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With severe limits on flu vaccine availability, it is only natural that the public will try to seek out other effective means of flu prevention. Feeding off the widespread panic over the flu and the desire for alternatives in flu prevention, an abundance of "flu remedies" is now available on the Internet, making strong and misleading claims. Vulnerable people, relatively unregulated "dietary supplements," and the vast territory of the Internet combine to create fertile ground for misinformation.

When items are scarce people line up for them in droves. Scarcity has cachet. There really is something to economists' thoughts about supply and demand.
A recent telling example is the flu shot.

One thing that you can say about the folks at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) -- they're certainly tenacious about their food vendettas! Once a food or ingredient has made the CSPI hate list, it's apparently there forever, whether or not any scientific evidence supports their viewpoint. A case in point is the CSPI crusade against olestra, the fat replacement ingredient that is used in potato chips and other savory snack foods.

As the candidates vie for an edge in the tight race for the presidency, campaign members should be especially cautious about making statements that could make them vulnerable to attack by the opposition. Last week, in an irresponsible remark perhaps meant less to inspire hope than to gain partisan advantage, Democratic Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards handed the Bush campaign such an opportunity by exaggerating the pace of stem cell research.

The recent withdrawal of Merck's blockbuster COX-2 inhibitor, the anti-arthritis pain reliever Vioxx (rofecoxib), was a major blow to a number of interested parties. Merck, of course, took the biggest hit. But the millions of arthritis sufferers who depended on reliable and safe relief from pain since Vioxx's approval in 1999 are also confused and upset, and the federal drug regulators at the FDA are in the midst of a losing streak of unprecedented proportions.

In June, we noted that a picture of Presidential candidate John Kerry riding a motorcycle while not wearing a helmet was featured on the front page New York Times.

According to a study in the August 2004 issue of Chemical Research in Toxicology, arsenic could be toxic at much lower levels than previously thought, raising the alarm that the new EPA drinking water standard of 10 parts per billion (ppb), to take effect in 2006, might still be too high.(1) But don't dump the glass of tap water yet; the conclusions of this newest study were based on an in vitro study of a rat cell line.

The intensifying debate over stem cell research has become a political football.
On one hand, John Kerry portrays President Bush as the obstacle to new treatments for a range of diseases, including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Senator Kerry would have us believe that if he is elected the United States will be catapulted to world leadership in stem cell research and produce an array of miracle cures.

"Take a deep breath: this is not an emergency," Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Americans Wednesday. She was, of course, referring to the stunning announcement Tuesday that United Kingdom regulators had suspended operations at a Liverpool plant, halting production of some 50 million doses of influenza vaccine that were to provide protection for Americans during the upcoming flu season.

This review of Marcia Angell's new book, an attack on drug companies, first appeared in the Washington Times.
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE DRUG COMPANIES: HOW THEY DECEIVE US AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT
By Marcia Angell, M.D.
Random House, $24.95, 336 pages

An October 5, 2004 article in the (Quincy, MA) Patriot Ledger by Sue Scheible looks at Marcia Angell's anti-drug industry book The Truth About the Drug Companies and quotes ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan as a counterpoint:
Elizabeth Whelan, an established author and founder of the nonprofit American Council on Science and Health, blasted back, calling the book "Junk-Science Reporting." In National Review Online, Whelan accused Angell of doing a "hatchet job on Big Pharma"...

An October 4, 2004 article in Brandweek by Sonia Reyes (mis)quoted (and misspelled) Dr. Ruth Kava from ACSH, but we appreciate the attention anyway. The piece noted that cereal makers are including more fiber in their products and aren't yet sure if kids will take to it:
Nonetheless, Ruth Cava, director of nutrition at the American Council on Science and Health, a non-profit public health group in New York, was impressed with the switch. "Whole grains has been a niche that Big G is now bringing mainstream," she said.

A September 28, 2004 column by James K. Glassman of http://TechCentralStation.com in the New York Post criticizes Marcia Angell's new anti-pharmaceuticals book and quotes ACSH Director Henry I. Miller, M.D.:
"Her diagnoses are wrong," writes Henry Miller of Stanford's Hoover Institution, "and her remedies...are reminiscent of the government controls and centralized planning of the old Soviet Union."

New York -- October 2004. From the great "Cranberry Scare" of 1959 to the present-day fear of chemicals in salmon, the public has been subjected to increasingly frequent warnings about the safety of the food supply and environment. However, such panics are almost never based on good scientific evidence, reports the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH).

A September 27 article from UPI by Lidia Wasowicz quoted ACSH Nutrition Director Dr. Ruth Kava:
"Parents' most important contribution is probably setting a good example," said Ruth Kava, director of nutrition for the American Council on Science and Health in New York City. "Parents either should make themselves knowledgeable about appropriate nutrition for their kids' ages, or get access to people who are."

A September 22 article by Abigail Leichman in the Bergen County Register quotes ACSH Advisors Joe Rosen and Gary Smith and ACSH Nutrition Director Dr. Ruth Kava:
If anyone could make you feel like a dope for buying that pricey organic lettuce, it's Joe Rosen.

A September 22 Associated Press article by Christopher Dunagan of The Sun, about mainstream scientists' skepticism about "organic food," quotes ACSH's Dr. Ruth Kava:
Last month, for example, the American Chemical Society sponsored a symposium in Philadelphia titled "Is Organic Food Healthier than Conventional Food?" Nutritionists and toxicologists reported on all the relevant studies they could find.

On October 18, 1969, Health, Education, and Welfare Secretary Robert Finch informed the nation that the sweetener cyclamate -- which was used in everything from soft drinks and candy to canned fruits and salad dressings -- posed a risk of cancer and would be banned. On this, the thirty-fifth anniversary of the announced purging of cyclamate from our food supply, it is useful to reflect on how "junk science" and hyperbole about risk led to this decision.

Every year, ACSH posts a list of commonsense actions individuals can take to either improve or protect their health. As part of our advice to exercise regularly, we emphasize that bike riders should always wear protective helmets -- which can reduce the risk of head injury by over 85%.
The importance of that particular piece of advice was brought home to me by a phonecall from a friend a couple of weeks ago. "Did you hear," she asked, "about Erica's accident?" No, I hadn't. "What happened?"

Restaurants -- fast-food and otherwise -- can breathe a sigh of relief, at least if they're located in Michigan. According to an AP story, Governor Jennifer Granholm signed a bill that bans civil lawsuits against restaurants and other parts of the food industry for serving or preparing foods that supposedly make people fat.

" ACSH endorses diet book." "Eat more food to lose weight (sort of)." "New York Times gets it right."
These are three sentences you might not expect to read on FactsAndFears. Yet you just did, and we meant it.

Dr. Siegel has given permission for us to reprint this important letter he posted to the Tp-Talk discussion group about tensions within the anti-smoking movement and apparent tensions among the stated goals of the American Legacy Foundation, which was created with money from the Master Settlement Agreement between government and tobacco companies, to educate the public about the dangers of cigarettes:

Ramesh Ponnuru of National Review wrote a September 24 TechCentralStation.com piece, "Delusions of Moderation," attacking embryonic stem cell (ESC) research. He criticized ACSH president Dr. Elizabeth Whelan and ACSH Director Dr.

Here at the American Council on Science and Health, we're releasing the fourth edition of our handy tome Facts Versus Fears (which inspired the name of our website, FactsAndFears). The booklet surveys the greatest unfounded health scares of the past five decades, from the "Cranberry Scare" of 1959 to current paranoia over PCBs in farmed salmon and thimerosal in vaccines. In between, scares have occurred with great regularity -- and precious little scientific evidence to justify them.

Reader Douglas White wrote in about an article describing a survey that suggests urban sprawl causes health problems.