"Experts Criticise Study Linking Chemical BPA with Baby Brain Problems," by Sunanda Creagh. A new study that found the common plastic ingredient bisphenol A (BPA) may harm a baby’s brain development in-utero has been described as ‘misleading’ and ‘not relevant’ by Australian experts. Read the full article on The Conversation. … [Read more...]
Scientist Speaks out on BPA Science
February 27, 2013
"Anti BPA Crusade Discrediting Science And Environmental Health, Says Leading, Independent Expert," By Trevor Butterworth. Professor Richard Sharpe is a leading expert on male reproductive health, directing a research team at the UK’s Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Reproductive Health at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. The MRC, which is celebrating its centenary this year, is one of the world’s oldest medical research institutes, publicly funded and wholly independent of … [Read more...]
Study: BPA Unlikely Endocrine Disrupter
February 20, 2013
"Bisphenol A Exposure in Humans May Be Too Low to Cause Problems by Mimicking Estrogen," by Science Daily. Feb. 15, 2013 — A controversial component of plastic bottles and canned food linings that have helped make the world's food supply safer has recently come under attack: bisphenol A. Widely known as BPA, it has the potential to mimic the sex hormone estrogen if blood and tissue levels are high enough. Now, an analysis of almost 150 BPA exposure studies shows that in the general population, … [Read more...]
Dangers of Chemophobia
February 8, 2013
"Don’t Take Medical Advice From the New York Times Magazine," by By Michelle M. Francl. The dangerous chemophobia behind its popular story about childhood arthritis: Meadows...suffers from a condition that makes it difficult to be an equal-opportunity skeptic and infinitely harder to make informed decisions about her son’s treatment: chemophobia. An irrational fear of chemicals, which drives her to let a friend of a friend—a social worker and massage therapist—prescribe her son’s drug … [Read more...]
Medical Doctor Questioning the Wisdom on Dr. Oz
February 1, 2013
"The Great and Powerful (Dr.) Oz, Dissected in The New Yorker, by Orac." Although physicians have been trying to base their craft on science for hundreds of years, it’s really only been in the last century or so that they’ve succeeded. Yet still some would like to go back to the way it was. They yearn for the days when doctors were “healers” and shamans, the way medicine was for hundreds and hundreds of years before science intruded. Unfortunately, one of those physicians happens to be … [Read more...]
Mom Questions Dr. Oz on BPA
January 31, 2013
"Dr. Oz Promotes False BPA Claims, Sarah Bowman." I'm a mom, so I watch Dr. Oz, like many mothers do. As a concerned consumer, I always want what's best for my boys. When I saw Dr. Oz promoting a segment on Wednesday titled, "The Chemicals You're Feeding to Your Kids," of course I tuned in. Dr. Oz had an "expert" from the Environmental Working Group on his show. She cited a Harvard study where the test subjects ate one can of soup per day, which "increased their BPA output by 1,000 percent." … [Read more...]
“Toxic” Christmas Stories
December 11, 2012
"Have You Decorated Your Home With Poisons For Christmas?" by Emily Willingham. Here’s a holiday manufrightroversy to watch for: Lead and pesticides … for Christmas! Every year, it seems, reporters go forth on orders from their editors to write articles warning the world of the dangers of Christmas decorations. One example from 2010 is this USA Today piece by Liz Szabo, “Advice on avoiding a toxic Christmas.” But here’s the rub: There are very limited to no data to show ill effects, in spite of … [Read more...]
Challenge to BPA Heart Disease Study
December 7, 2012
"In Reversal, Bedrock Studies Linking Bisphenol A (BPA) to Heart Disease Challenged," by Jon Entine. Studies supposedly linking the plastic additive to diabetes, heart disease and coronary artery disease have been called a “bombshell” by anti-BPA NGOs and many journalists. Now those conclusions, and a central contention of campaigners, is in doubt. The most explosive claim of anti-BPA campaigners—that the plastic additive BPA causes an array of heart-related diseases—is in question, according … [Read more...]
Activism and Cancer Classifications
December 4, 2012
"How Activism Distorts The Assessment Of Health Risks," by By Geoffrey Kabat. The International Agency for Research on Cancer is renowned for producing assessments of carcinogens. But it appears that some of the agency’s evaluations may overstate the risks, for reasons that tell us a great deal about the science and politics of risk assessment. Read the full article on Forbes.com. … [Read more...]
Organic Label Meaningless
November 28, 2012
"Canada’s organic food certification system ‘little more than an extortion racket,’ report says," by Adrian Humphreys. Inside the enormous Whole Foods Market in Oakville, west of Toronto, a red and yellow streaked Honeycrisp is plucked from the top of an orchard’s worth of apples in wooden crates near the entrance. A round sticker near its stem says: “Certified Organic.” At $7.68 a kilo, four of them cost $6.51. Firm, juicy and sufficiently tart, it’s a tasty apple, to be sure. But what does … [Read more...]
Autism and Air Pollution
November 27, 2012
"5 Caveats About The Autism And Air Pollution Study," by Emily Willingham. Did you read about it? Air pollution levels within a certain range during a woman’s pregnancy and her baby’s early months are linked to an increased risk for autism! The news stories covering this latest “X linked to Autism study” often include commentary only from the report’s lead author, Heather Volk, Ph.D., M.P.H., at the University of Southern California, but no outside comment or critique on the findings. One … [Read more...]
Tests Find Insignificant Pesticide Residues on Food
November 15, 2012
"State's pesticide residue is low, officials say Officials test 3,000 fruits, vegetables sold in California," by Robert Rodriguez. State officials tested nearly 3,000 fresh fruits and vegetables sold in California last year and found that a majority did not have any detectable pesticide residues. The annual check is part of the California Department of Pesticide Regulation's residue detection program -- one of the most extensive in the nation. The program sampled more than 160 types of domestic … [Read more...]
How to Detect Junk Science
November 9, 2012
"10 Questions To Distinguish Real From Fake Science," by Emily Willingham. Pseudoscience is the shaky foundation of practices–often medically related–that lack a basis in evidence. It’s “fake” science dressed up, sometimes quite carefully, to look like the real thing. If you’re alive, you’ve encountered it, whether it was the guy at the mall trying to sell you Power Balance bracelets, the shampoo commercial promising you that “amino acids” will make your hair shiny, or the peddlers of “ natural … [Read more...]
Plastics Chemistry
November 8, 2012
"Plastics Chemists: Don't Be Ashamed," by Enrico Uva There’s irony in having small bits of floatable plastic debris in the Pacific, even if the trash, although worrisome, doesn’t look like anything most of the public imagines. Millions of years ago, many of the hydrogen and carbon atoms within these man-made polymers were part of marine life. Death, deposition and pressure simplified the organic molecules of the dead. Then a species that indirectly evolved from these oceanic ancestors … [Read more...]
Organic Food Furor
November 8, 2012
"Is Organic Agriculture '"Affluent Narcissism?'" by Henry I. Miller and Richard Cornett As can be seen from the popularity of rip-off artists like Whole Foods markets, organic foods are popular. The U.S. market for organic produce alone was $12.4 billion last year. Some of the devotion from consumers attains almost cult-like status, which is why a recent article by Stanford University researchers that was dismissive of health or nutritional benefits of organic foods created such a furor. Read … [Read more...]
Botched BPA News Coverage
November 1, 2012
"Bisphenol A (BPA) Found Not Harmful, Yet Again -- So Why Did So Many Reporters and NGOs Botch Coverage, Yet Again?," by Jon Entine. One of the most disturbing trends in science reporting is what The New York Times’ Andrew Revkin calls “single-study syndrome”— the increasing tendency of reporters and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to trumpet research that supports a pre-determined perspective, no matter how tenuous—or dubious—a study might be. Read the full article on Forbes.com. … [Read more...]
More on Silcone D5
April 12, 2012
"Scientists Recommend Canadian Regulation Be More Reasonable; Government Listens" by Trevor Butterworth. Mud worms of Canada, rejoice; you are safe, or at least as safe as one can probabilistically infer from spending a great deal of time studying wastewater and sedimentary sludge. In a little-noted decision on the leap day of February, Canada – the canary in the Western Hemisphere’s regulatory coalmine – reversed course on listing the tongue-twisting chemical decamethylcyclopentasiloxane as a … [Read more...]
