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High-tech medicine and dentistry can be miraculous but are often hugely expensive. We also need to pursue – and fund – research on ingenious, low-tech, less expensive approaches to improving health and increasing longevity.

News coverage of the East Palestine train derailment has ranged from hysteria to hysteria. One would think that one of the most dangerous chemicals in the world is being discharged from the train. Has anyone bothered to actually examine how toxic vinyl chloride is? You may be surprised.

Vinyl chloride is a dangerous chemical, so the recent derailment and fire of a train carrying a large quantity of it is bad news. Long-time ACSH friend Dr. Joe Schwarcz gives us a lesson on the history and toxicity of the chemical.

There are plenty of reasons for skepticism about medical studies. Some are poorly designed or performed, and some conclusions are totally implausible. In addition, some interpretations of them are intentionally misleading, and some studies need not have been done at all.

The world's biggest consumer hoax is organic agriculture, which pretends to be what it isn't. And very successfully.

Many people are being misled by false claims that induce them to pay inflated prices for products that are “free from” various things that are actually beneficial, or for worthless remedies. Misinformation can jeopardize both their health and finances.

When government, politicians, and law enforcement take control of the practice of medicine this is what we get: Cruelty and incompetence. The next time you're given Tylenol for a broken leg or post-surgical pain you'll understand. Drs. Jeffrey Singer and Josh Bloom in USA Today.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has drawn fire for issuing new recommendations designed to reduce childhood obesity. The AAP's critics are deeply confused.

There's a new, proven treatment for COVID-19 called pegylated interferon lambda, but FDA won't approve it, even under Emergency Use Authorization. It's inexcusable.

America is facing a critical shortage of many medically important drugs. The good news? There's a simple solution if we're willing to implement it. The Biden Administration is poised to invest billions of dollars in America's "bioeconomy." Will this really boost the US biotech sector, or just waste valuable resources that should be spent elsewhere?

Flawed regulatory policies and decisions have inflicted tremendous damage on the biotech industry and on American consumers.

The traditional view of air pollution is that of bad stuff in the air produced by someone else, the ubiquitous “them.” Recent concerns about indoor air quality may have broadened that view to realize that some “others” may be us. A recent article in the journal Nature proclaimed, “Local and national governments must ensure that good indoor air quality is delivered….” posing the question, delivered by whom? Amazon pristine?

Sy Syms was right "An educated consumer is our best customer."
Growing Old
Tainted Money

A very different take on AI
What movie has been the most profitable?
Just like razor blades, ink for printers is a bit of a scam.
What do grades really tell us?

A recent study looked at excess deaths among physicians during the time of COVID. While there were more deaths than anticipated, physicians fared better than the general population despite being on the front lines. What might that mean?

Can we agree that whatever of the multifactorial causes of obesity you emphasize, obesity results in other health-related problems? Can we also agree that many of those multifactorial causes are present in childhood? Then doesn’t screening for obesity and early intervention make sense; that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?

With respect to COVID, children experience less severe disease but remain transmitters of the infection, especially within their immediate and extended households. Should we vaccinate or not? A new study looks at the demographics of NY City school children receiving the complete (2 shot) initial vaccination.

If you haven't taken Paxlovid you cannot possibly fathom the vile sensory experience called "Paxlovid tongue." What to do? Write a song. The Blues, of course.

Minnesota has become the leader in restoring the rights of patients to receive necessary pain medications as well as the doctors who prescribe them. It's a huge step. One down, 49 to go. Drs. Bloom and Singer in Newsweek.

A Modern History of Bail
Streetlights illuminating the Street, and some unwarranted (?) surveillance
Calling people names stifles understanding.
Presentism - wokeness reinterprets history

How good is the evidence implicating climate change as a cause of heart attacks? Not very. Let's take a critical look at some of this research.

The EPA’s model for assessing the rise of carcinogenesis from chemicals and their dose-response models remains controversial. Is the EPA “following the science” or making assumptions?

Hermann J Muller revolutionized radiation genetics, received the Nobel Prize for producing gene mutations, and helped to create the linear non-threshold (LNT), the EPA’s default model for cancer risk assessment. Could mistakes he made haunt today’s most dominant global regulatory strategy?

World War II ended with the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Those bombings and the late effects of radiation on the development of cancers in those “survivors” spurred scientific inquiry into the mechanisms underlying human carcinogenesis – the development of cancer. Today’s regulatory science of chemical carcinogens is based upon assumptions and beliefs that are now 75 years old. Our understanding of carcinogenesis has evolved; should our regulatory models shift?

Did COVID lockdowns save lives? At what cost and to whom? The answer to both is that it depends. Let’s consider some of the issues that make up “it depends.”