"No Simple Answer to Bee Issues Exists," By Henry I. Miller, MD. Jennifer Sass's comments about my op-ed "The Buzz About a Bee-pocalypse Is a Honey Trap" are misguided and misleading (Letters, Aug. 6). Although the number of U.S. honey bee colonies has fallen from a World War II peak of about five million to around 2.5 million today, the number of U.S. bee colonies has remained relatively stable and has even slightly increased over the two decades since neonicotinoid pesticides ("neonics") were … [Read more...]
Are Honeybee Populations Really Declining?
August 15, 2014
"Honeybee Population in Decline—Or Not?," By Angela Logomasini, Ph.D. If you read the news about honeybee survival, it’s all very confusing. Some sources sound the alarm by pointing out that the number of honeybee hives has dropped significantly in recent decades. Others say just the opposite: There are more hives today than ever before. Which is it? Actually, both. Read more. … [Read more...]
BPA Junk Science
August 15, 2014
"Using Stupid Science to Replace other Stupid Science is Just Stupid," By American Council on Science and Health. If you’re looking for an example of the absurdity of what happens when activist groups stick their noses in areas that are way above their pay grade, look no further. It doesn’t get any better than this. Although on the surface, this discussion appears to address one more of the gazillion “black marks” against BPA—a component of many plastics—underneath there is a second story. It … [Read more...]
Fanning Flames on Flame Retardants
August 15, 2014
"Forgive this Pun, but Once Again, Flame Retardants are a Hot Topic in the News," By American Council on Science and Health. “Chemicals found in moms and kids,” screams the headline! There is nothing new. This time, the “news” comes from an article in the Chicago Tribune written by Michael Hawthorne. “News” is a stretch, since this has been going on forever, with the same arguments being recycled over and over. Yet, our dear friends at the Environmental Working Group (EWG) seem to be so … [Read more...]
Disrupting Claims about Plastics
August 15, 2014
"Let’s make this simple: Estrogenic Effects Come from Estrogens. (Duh). NOT from Plastics," By American Council on Science and Health. Of all the garbage “science” topics that we routinely cover, among the worst is the concept that miniscule amounts of so-called “endocrine disruptors”—chemicals that supposedly have an adverse impact on human sexual development—do anything whatsoever. The plastic component BPA and plastic softeners, phthalates, are the two poster children of the movement, but … [Read more...]
The Buzz About a Bee-pocalypse
August 11, 2014
"Why the Buzz About a Bee-pocalypse Is a Honey Trap" By Henry I. Miller. On June 20 the White House issued a presidential memorandum creating a Pollinator Health Task Force and ordering the Environmental Protection Agency to "assess the effect of pesticides, including neonicotinoids, on bee and other pollinator health and take action, as appropriate." Why the fuss over bees? Is the U.S. in the midst of a bee-pocalypse? The science says no. Bee populations in the U.S. and Europe remain at … [Read more...]
Pesticides and Public Health
August 8, 2014
"Pesticides and Health: What You Need to Know," By IFIC Foundation. “Pesticide” can be an ominous sounding word to the average consumer. The suffix “cide,” which comes from Latin cidere meaning “to kill,” has its roots in Shakespearean literature (“Beware the ides of March.”) But in today’s modern world, it has very little to do with Shakespeare. Pesticides have come under scrutiny by some groups and individuals expressing concerns about everything from food safety to nutritional quality to … [Read more...]
California Regulator Details Pesticide Benefits
August 8, 2014
"Viewpoints: Pesticides are Critical to Providing a Safe, Reliable Food Supply," By Brian R. Leahy. Last year I managed to lose a tooth due to a sliver of a wayward pistachio shell. As a result, I have come to know an excellent oral surgeon in Sacramento who is Harvard-educated and has a wicked sense of humor. On my last visit, he told me that he had just harvested his backyard plums. With a big smile, he said that because he had not used any pesticides on his fruit he did not fall under my … [Read more...]
Beekeeper Questions Claims about Honeybees and Pesticides
August 6, 2014
"Another View: Evidence is Questionable that Pesticide is Harming Honeybees," By Randy Oliver. I commend The Bee for promoting environmental awareness (“ A lot is riding on finding culprit in honeybee deaths”; Editorials, July 27). However, contrary to popular myth, honeybees are actually in no danger of extinction. In fact, the number of managed bee hives has been increasing in the U.S. and nearly every country in the world. The reality is that the number of hives goes up and down depending … [Read more...]
Ban on BPA Resins May Increase Food-Borne Illnesses
August 4, 2014
"Greens' Attempt To Ban Bisphenol A Will Endanger Public Health," By Angela Logomasini. Thanks to green alarmism, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) recently introduced the “Ban Poisonous Additives Act of 2014,” which would eliminate the chemical Bisphenol A from food containers. Applauding Markey’s bill, the Environmental Working Group exclaimed in a press statement: “Science shows that BPA is present in the vast majority of Americans and is harmful to human health.” Yet the overwhelming body of … [Read more...]
WTC-Dust and Cancer Claims
August 4, 2014
"Another Scare Story About Deadly WTC-Dust and Cancer," By American Council on Science and Heatlh. WTC RescuersThe issue of toxic dust and fumes causing a host of diseases and ailments among the heroic workers on 9-11 and subsequently who valiantly tried to find survivors of the terrorist attacks on NYC, is a touchy one. To many, it seemed obvious that breathing in the fumes and dust of that wreckage was bound to cause harm to the workers, despite the rather rapid pronouncement of “no risk” by … [Read more...]
Bee-pocalyse Trap
August 4, 2014
“The Buzz About a Bee-pocalyse Is a Honey Trap”, By American Council on Science and Health. ACSH friend and former trustee, Dr. Henry Miller of Stanford’s Hoover Institution, has another of his typically-erudite and incisive op-eds, this one in today’s Wall Street Journal. This has a wealth of bee-and-neonicotinoid-related information, all of which points to these twin dangers: Read more. … [Read more...]
Questionable Conclusions of DDT Study on Mice and Obesity
August 4, 2014
"DDT Linked To Obesity In Female Mice Long After Exposure," By Hank Campbell. A new epidemiology paper in PLOS ... DDT exposure may have made you fat ... The researchers found an intriguing effect; pregnant female mice fed DDT and their female offspring had a lower tolerance for cold temperature and other changes in metabolism. Just like humans, if mice aren't burning calories, they are storing them and that means they get fat. The authors not only suggest the results apply to humans anyway. … [Read more...]
Quack Alert: NaturalNews.com
August 4, 2014
"If You Care About The Organic Revolution, Disavow Mike Adams," By Hank Campbell. Revolutions are messy business, they require participation by a type of personality that is not very savory; militant, bombastic, a little crazy ... In the American Revolution, Sam Adams was the firebrand. He had lost his shirt as a businessman but found his calling as an extreme patriot. His form of zealotry was unwelcome at the national level after the war was won, however. Organic food has its own Adams doing … [Read more...]
Questionable Study on Organic Food
July 21, 2014
"Study Funded by Organic Ideologues Finds Organic Benefits," By Center for Consumer Freedom. A new review funded by the U.K.-based organic farming group Sheepdrove Trust reported in the British Journal of Nutrition that organic crops are healthier than the non-organic variety. It’s a convenient finding for the Trust’s stable-mate, Sheepdrove Organic Farm, which will happily sell Britons any number of organic food products they produce. The group is elated by conclusions of the report it paid … [Read more...]
Honeybee Health, Neonicotinoids, and Misinformation
July 18, 2014
"The Honeybees Are Just Fine," by Richard Tren. Is a relatively new class of insecticides, known as neonicotinoids or "neonics," harming bees and other wildlife? That's what the International Union for the Conservation of Nature claimed in a recent press release announcing the results of a meta-study the organization conducted earlier this year. One might have expected the press release to be accompanied by the underlying scientific studies. But that wasn't the case. Read more. … [Read more...]
Green Building Junk Science
July 16, 2014
"Are Healthy Buildings Built On Lies?" By Josh Bloom. The fad du jour (and I defy you to find a non-du jour day) is something that sounds like an absolute win-win. It has all the correct buzzwords—green, sustainable, environmentally friendly, endocrine disruptors, bioaccumulation. And many more. Today it's buildings. This is exactly what we at ACSH deal with every day in different forms. There is more than a passing similarity to the very successful promotion of organic foods, dietary … [Read more...]
Just More Bee-S?
July 16, 2014
"Fewer Bees or Just More Bee-S? By American Council on Science and Health. In today’s New York Times, Mark Winston writes a heart-wrenching column about a problem that will sooner or later come back to sting all of us in a big way—massive die-offs of bees. There are (at least) three problems, though, with his piece: 1. Winston provides no data to support his claim about the “bee colony collapse” that we have been hearing about. 2. This is because there is no such collapse. 3. This does not … [Read more...]
Nutrition of Conventional Crops v. Organic
July 16, 2014
"Fewer Pesticides and More Antioxidants on Organic Crops: So What?" By American Council on Science and Health. A multi-center, international group of scientists culled the world’s literature and found several hundred studies which they then analyzed (a meta-analysis) to discern significant differences between conventionally-grown crops and organic crops (and foods made from them). They found, on average, a 17 percent higher level of “antioxidants” and a lower rate of detection of various … [Read more...]
BPA Exposure and Your Health
July 14, 2014
"Are You Exposed To BPA, And Does It Matter?" By Steve Hentges. For quite a few years, one of the most popular chemicals for scientific inquiry has been bisphenol A (BPA). Scientists around the world have been conducting a diverse array of studies aimed at understanding whether BPA poses a risk to human health. Based on the weight of evidence from these many studies, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently answered the question “Is BPA safe?” with a simple and unambiguous answer - … [Read more...]
Questionable Organic Food Study
July 14, 2014
"Is Organic Food More Nutritious And Safer Than Conventional? Reviewing A Recent Systematic Review," By Hank Campbell. A recent review in the British Journal of Nutrition concluded that the nutritional quality and safety of organic food was higher than conventional food. Fruits, vegetables, and grains, organic versions were better in all ways than conventional farming, they determined. Organic food had fewer pesticides, a much different result than other studies, and also had more important … [Read more...]
Enjoy Those Fries: Acrylamide Fears Unwarranted
July 11, 2014
"Europe and Australia/New Zealand Buy into Misguided Acrylamide Scare," By American Council on Science and Health. 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. Basing their decision to post a warning solely on animal studies, they warn that dietary acrylamide is a carcinogenic hazard to humans. And toeing the line with its … [Read more...]
Should We Fear Flames or Flame Retardants?
July 11, 2014
"Be Very Afraid of Flame-Retardants: NY Times Blog. Why? They Don’t (can’t) Say," By American Council on Science and Health. Another in the very long line of toxic terrors comes your way in today’s “Science” section of the paper of record, the New York Times. One of their favorites from their stable of scaremongers, Deborah Blum (writing, quite appropriately, in her “Poison Pen” blog), has taken the trouble to warn us, again, about the omnipresence of [insert the word “toxic” here as needed] … [Read more...]
Lawmakers Offer Foolish BPA Bill
July 10, 2014
“Senator Chemophobe” Again Tries to Ban BPA from Food Packaging," By American Council on Science and Health. He’s back at it again. Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts (along with two of his acolytes in the House) is now introducing a bill that would ban BPA from food and beverage containers. The Ban Poisonous Additives Act of 2014, as the bill is named, would also give waivers to those manufacturers who want to seek “safer” alternatives to BPA, while requiring them to label their … [Read more...]
Human Efforts Will Save the Honeybees
July 7, 2014
“'Tampering' with Nature to Save Honeybees," By Angela Logomasini. Environmental groups are calling for an immediate suspension of an entire class of pesticides in order to save ailing honeybee populations—and they won’t wait for results of a recently launched federal effort to study the problem. But the greens' strategy won’t help the honeybees because it targets the least likely cause of recent beehive losses and ignores the more likely ones. Underlying the activists’ ban-now-think-later … [Read more...]
