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My colleague, Dr. Billauer, focuses on the legal aspect of the Zantac court case; as a toxicologist, I want to focus on the suspected carcinogen NDMA. The judge in the federal Zantac case was faced with the question of whether the NDMA found in Zantac (ranitidine) was responsible for the cancer seen in the plaintiffs. To answer that, it would be vital for her to know what level of NDMA causes human cancers. And to answer that question, we need to explore NDMA’s

  • Health effects
  • Dose-response (how much is needed to cause an adverse effect)
  • How regulators choose their “safe” levels for chemicals. 

NDMA is...

A recent series of studies has linked electronic cigarette use (vaping) to a host of negative outcomes, including bone damage, stroke, cigarette smoking 'relapse', and depression—and that's just since September. These associations are very likely spurious for several reasons, as discussed in the links above, and it...

The standard story most people know about “GMOs” centers around a handful of commodity crops engineered to withstand exposure to weedkillers or produce natural insecticides that ward off pests. Activists have for years waged a misleading campaign to demonize these important innovations as deadly Monsanto creations that could wreak havoc on the environment and human health.

But the reality is that transgenic (“GMO” in the vernacular) technology hasn't been used exclusively by giant seed companies to engineer Roundup Ready corn. Private firms and public universities have developed (or are developing) many useful transgenic plants that just haven't been commercialized yet, usually because of insufficient interest from growers and consumers. This includes one that may surprise many...

Cameron English’s article on declining trust in federal public health agencies noted that the general public finds it problematic that important issues like gun violence or racism are characterized as public health problems.

What is Public Health?

Public health once meant vaccinations, sanitation, and education. Today, The CDC defines public health as “the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health through the...

Background

Man-made air pollution has been with us since the discovery of fire, although air pollution from forest fires and volcanic eruptions predated our involvement.  The industrial revolution brought workers and industrial sources of pollutants together in crowded cities prompting a message to King Charles II in 1661 about the “inconvenience of the aer and smoak of London…” arising from burning high-sulfur coal [1]. Although that focus was on polluted outside air, this fuel was also used domestically and would have fouled the indoors as well. 

By the mid-20th century, our mothers shooed us outdoors to get some “fresh air,” which, in fact, was dirty enough to require wiping off the porch furniture before use in part from burning coal for...

Fox News's Tucker Carlson doesn't know much about science, technology, or public health, but he definitely has an opinion about them. And he knows a conspiracy when he sees one.

The other night, he did a segment in which he claimed that cell phones cause cancer. They do not. This conclusion is considered the consensus and is upheld by most health and regulatory agencies.

Before we analyze his segment, let's get one thing straight: Cancer has been linked to absolutely everything. RealClearScience put together what is certainly not an exhaustive list: Red meat, baby powder, wine, Facebook (yes, really), brushing your teeth poorly, modern life, and much more. Most of...

US drug policy is just plain nuts. Nowhere is this more obvious than when one compares how opioids and marijuana products are "regulated." Marijuana now gets a free pass while the DEA is kicking in the doors of physicians who prescribe one extra Vicodin pill.

And, given the popularity of vaping it is not surprising that marijuana chemicals (1) are being vaped like crazy, despite the fact that these chemicals and/or additives have done serious, sometimes fatal, lung damage. To make matters (much) worse, fentanyl is now showing up in vaping solutions.

 

What a mess.

Seriously? Yep. A...

A quick update on Philidelphia’s tax on sugary beverages, the “soda tax.” Not the announcement by the American College of Pediatricians that those sugary beverages were bad for children and should be avoided, but the soda tax’s changing political landscape. 

Philadelphia, like Berkeley, Mexico City, and other cities, acted upon the “scientific evidence” that drinking sugary beverages was a risk factor for being overweight and being overweight was a risk factor for developing diabetes among other diseases; therefore sugary beverages were a public health hazard and should be restricted – by taxation. Arguing about the scientific merit of the evidence will distract us, so let’s assume, for the sake of this report, that the risk factors are as strong as causes and that the “soda tax...

It is a sad commentary on American journalism that most news stories on the illicit fentanyl epidemic begin like the missives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) disinformation agency: “Drug overdoses killed 63,632 Americans in 2016.”

The CDC would like you to think that 63,632 Americans were killed by opioid prescription medicine overdoses in 2016 (and 72,000 in 2017). They were not. But because the media neglect to do their homework, Americans don’t know that these numbers refer to overdose deaths from all drugs, including aspirin, acetaminophen, antidepressants, and cocaine.

Nearly two-...

The push to change consumers' dietary habits, taking a page from changing our use of tobacco, has seen a surge in the special taxation of sugar sweetened beverages [1], like soda. So far these initiatives have seen indifferent success. In Mexico, sales went down and then went up again, in Philadelphia, sales went down for retailers impacted but not buying among the public.

In PLOS Medicine, Silver et al. discuss the impact of Berkeley, California’s tax one year after implementation.

The key points were what you would expect, that consumers paid the higher tax fully on sodas and energy drinks (retailers did not absorb it for competitive reasons) and, in the 26-store survey, the tax was more than fully passed on in...