"California Issues Another Gift to Trial Lawyers and Blow to Small Businesses," by Center for Accountability in Science. We’ve talked extensively on our blog about the problems with California’s chemical warning law known as Proposition 65. It requires warning labels on everything from coffee to sunglasses without offering consumers any context about the actual risk of chemical exposure. Instead of helping Californians make healthier choices, the law has been used as a tool for bounty hunters … [Read more...]
Popcorn Chemical Scare
June 8, 2015
"Chemicals In Your Popcorn? asks the Times’ Kristof. Yes, There Are," By American Council on Science and Health. We have often taken note of the Times’ columnist Nicholas Kristof’s rants expressing his concerns about various chemicals and substances he fears in his (and our) everyday environment. Here are some of the issues with which he and we have disagreed over the past 2-3 years ... He has expressed his deep concerns about the usual paranoid, chemophobia targets: endocrine disruptors, BPA … [Read more...]
Endocrine Disrupter Debate
January 21, 2015
“The Science of the ‘Endocrine Disrupter’ Debate” Explains the Absence of Science," By American Council on Science and Health. In the recent Independent Women’s Forum, CEI’s Angela Logomasini dissects the hype from the facts about so-called “endocrine disrupting” chemicals. She points out (as we here at ACSH have been saying for years) that the term itself has no real scientific or medical meaning, outside of its repeated (emphatic) use by those with an anti-chemical agenda and their pals in … [Read more...]
Toxic Chrismas Decorations?
December 29, 2014
“Watchdog” Group Warns about “Toxic” Christmas Decorations. Ignore Their Barking," by American Council on Science and Health. Where would one normally expect to find such a sensational story: What could be worse than getting a bag of coal for Christmas? A bag full of toxic chemicals, health groups say. A new report from HealthyStuff.org finds toxic chemicals in many of the popular Christmas decorations like Santa Clause [sic] hats, Christmas lights, stockings, and wreaths that were tested. We … [Read more...]
Video: Jon Entine Interview on Honeybees
November 26, 2014
"Jon Entine Debunks Theory Linking Neonic Pesticides to Honeybee Collapse," by American Council on Science and Health. In a masterful example of thorough scientific reporting, Jon Entine makes it clear that the recent accusations that the group of pesticides called neonicotinoids (“neonics”) is responsible for Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) of honeybees are baseless. Such accusations are bound to be concerning, since honeybees are responsible for pollinating many crops — both here and in … [Read more...]
More Toxic Advice From Dr. Oz
November 10, 2014
"Dr. Oz Magic Will Protect You From Toxic Chemicals. No it Won’t," by American Council on Science and Health. Always be selling seems to be the watchword on the “Dr.Oz Show,” or perhaps it should be called “The Dr.Oz Travelling Medicine Show,” given the snake-oil and related supplement junk he purveys in the guise of public health. But in order to convince as many of his star-struck viewers to buy his “Dr. Oz Diet,” he first has to scare them away from traditional fare. That’s where his new … [Read more...]
Latest Fear-Mongering Attempt: BPA and Receipts
October 27, 2014
"Avoid Those Thermal Paper Cash Receipts, Says Well known Anti-Science BPA Critic, vom Saal," By American Council on Science and Health. If you believe what you read about BPA and its harmful effects on human health, a topic that we here at ACSH have taken on many times, the latest development from Frederick vom Saal, Professor of Biological Sciences at Missouri University and perhaps the best-known fringe anti-BPA activist posing as a scientist, might stop your shopping habits, or at least … [Read more...]
Fracking, Water Quality, and Health
September 22, 2014
"Water Pollution Not from Fracking, It Seems — Neither are 'Health' Effects," By American Council on Science and Health. This week’s New York Times has a report from a group based at Ohio State University which found that water contamination by methane and other hydrocarbons, even in areas where hydraulic fracturing of shale and horizontal drilling — the technologies known as “fracking” — is occurring is not the result of the process itself, but rather from well leaks. Read more. Watch the … [Read more...]
Tribute to a Great Leader: Dr. Elizabeth Whelan
September 15, 2014
"A Tribute to Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, 1943-2014," By American Council on Science and Health. It is with deep and profound sadness that we announce that Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan, the founder and president of the American Council on Science and Health since its beginnings in 1978, passed away yesterday. Beth was a giant in the annals of public health. With postgraduate degrees from Yale and Harvard, she grew increasingly frustrated with the discrepancy between what she knew to be fact-based … [Read more...]
Josh Bloom Interview: Pesticides and Bedbugs
September 8, 2014
"Bedbugs of Manhattan Government's Role in the Urban Scourge,"By James Freeman. Why do bedbugs keep showing up in the greatest city in the world? It turns out that human error is as much to blame as the resilience of the six-legged critters. Recent bedbug discoveries in New York City's subway system and in the midtown Manhattan offices of Pacific Investment Management are only the latest chapters in a long, creepy story for Gotham residents. And even if recent incidents don't approach the worst … [Read more...]
Kids at Risk from Window Caulk–Not
August 22, 2014
"Cindy Crawford Attacks PCBs but Doesn’t Have the Facts Straight," By American Council on Science and Health. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a class of chemicals that were commonly used in electrical insulation and may be found in the window caulking of older buildings. Well-known supermodel, Cindy Crawford, is now taking issue with the presence of PCBs in the window caulking at her children’s school and has decided to homeschool her kids to avoid them. Crawford says, “I look 10 years … [Read more...]
FDA Goes After Caramel Coloring
August 22, 2014
"FDA Tackles a Non-Issue: The Case Against 4-MEI in Caramel Coloring," By American Council on Science and Health. Last winter Consumer Reports came out with a relatively new scare — concerns about a chemical in cola drinks, and other foods with some forms of caramel coloring. The chemical in question is 4-MEI, an abbreviation for 4-Methylimidazole, produced as a byproduct of the manufacture of caramel. We have written about this pseudo-problem in the past, and like most chemophobia, this one … [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...]
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...]
Few Docs Express Concern about “Chemicals” to Expecting Moms
July 7, 2014
"Survey of Ob. Docs Fails to Find Many Who Discuss “Chemicals” with Moms-To-Be, by American Council on Science and Health. A survey sent to thousands of regional Ob-Gyns by a group from the Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of California-San Francisco revealed an intense lack of concern among those specialists about environmental chemicals as impacting their pregnant patients. The authors, led by Dr. Naomi E. Stotland, sent out a 64-question survey to over 20,000 California … [Read more...]
Pesticides and Autism Link?
June 23, 2014
"UC-Davis Group Links Pesticides to Autism — Without Measuring Pesticides. What?," by American Council on Science and Health. There they go again: a group of “academics” long-devoted to finding pesticide toxicity by any means necessary has accomplished their goal! What goal, you ask? They have attained a vast amount of media attention (sure, mostly in the “enviro-blogosphere,” but many mainstream folks have swallowed this whole as well, thanks to the PR folks at UC-Davis and that font of … [Read more...]
Friends of the Earth’s Phony Science
May 30, 2014
"Espousing Phony Science? You Better Hope Hank Campbell Doesn’t Find Out," By American Council on Science and Health. ACSH friend (and the creator of the enormously popular Science 2.0 website) has the uncanny ability to sniff out bad (and hypocritical) science, and when he does, he is not shy about speaking his mind. This time he goes after the radical environmental group Friends of the Earth, and by the time they read his piece they will not be “Friends of Hank.” His message is about the … [Read more...]
World Malaria Day
April 25, 2014
"World Malaria Day: April 25, 2014," by American Council on Science and Health. Today marks the 8th annual official recognition, via World Malaria Day, of the horrendous toll taken by the mosquito-born infection. ... Read more. Watch the Video: … [Read more...]
Organic Mommy Mob
April 25, 2014
"The Beliefs of the ‘Organic Mommy Mafia’ Are on Trial," by American Council on Science and Health. “‘Am I going to be an outcast?’ A friend, who recently moved to an upscale neighborhood in Madison, Wis., called me last week to ask if she would be able to make mommy friends if she continued feeding her children — gasp! — non-organic food.” This is how Naomi Schaefer Riley begins her piece in the New York Post, in which she very accurately describes the emergence of a group of parents called … [Read more...]
Autism and Environmental Toxins
March 17, 2014
"Just When You Think Science Can’t Get Any Junkier, This Comes Along," by American Council on Science and Health. We at ACSH are sure that you have heard us comment repeatedly that nothing surprises us anymore, because we’ve already heard it all. Yet, we must once again eat crow, because we STILL can’t get this right. Just when we think (or are maybe even sure) we’ve seen it all, it turns out we haven’t. Not even close this time. Today’s “How in god’s name can you publish this and keep a … [Read more...]
Yellow Journalism, PCBs, & Environmental Health Perspectives
February 24, 2014
"Another Chemical Scare: Yellow Dye this Time. Yawn," by American Council on Science and Health. Public health concern about polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) had, we believed, been laid to rest in 1979 when 1976’s Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) was used to ban commercial use in manufacturing. Since PCBs do not occur naturally, and remain in the environment for many years, most environmentally detectable sources of PCB have been attributed to “legacy” sources. However, an Environmental … [Read more...]
Beepocalypse or Not?
February 7, 2014
"To Bee or Not to Bee? What is Behind the Bee Colony Collapse? Or is There One?" By American Council on Science and Health. The discussion about the reasons behind the so-called “beepocalypse” has been entirely focused on its cause. Some suspects have been cell towers, pesticides, and infectious diseases—Tobacco Ringspot Virus being the latest theory. But if you follow some of the references in Jon Entine’s recent Forbes op-ed, entitled “Bee Deaths Reversal: As Evidence Points Away From Neonics … [Read more...]
NYT Promotes Foolish Fears About Nail Polish
January 13, 2014
"Be Afraid of Your Nail Polish, says the NYTimes’ 'Ask Well' Column. Really?" by American Council on Science and Health. This is what happens when you let your “health” advice column be taken over by an “environmental writer.” This week’s Science section of the New York Times included an advisory about cosmetics entitled, “Is nail polish harmful?” So what sort of answer would you expect? What if you substituted “artichokes” for “nail polish”? Certainly too much H2O can be harmful: more people … [Read more...]
