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Canadian Radio host Rob Breakenridge has a cogent op-ed in theCalgary Herald taking on various fears that have popped up in recent months, including BPA, cellphones, Wi-Fi and fluoridation. City officials in Waterloo, Ontario voted to stop fluoridation last week after a non-binding referendum lost by 195 votes out of 30,727 ballots cast.

Breakenridge writes:

There are legitimate concerns to human health we need to focus on, and we need to rely on the scientific process and scientific evidence to guide us accordingly.
Yet, from the anti-vaccine movement to homeopaths and "alternative medicine," we so often are confronted by those going against the...

Against our best efforts, the newest BPA headline and its accompanying “study” managed to worm its way into today’s Dispatch, but only as an example of the utterly absurd. “Bisphenol A linked to sterility in roundworm,” Canada’s CBC News tells us. But the study wasn’t a complete waste of time and money — some of us got a good laugh out of it.

“I only wonder how much federal money — that’s your tax money, by the way — went towards this study. I personally would be more concerned about the effect on square worms,” ACSH’s Dr. Josh Bloom jokes.

“Well that’s the trouble: Bisphenol A turns roundworms square. I guess it’s hip to...

ACSH staffers were worried that the ABC news headline “Cleaning Products Still Pose Risk to Kids” implied a wannabe “Toxic America” sequel. Instead, the article highlighted a legitimate health hazard — poisoning and contact injuries. While new child-resistant packaging on the most dangerous products such as oven cleaners has cut cases of ingestion by children five and younger by 46 percent, injuries from spray bottles have not declined, probably because spray bottle cleaners are not childproof.

“With these new cleaners, children are able to spray the cleaning solution into their mouths and also ingest...

A press release from the Environmental Working Group (EWG) declares that their own laboratory tests "identified [BPA] in nine of ten cord blood samples from babies of African-American, Asian, and Hispanic descent."

"I'd like to point out the cleverness of this whole thing," says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross. "Not only do they test umbilical chords, but they also divide the results along racial and ethnic lines as if people didn't already want a jihad against corporate chemical producers."

"This is just another example of EWG scaring people about chemicals," says ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. "When are they going to figure out that you can find trace amounts of anything you look for in blood these days? The mere presence of something in blood doesn't make it harmful. Even the...

Phthalates, BPA and toxic lead paint: How safe are toys and school supplies made for children?

If your only source was environmental press releases designed to be used in this month's fundraising newsletter, you might be worried - but TIME asked ACSH medical director Dr. Gilbert Ross for a rational counterpoint and he assured their audience that studies linking phthalates to everything from hormone imbalances to obesity either lack evidence or are based on high-dose rodent studies with no relationship to humans.

No, Dora The Explorer is not poisoning your child. However, NRDC and their Mother Jones press release distribution...

It's been a busy week for the Anti-Plasticites. First, the OCD-BPA crowd at JAMA got to yap some more about the dangers of the plastic component BPA, even after a comprehensive two-year study by the FDA failed to find any real risk from the stuff.

Perhaps feeling ignored, the Phthalate Phanatics sprung into action, so now we have another article about phthalates in the Journal Environment International

The study and its recommendations, are too silly to debunk. But at ACSH, Debunk We Must, so I am obligated to do so...

Alarmism is harmful at any dose. Just as political mudslinging can unfairly sully reputations, sensational news about health dangers can rattle public confidence -- whether or not the sensational report turns out to be true. "Something about modern living has driven a steady rise of certain maladies," reports a front-page article from the July 25th Wall Street Journal, which goes on to say that the culprit may be "the prevalence of certain industrial chemicals at extremely low levels [in the environment]." An issue of profound importance is raised by this startling declaration: exactly how dangerous are the industrial chemicals that are increasingly prevalent in our environment, and are they really causing an epidemic of cancers and childhood brain disorders?

The...

ACSH is proud to announce once again that the fruits of our labor in tackling junk science taste sweeter than ever. Our staffers this morning were pleased to read that the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) has reversed its controversial ruling prohibiting physicians and researchers employed by the pharmaceutical industry from participating in medical education presentations or meetings.

Industry employees will now be allowed to speak at the American Heart Association s annual scientific sessions.

Now if only we could bear...

Lung cancer deaths aren’t the only fatality on the decline. New estimates released today by the Transportation Department show that 32,788 Americans were killed in traffic-related accidents in 2010, which is the fewest number of deaths since 1949.

“This decrease is quite significant,” says ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. And what can we thank for it? “Fortunately, more people are now wearing seat belts while fewer individuals are drinking and driving. Focusing on these practices, rather than misguided and useless exercises such as banning BPA or phthalates, is very important since it actually translates to saving more lives,” she adds.

New York Gov. Paterson vetoed a bill that would require a dental decay warning on baby bottles and sippy cups with “a duckbilled lid, bill-shaped extension or bill-shaped spout" yesterday. In his veto statement, the governor argues that:

Brief warning labels are simply not the best vehicle to convey detailed information about general parental practice and proper use of a product that is not inherently dangerous.

“Governor Paterson should have applied this very sound reasoning to the BPA ban he signed,” proposes ACSH's Jeff Stier.