Search

Smirnoff Concedes Its Non-GMO Label Is Just A New Marketing Gimmick

Smirnoff, a vodka brand owned by British company Diageo, recently undertook an ad campaign starring celebrities Ted Danson and Jenna Fischer touting how they are gluten-free and non-GMO.

Wow, healthy vodka. Who knew that was possible?

Well it isn't possible, but since labels on most consumed products are a free-for-all they can get away with it. Except when it comes to alcohol. On that, they were busted trying to infer a health claim due to using non-GMO corn and as a result were forced to admit they were just creating a marketing...
Read more

On Glyphosate, Carey Gillam Keeps Lying Early and Often

I've been a science writer and editor for nearly eight years. During this time, I've learned a few things.

Perhaps the most important is that science is never enough. It doesn't matter if you have facts, data, and logic on your side, a substantial proportion of people will reject what you say and call you bad names. The reason, usually, is because they have an ideological conflict of interest -- by far, the worst kind of conflict of interest. That is, they are so dedicated to a particular viewpoint, that literally nothing will change their minds. That is anathema to science.

Editors must be aware of that fact. Otherwise, they are likely to be...
Read more

The Randomness of Life: Bad Luck Cancers

But what happens if the cancer does not fall into one of the two known causes of cancer, heredity or the environmental/lifestyle factors? Until recently, people were left with no answers; many were racked with guilt over what they could have done differently to prevent cancer.    

Bad Luck Theory

In 2015, the scientific world was shaken by a study based on cutting-edge information on the number of stem cell divisions in human organs. Information only then possible due to knowledge from the Human Genome Project when scientists mapped all of the genes of the human genome. The authors said a third factor explained cancer-causing mutations: random mutations (or mistakes) arising during DNA...
Read more

Formaldehyde Is So Dangerous That You'd Be Dead Without It

Let's hear what some "experts" in biochemistry and toxicology have to say about formaldehyde:

"I won't bury the lead (1): last week the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the most prestigious international body for cancer assessment in the world, determined that sufficient evidence exists to link formaldehyde with leukemia, a cancer of the blood or bone marrow. The link with leukemia means that the overall impact of formaldehyde on human cancers is much greater than previously thought." 

...
Read more

TIME Has A Science Article Based On A Yogic Flying Instructor: Here Are More Ideas They Can Use

The anti-science army in the war on common pesticides like glyphosate (and adjacently GMOs, those groups don't know enough science to know they are different) is having a Gettysburg moment.(1) They are out of options so they are making a desperate charge but they are in an open field a long way off and opposing them on the other side is every legitimate science and regulatory body.

Yet supporting their war on evidence-based decision-making are journals like JAMA, which now seem to do editorial review of "Letters" rather than peer review, and journalists at partisan publications like the New York Times. Rather than names like Early and Heth and...
Read more

No, Pumpkin Spice Latte Is Not Giving You Cancer

Starbucks Pumpkin Spice latteIf you didn't know it, Starbucks has changed their Pumpkin Spice Latte from years past. The surprise was that they have decided to use pumpkin in a drink with pumpkin in the name, the shock is that they are only using pumpkin because of chemophobia about a natural chemical called 4-methylimidazole (4-MEI).

They didn't do it...
Read more

'What About The Children?' The Ultimate Activist Red Herring

As a new dad, there's no one I love more than my son. I want to protect him from danger, raise him with the right values, and, more basically, feed him safe, nutritious food. Most parents no doubt share this sentiment, which is why I find attempts by anti-chemical activists to scare moms and dads so despicable. The groups that dishonestly warn about the carcinogenic potential of pizza and...
Read more

10 Biggest Junk Science Stories of 2017

It's the season for Top 10 lists. The challenge, as usual, is to narrow down all the junk science we debunked in 2017 to just the ten best (worst?) stories. It would be far easier to create a top 100 list.

(Actually, it would be even easier to create a top 193 list, which is what we did earlier this year with the publication of Little Black Book of Junk Science. You can download it for free.)

Bearing that fundamental limitation in mind, here are the ten biggest junk science stories of 2017.

Honorable Mentions

Five bizarre stories did not quite make the top 10. They receive honorable mentions:

(1) A history professor claims...
Read more

Antibodies could be useful in detecting HPV-related oral cancer

Researchers have found a test that could be a useful indicator of human papillomavirus (HPV)-related oropharyngeal cancer a cancer that affects the back portion of the throat near the tonsils.

Scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), in collaboration with the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), found that when antibodies against one common sub-types of HPV were present those people who were infected developed the disease more often. This biomarker has the potential...
Read more

Respected cancer agency maybe shouldn t be

Based in Lyon, France, the International Agency for Research on Cancer is a widely respected body that produces assessments of carcinogens for use by regulators and researchers. But reputable scientists are now disassociating themselves from IARC and its research methods, a cancer epidemiologist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine writes in Forbes.

In the eye-opening piece, ACSH scientific advisor Dr. Geoffrey Kabat describes how the IARC classified cellphone use as possibly carcinogenic even though the overall evidence overwhelmingly failed to show a link between cellphone use and cancer. The group similarly classified coffee and DDT, despite the...
Read more