Category: Epidemiology
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Trump and Christie’s First Steps to Solving the Opioid Crisis
The epidemic’s cause isn’t clear, but a nationwide system for tracking prescriptions would help. Read the rest at The Wall Street Journal.
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Recommendation to Limit Md. School Wi-Fi Based on ‘Junk Science’
The Children’s Environmental Health and Protection Advisory Council (CEHPAC), an agency within Maryland’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, has recommended that schools reduce or eliminate students’ exposure to Wi-Fi because it believes wireless signals might cause cancer. This is pure, unadulterated junk science. Read the rest at Baltimore Sun.
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Cancer Fear-Mongering Has Got to Stop
Imagine what a typical American might do for breakfast: Fry a few slices of bacon, slather Nutella on a piece of toast, and pour a hot cup of coffee while checking e-mail on a smartphone. If we are to believe everything we read in the news, then that rather common daily ritual could cause you…
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Ignore Anti-Vaccine Hysteria, Mr. Trump
The environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic, told reporters Tuesday in the lobby of Trump Tower that the president-elect has asked him to lead a commission “to make sure we have scientific integrity in the vaccine process for efficacy and safety effects.” Mr. Kennedy also suggested that Donald Trump “has some doubts…
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Junk Science Is No Way to Win a Jackpot
A jury in St. Louis awarded a woman over $70 million last month because her lawyers convinced a jury that talcum (baby) powder caused her ovarian cancer. This is the third jackpot verdict issued by a jury in that city against Johnson & Johnson. Since sharks are smelling blood in the water, surely more lawsuits…
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Hot Water Causes Cancer? Don’t Believe It
If nanny state critics want a fine example of regulation gone wild, they should look to the World Health Organization. The group’s International Agency for Research on Cancer has given us a reason to fire up our espresso machines by declaring that coffee does not cause cancer. But don’t celebrate too hard. The IARC also…
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To Your Health: Is Wine Good for You or Is It Not?
FEW things arouse such warm adulation and sharp denunciation as alcohol. It is beloved by some and despised by others, and its consumption is governed by legal and religious rules. Wine is central to Christian rites but is widely considered by Muslims to be forbidden by the Quran. It is also the subject of debate…
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Portland’s Congressman Loves Pot, Hates Science
Given that Portland’s citizens have a troubled relationship with reality, it perhaps shouldn’t come as a surprise that the city’s congressman does, too.
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Americans Hate Fruits and Vegetables
The reality, it seems, is that most Americans prefer to eat an unhealthy diet, even if other choices are available.
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Mortality Gap: Why Women Live Longer than Men
It wasn’t until the beginning of the 20th Century that the “mortality gap” between men and women became so striking.