, Thompson was trying to prevent panic -- and prevent the long lines of flu-shot seekers we are increasingly seeing on the nightly news.

Outside View: Flu Vaccine Crisis or Not?
By Elizabeth M. Whelan
Outside View commentator
Published 10/27/2004 2:08 AM
WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson last week declared the sudden shortage of influenza vaccine in the United States is "not a health crisis." He argued that anxious people should be patient while the government works to reallocate the nation's limited supply of vaccines.

The Novemeber 3-9, 2004 column "Political Potpourri" by Becky Fenger from SonoranNews.com quoted ACSH's Rivka Weiser:
One can always count on scalawags to exploit the health fear of the hour.

An October 21 article in the Star-Ledger Washington Bureau by J. Scott Orr quoted ACSH's President Dr. Elizabeth Whelan:
Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, president of the American Council on Science and Health, a nonprofit consumer group, said she expects the flu vaccine issue to pass quickly from the nation's political consciousness.

Fox News network's The Big Story with John Gibson interviewed ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan on October 12, 2004:
HEATHER NAUERT, FOX NEWS: It looks like about as many as 35 million people are unlikely to get a flu shot this season. The government is now rationing the vaccine, trying to get shots to those who are considered to be most vulnerable: those are children and the elderly primarily.

An October 17 article in the (Sioux Falls) Argus Leader by Kevin Dobbs quoted an article by ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan:

An October 17, 2004 article in Managed Care Law Weekly noted that scientists at an American Chemical Society symposium last month questioned claims about the health benefits of organic food and quoted ACSH's Dr. Ruth Kava:
Ruth Kava, director of nutrition for the American Council on Science and Health, said her review for the symposium found that claims of higher vitamin or mineral content in organic foods were largely unjustified.

This letter in Nature 432, 15 (November 4, 2004) was a response to one from Consumers Union employees that criticized a symposium on organic foods organized by ACSH Advisor and Rutgers professor Joseph Rosen. ACSH Nutrition Director Dr. Ruth Kava was one of the presenters at the symposium. As usual, the critics couldn't fault the science, so they attacked ACSH's funding.
Industry Funding Doesn't Influence Our Reports
Sir--

Last Tuesday, California voters, besides casting their ballots for president, also had the option in several counties to ban biotechnology-produced crops. Marin, Butte, San Luis Obispo, and Humboldt counties all voted on such measures, and the initiatives were rejected by voters in all but one county.

About a month ago, we noticed that some TV ads for the fast food chain Subway were sporting the prestigious logo of the American Heart Association (AHA). In particular, one ad implied Subway's food is uniquely helpful for weight loss. Since the AHA is a well-known and widely respected organization that promotes commonsense nutrition and balanced diets, we were surprised to see their apparent support of this type of advertising.

It's been quite a rollercoaster six weeks for old-line pharmaceutical company Merck, based in New Jersey. As September ended, the company announced the voluntary withdrawal of its blockbuster anti-arthritis COX-2 inhibitor drug, Vioxx, due to cardiovascular toxicity. Subsequently, Merck has been embroiled in charges of a cover-up involving what they knew about Vioxx's side effects and when they knew it. The company faces legions of litigants led by tort-lawyer centurions, while TV and newspaper ads implore those "injured by Vioxx" to call for a free consultation.