Search

1. Focus your efforts on things that matter; inform yourself about possible risks.

The American Council on Science and Health (http://www.acsh.org) is dedicated to helping you set rational priorities for a healthy and long life. While it is tempting to focus our anxiety on mysterious threats that lie largely beyond our own control, such as a possible terrorist attack (see ACSH's terrorism preparedness report at http://www.acsh.org/publications/pubID.228/pub_detail.asp), the truth is that when it comes to achieving long life and good health, we largely determine our own fate, through routine, everyday decisions.

...
Dr. Norman Borlaug
Dr. Norman Borlaug

The greatest good is often that which is unnoticed and unknown. Not least among our blessings are the bad things that do not happen and are therefore invisible...

1. Focus your efforts on things that matter; inform yourself about possible risks.

In the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks and anthrax bioterrorism, Americans are concerned about new, real threats to their health and safety. Now, more than ever, it is important that we distinguish between risks that are real and can be lessened by individuals' actions and those that are theoretical, very small, or beyond our control. While the risk of receiving an anthrax-laden letter...

"Although everybody with a political agenda routinely professes great respect for the wisdom of the American people, the actual behaviors reveal not respect but thinly veiled contempt."

W. T. Anderson, Reality Isn't What It Used to Be: Theatrical Politics, Ready-to-Wear Religion, Global Myths, Primitive Chic, and Other Wonders of the Postmodern World (New York: Harper & Row, 1993)
In the imposing main building of my alma mater, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, stands a frieze honoring the immortals of science: Archimedes, Newton, and Pasteur, among others. It reminds those who enter that science and its practitioners can profoundly change the world and our understanding of it.

Somewhere perhaps in a dark, dank...

From "Ground Zero" to Heroes: A Nation Resolves to Stand Tall
...

The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act amends the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and was signed into law June 22, 2016. It created a mandatory requirement for EPA to evaluate existing chemicals with clear and enforceable deadlines, to do so in a transparent fashion, and to do so using risk-based chemical assessments rather than rely on simple epidemiological correlations. 

EPA selected the first 10 chemicals to undergo risk evaluation under the amended TSCA and to make those understandable for the public, the American Council on Science and Health is producing risk-based evaluations of each, which will then be compiled into a free downloadable book...

December 24, 2007 : "Dangerous" Toys, Snacks and Races; Common Sense on Food Contamination

• Quote to Note: “Industry scientists and many federal regulators say these exposures are harmless.” – Amy Schoenfeld in the New York Times about chemicals in everyday household products.

• Before you start enjoying your holidays, an article in New York Times wants you to worry. The article’s does not caution about lead paint...

Who's to blame for carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere, persistent dioxins, PCBs, vinyl chloride, perchlorates, elevated concentrations of nitrates in stream water throughout the world, and unusual fish kills? The initial knee-jerk reaction is to lay the blame on present-day humans (read: ourselves), endlessly accused of fouling our own nest, and there's some truth to this. No doubt we humans are responsible for many egregious environmental actions, but here's something new. Recent research has shown that some of the pollutants heretofore blamed on industrial activities can now also be laid at the doorstep of Mother Nature.

Dioxins from Burning Wood and Biomass

Dioxins, for example, are ubiquitous, toxic, and environmentally persistent...

In a previous piece, I criticized the science behind some pivotal air pollution studies. In this follow-up, I look at some of the legal consequences of that bad science.

The decision to promulgate new ozone and small particulate limits by then-Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Director Carol Browner in 1997 has a storied history, including multi-agency protests, private and public foundation criticism of Browner's use of the Pope(1) and Dockery(2) studies -- and even a rejection of the EPA actions by the District of Columbia Federal Circuit Court in 1999 (a technical administrative law landmark), admonishing the EPA that it had overstepped its regulatory authority.(3)

...

1. Focus your efforts on things that matter.

It is important that we distinguish between risks that are real and can be lessened by individuals' actions and those that are theoretical, very small, or beyond our control.

The American Council on Science and Health is dedicated to helping you set priorities for a healthy and long life. When it comes to achieving long life and good health, we largely determine our own fate. As we get ready to start a new year, we can do ourselves the most good by improving important health-related aspects of our lifestyles -- such as quitting smoking (or, better, not starting in the first place) and engaging in regular exercise -- and by taking advantage of technology that protects us against health and safety hazards, such...