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If you're interested in some nutty news, we've got you covered. It includes: a speeding DeLorean, the belief that trees interact with humans (and each other), and a fire-starting woodchuck.

Our Dr. Jamie Wells attended a forum yesterday at the Harvard Club of New York. Public Health leaders presented diverse perspectives on how the complex task of preventing healthcare-associated infections needs to be approached. 

You have to give the Environmental Working Group credit. Not for its science – which, of course, is atrocious – but for the fact it sure knows how to make money. Here's its latest scheme.

This allergy test, a sometimes unpleasant childhood right of passage, may be a thing of the past someday. New research shows that a urine test can determine if a person has an allergy to a specific substance.

With First Lady Melania Trump's hospitalization, public misperceptions about how long someone should be admitted have run amok.

"Methylene chloride is arguably the most dangerous of all the solvents sold at Home Depot," one of ASCH's experts says. Given the assessments, we believe this happens to be an instance where EPA concern is warranted.

Partisanship is a terrible development for our culture. But it's even worse for areas such as public health, because people die when we implement bad, partisan ideas.

To underscore how important the battle for its eradication still is, misperceptions are clarified and key aspects of the inherited illness are addressed here.

If the federal government stays out of picking winners and losers in energy, the trend toward lower emissions is likely to continue.

As this issue of Priorities goes to press, our New York office is closed due to a winter storm and that makes people worry about their heating bills. Meanwhile, both New York and California residents have recently been cheering because those states are determined to get rid of their nuclear power plants. That will be very bad because those states are also opposed to both natural gas and coal.

As Christopher Wild stepped down as director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer there was hope that the status quo, activism parading as epidemiology would end. The status quo won.

Ebola has returned to Africa, specifically the Democratic Republic of Congo. Unlike 2014, we now have a vaccine.

If you're in the New York City area next week and are interested in some cool science, check out some of the offerings at the World Science Festival. Now in its 11th year, the smart WSF folks really seem to have outdone themselves this time around. Some programs have a fee, others are free, but there's truly something for all ages.
 

In the grand tradition of misidentifying problems and offering proposals that won’t work, the city council of Washington, D.C. wants to force manufacturers of flushable toilet wipes to change the label to “non-flushable.” This is wrong.

A recent study, seeking to measure the impact of volunteerism on cognitive health, concluded that older adults score somewhat higher on cognitive testing when they help others. But while that might sound encouraging, given the study's limitations it's hard to take the findings as overly meaningful, or causal.

As if our policies for treatment of pain patients aren't horrific enough? If you happen to be black or Hispanic and suffer from Sickle Cell Disease, life is far worse. Do patients with a known, easily-diagnosed disease get a break with pain relief? No, it's quite the opposite. Disgraceful. 

Do physicians act differently when their patient outcomes are reported publicly? Some studies say yes and others no. Now, a new study adds to the confusion. 

There's a dramatic flip-flop going on. The World Health Organization is now claiming that trans fats, which are found in margarine and donuts, are responsible for 500,000 deaths annually. Compare that to when partially-hydrogenated vegetable oil was saving us from butter and meat fat, which were also linked to cardiovascular disease. What changed? Not much – other than a hold on logic.
 

The World Health Organization wants global views on trans-fats. It remains common in middle and lower income countries and what to do remains a problem, After all, the devil is in the details.

The latest guidelines in screening for prostate cancer are a win for patients and physicians. Talking with your doctor about these issues is the ultimate in personalized medicine and patient autonomy.

Is it time to re-examine concerns surrounding the intersection of patient privacy and a loved one seeking elected office?

We're possibly getting closer to saving thousands of newborns from a potentially nasty illness, and death. Novavax, a clinical-stage biotechnology company, states that it's reached a milestone in a clinical trial for the highly-anticipated vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.

People are terrified of pesticides, which makes places like Whole Foods very happy. But the truth about them actually would terrify the supermarket chain. That's because its produce is loaded with pesticides, made by the plant for protection from predators. So should you worry about the 0.01% of synthetic pesticide residues or the 99.99% of natural pesticides?

Just when you think you've seen it all ... For reasons that remain unclear, an ambulance service in Wisconsin has decided to try aromatherapy (a bunch of nonsense) in ambulances. During calls! It's supposed to cut down on drug use in the ambulance. Which is one of the things ambulances are for, right? 

First Lady Melania Trump underwent a "successful" embolization procedure for what was described as a "benign kidney condition." But if the condition is benign, why intervene?