Oct. 8, 2010
Environmental group’s scary Halloween tips
Most people who want to scare folks for Halloween do it with a frightening costume or elaborate yard display. Not the Environmental Working Group, alas. EWG has just released its “Tips to Green Your Halloween” guide, doing its best to scare parents about all the supposed hidden dangers of a wide range of products.
“Parents need to be careful of face paints, lipstick, nail polish, cosmetics, fragrances, hairspray and candles,” says ACSH Dr. Gilbert Ross with an eye roll, reading off the EWG’s laundry list of Halloween “safety” tips. “With all the chemicals out there, I am astounded we all grew up, and even had some fun trick-or-treating, without their advice.”
Mysteriously, the EWG warns parents about the “toxic compounds” candles can supposedly give off — while neglecting to mention they can, y’know, burn your house down if left unattended. (Candles start 15,600 home fires annually, causing 1,270 injuries and 150 deaths, according to the U.S. Fire Administration)
EWG also advises parents to “create a low-impact” costume, “decorate naturally,” and hand out treats with “fewer, more natural ingredients.”
“Why don’t we just forget the whole holiday?” incredulously asks ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan.
Dr. Ross summarizes the EWG’s advice: “stay inside, don’t eat anything, and don’t go near the windows.”
“And take off your shoes before you go in,” adds Dr. Whelan.
Hey EWG — next time you’re trying to scare people, ACSH recommends simply draping a sheet over your head and jumping out from behind a tree while yelling “Boo!”
Many moms have no plans to get their kids flu shots
A third of American mothers are unlikely to get their children flu shots, according to a survey commissioned by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. Another poll by the same group finds 43 percent of Americans say they won’t get vaccinated themselves. Among those who say they’ll abstain from flu shots, 62 percent worried the vaccinations could give them the flu (it can’t) or cause side effects (serious reactions are extremely, extremely rare).
“These one-third of moms who say they won’t vaccinate should wake up,” says Dr. Ross. “The flu is serious, it can kill, it seems to attack infants especially hard, and the flu vaccine is safe.”
GM crops confer ‘halo effect’ to nearby fields
Genetically modified crops benefit both farmers (by reducing the need for purchasing expensive pesticides) and consumers (by providing crops that studies have shown are safer and healthier than conventional food , as well as cheaper, given the economic benefits to farmers). Now a new study shows a third group gains from GM crops: farmers growing conventional corn next to GM fields.
The study in Nature examined the prevalence of the European corn borer over 14 years in five farm belt states. In 1996 farmers began using Bt GM corn, which produces a toxin deadly to the pest. In GM fields the pests were eradicated, while in neighboring fields their population was reduced by 28 to 78 percent, the study found. The study calculated that over those 14 years, GM corn produced $6.8 billion in economic benefit — taking into account the extra $1.7 billion farmers paid for the seeds — and two-thirds of that went to farmers working conventional fields.
“It’s a wonderful success story,” professor Bruce Tabashnik, an entomologist from the University of Arizona who was not part of the research team, told the U.K. Guardian. “It’s a great example of a technology working how it should.”
“Farmers benefit and consumers benefit,” says Dr. Ross. “The corn is at least as delicious as non-GM, and yet you have anti-biotech activists saying the biotech corn is still dangerous, but there’s nothing they can point to. There have been millions and millions of bushels of biotech corn harvested and eaten safely.”
New definition of Alzheimer’s disease proposed
An international team of Alzheimer’s disease experts have proposed a new framework for diagnosing the disease earlier in its course that doesn’t require the patient to suffer from full-blown dementia. Instead, the patients must suffer “episodic memory impairment” and have at least one positive biomarker—either found in the cerebrospinal fluid, or on special radiological tests—for the disease.
The scientists write in The Lancet Neurology that the broader definition of Alzheimer’s would enable patients to be enrolled in clinical trials earlier, aiding researchers in developing treatments for the disease.
Dr. Whelan says this sounds like a good idea. “I think it’s pretty well established that if you try to treat patients with full-blown Alzheimer’s, you’re banging your head against a wall. The brain change is so advanced that it’s unlikely any drug will be able to work. You have to catch this early.”
Enrolling patients without full-blown dementia in Alzheimer’s trials for a drug that may or may not work would have to be done delicately, says Dr. Ross. “But it has to be done if we’re going to make any inroads into this terrible disease, which without an advance in early treatment, is only going to get worse as our population ages.”
One fifth of Americans have arthritis: survey
And speaking of problems that are getting worse and worse: The CDC reported yesterday that more than 22 percent of Americans have arthritis, and a million new cases are diagnosed every year.
“Arthritis is a large and growing public health problem in the United States, resulting in costs of $128 billion annually, and continues to be the most common cause of disability,” the CDC said.
The obesity epidemic (obesity is a major risk factor for arthritis) and an aging population means prevalence of the ailment will increase significantly over the next two decades, the agency added.
“The ageing of our population, combined with the severity of obesity, combine to worsen the problem of osteoarthritis, the most common form of the ailment,” said Dr. Ross, who is in fact a rheumatologist by training. “The miraculous advances in joint replacement, especially of the hip and knee, have helped to relieve much suffering and disability—very important considering that there is no drug therapy that can slow down the progress of this type of arthritis.”
The less common but more aggressive rheumatoid arthritis has yielded to some extent to advances in immune-modulating drug discoveries, he added.
There’s a limit to what we’ll say to get on TV
Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s plan to forbid food stamps from being used to buy soft drinks is causing all sorts of controversy. ACSH received some media invitations to comment, but producers lost interest when they learned people here were against the plan. They already had plenty of opponents to the plan, and were looking for a proponent, which was apparently hard to find.
Dr. Whelan isn’t surprised. “It’s such a patronizing attitude, telling indigent people took out words what they can and can’t buy,” she says. “As with many other recent intrusions into our personal choices, His Honor seems to think he knows best about almost everything.”
