The Centers for Disease Control says that the “American food supply is among the safest in the world.” But a read of some recent news reports about toxic metals in baby food may have you feeling somewhat concerned. So what's really the state of the supermarket aisle? Let's take a closer look.
health scares
ACSH trustee Dr. Jack Fisher s new book on the story of one of the sad chapters in American legal history the unwarranted attack by the tort industry, ably abetted by the FDA under David Kessler, against Dow Corning for damages supposedly caused by their silicone breast implants has just been published.
A New York Times article addresses the persistent devil that is fear, using as an example a recent video documentary from Retro Report. The new documentary examines media coverage of possible links between power lines and leukemia in the 1980s and 1990s that sparked fears of a cancer epidemic.
Hasn t the European Union s European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) ever heard the (very) old adage that the dose makes the poison? From what they say in their latest report on acrylamide, it does not appear so.
A Review of the Greatest Unfounded Health Scares of Recent Times
FOURTH EDITION First published May 1997 Revised September 1997 Revised June 1998 Revised September 2004
Introduction
H. L. Mencken once said that the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety), by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. Unfounded health scares, for instance.
Since its founding in 1978 the American Council on Science and Health has been dedicated to separating real, proven health risks such as cigarettes from unfounded health scares based on questionable, hypothetical, or even nonexistent scientific evidence.