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Bacteria cause most foodborne illnesses, particularly E. coli, Salmonella, or Listeria. The CDC estimates that about 48 million Americans get sick each year, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die from foodborne diseases. The government has tried to respond to these outbreaks by attacking the problem at its source – the farms producing the food.  

Background

Almost a quarter of foodborne disease outbreaks in the US (2006-2014) were caused by fresh produce.

These outbreaks have occurred from consuming all types of fruits and vegetables. The following table lists some of the most significant disease outbreaks investigated by the CDC and found to be caused by fresh produce (2005 – 2019). Note - This is not...

Last month, comedian Russell Brand gave his YouTube followers a 17-minute lecture about Bill Gates' plot to take over the world's food supply and force-feed the developing world genetically engineered (GE) crops. Relying mostly on anti-GMO superstar Vandana Shiva, Brand unsurprisingly got just about everything wrong.

Last week, U.S. Right to Know's (USRTK) co-founder and managing editor Stacy Malkan made more or less the same argument Brand did in a long story, “Bill Gates has radical plans to change our food. What’s on the menu?” posted on the anti-GMO group's website. [1] The only difference between the two is that Malkan, a...

Christopher Wild, Ph.D., has been the director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) since 2009 and during his tenure, the organization has been controversial. With recent rulings on bacon, coffee, and a mildly toxic pesticide, all of which have come down in defiance of every legitimate science body, there have been calls for Wild to resign or be fired from the once-respected body.

He has avoided being terminated but he leaves behind a group with a reputation far removed from the original IARC, whose first director, Dr. John Higginson, was so prestigious among the cancer community he was on the board of the American Council on Science and Health. Like the Council, the original IARC wanted to separate health threats from health scares. Under Wild, they use...

French President Emmanuel Macron has declared he will ban the American herbicide glyphosate within three years, and sooner if a replacement is ready. Italy has vowed to do the same. Activists have said the replacement is already available, and it has been used in France since 1863 - a fatty acid called pelargonic (a.k.a. nonanoic, because of the nine carbon atoms) acid. Chemically, it's pretty close to a soap. Does this make any sense toxicologically? Is this another case of "natural = safe?" Or is something else going on? Let's take a look at the toxicological and...

Sometimes my job is just too easy. This is one of those times.

Even though I continuously call out the Environmental Working Group (EWG) for its use of underhanded chemical fear tactics, I am nothing if not polite. Ask my mother. (Uh, never mind. Bad idea.) 

So I need to thank the group for putting its fundraising letter on a batting tee for me. EWG just made my life a little easier by publishing what is essentially the "Cliff Notes" of phony chemical scares. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, the letter will probably work, since groups like EWG and NRDC are masters of keeping the loot rolling in by making sure that people are perpetually scared. Nice gig.

Let's take a look at what EWG is putting out there in an attempt to scare people into donating to them,...

It seems like a hundred years ago that the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) was considered a neutral force for public good - but it was only 51.

In 1965, when the Agency was created by the United Nations, there was a lot of optimism about science and the future and IARC was created to instill confidence in the public about the difference between real harm and scaremongering.

The optimism was warranted. By the early 1960s, we had the DNA helix, we had the polio vaccine, we had found Coenzyme Q in humans, we had survived our first big environmental scare, the Cranberry fiasco of 1959, with both Presidential candidates (Kennedy and Nixon) wolfing...

This article originally appeared on http://www.Spiked-Online.com.

The new US protocol that says scientists with corporate connections are unfit to judge drug safety smacks of modern-day McCarthyism.

In March 2005, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced new rules purporting to eliminate "conflict of interest" among its employees -- including banning all consulting (paid or volunteer) for biomedical companies, and prohibiting employees or their families from owning stock in any biotechnology or pharmaceutical company.

The new rules were the latest result of a campaign championed by so-called public interest consumer groups to rid scientific institutions and review...

The first half of 2004 has brought some weird health news. Whether good, bad, or ambiguous, these items are all worth noting:

1. Measures of pesticide exposure aren't always so empirical. Our friends at http://NutritionNewsFocus.com noted in their May 25 e-bulletin that a study in the April 2004 issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention that whether or not people with non-Hodgkin lymphoma were reported in surveys to have been exposed to high levels of insecticide and herbicide depended to a surprising degree on whether the people were answering the surveys themselves or had relatives...

I once had a high school history teacher who would put Scotch tape between her eyebrows in a desperate attempt to stop frowning and prevent wrinkles. Those were the pre-Botox days. Now, she could very easily just stop by one of the growing number of Botox parties, munch on sushi, sip champagne, and be shot with a diluted-form of botulism a "natural" toxin known for causing disability and death. Everyone seems to be doing it, yet no one seems to be concerned or discussing its "toxic" nature. Should they be?

The number of individuals seeking out Botox treatments for cosmetic reasons has increased dramatically in the last few years. According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, in 1997 65,000 Botox procedures were performed and in 2001, 1.6 million procedures...

Many Americans are seeking greater “authenticity” in their lives.  There’s nothing wrong with that unless, in the process, they’re being misled by false advertising that causes them to pay inflated prices for products that are “free from” various things that are actually beneficial, or for worthless nostrums.  Examples of false alarms include the rejection of the chemical bisphenol-A (BPA), which is used to make certain plastics and as an antibacterial agent on metal coatings; and embracing the pseudo-medical practices of “naturopathy” and “homeopathy.”

BPA is used as a coating in canned food to prevent botulism and other bacteria-caused illnesses. Its protection of canned goods allows consumers better access to fruits and vegetables by safely preserving them in cans all year...