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Science and Law: Uneasy Partners in the Courtroom (9/30/97) From the pages of Chemical and Engineering News, here's a summary of a recent American Chemical Society symposium on courtroom testimony by scientific experts.
How Ex-Lax, Trusted for Nearly a Century, Became a Cancer Risk (9/27/97) From The Wall Street Journal, here's why Ex-Lax was pulled from store shelves. See if you're convinced of the scientific justification. I wasn't.
Grappling with Cancer: Defeatism versus the Reality of Progress (9/25/97) From The New England Journal of Medicine, the latest installment in the debate over whether the "war on cancer" has been lost.
Trolling for Clients (9/25/97) See how personal injury lawyers advertise for plaintiffs in the diet drug controversy.
Fen-Ted (9/24/97) From The Wall Street Journal, read about Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Ma), fenfluramine and FDA reform.
Teens telling lies? What a smoke screen (9/24/97) From USA Today, read about the spectre of junk science in the tobacco settlement.
PIRG Stupidity (9/23/97) Sen Fred Thompson (R-Tn) and Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mi) recently introduced legislation representing baby steps toward reform of the nightmarish U.S. regulatory process. But the Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs) are screaming bloody murder over this exceedingly mild proposed legislation.
Fen-Phen Flap No Cause For New Regulatory Fat (9/23/97) From The Wall Street Journal, here's former FDA official Henry Miller's op-ed on the fen-phen hysteria and FDA regulation.
Another Possible Climate Culprit: The Sun (9/22/97) I first wrote about this explanation on this page a year ago, but here's a reprint of today's New York Times article about the sun's possible role in global warming.
Sneaky Phone Calls Aren't Gore's Only Problem (9/22/97) What does Ted Turner have to do with global warming? Find out in this op-ed, from The Wall Street Journal.
A Plan to Register Unpublished Studies (9/22/97) From Science, here's an article about a plan by 100 journal editors to make available unpublished studies.
EPA to Asthmatic Kids: Hold Your Breath (9/19/97) Irony of ironies! In the same week EPA kicked off its campaign to exploit children's health , the agency proposes to take away an important option for treating asthma.
Bugs in Environmentalism (9/19/97) From The Washington Times, here's an op-ed about how pesticide paranoia is only helping bugs, not people.
Attention Deficit Disaster (9/19/97) From The Wall Street Journal, here's an op-ed about the travesty of attention deficit disorder.
Diet Drugs' Effects on Heart Continue to Baffle Scientists (9/19/97) From The Wall Street Journal, here's an article about the scientific uncertainty surrounding the diet drug controversy.
EPA Science Whistleblower (9/19/97) From The Atlanta Constitution-Journal, read about EPA Whistleblower David Lewis. Click here for the Nature article that got him in trouble.
Lawyers Prepare for Deluge Of Suits Related to Diet Drugs (9/18/97) From The Wall Street Journal,here's an article about the scumbag trial lawyers already set to sue over the withdrawn diet drugs.
"Environmental Justice" Kills Jobs for the Poor (9/17/97) From The Wall Street Journal,here's an op-ed to follow-up on Carol Browner: EPA Carpetbagger.
The Cassini Debate (9/17/97) From USA Today, here's a debate about the use of plutonium in the Cassini mission to Saturn.
Damage Control at Environmental Health Perspectives (9/16/97) The journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences is caught in the wake of the recent research retraction by Tulane researchers.
Mexico Moves to Phase out DDT and Chlordane (9/16/97) From Environmental Health Perspectives, here's an update on DDT.
Secondhand smoke and cholesterol in children (9/14/97) More exploitation of children. There oughta be a law...
Carol Browner: EPA Carpetbagger (9/12/97) Take a walk down memory lane to the U.S. Reconstruction era with the EPA administrator.
The WHO's Misplaced Priorities (9/12/97) Millions die from malaria while the World Health Organization fiddles around.
Animal Rights: Teaching or Deceiving Kids (9/12/97) Science magazine gets on track with a super editorial about the animal rights nuts.
Cancer Link to Secondhand Smoke Tightened? (9/6/97) Depends on how loose your grip on reality is.
The Iceman Cometh and Goeth (9/10/97) From The Washington Times, here's an op-ed pointing out today's global warming forecasters were yesterday's ice age forecasters.
Trapped by Speeding Rhetoric (9/10/97) Is "agressive driving" on the rise? Are "rage drivers" causing all the accidents? Find out in this op-ed FromThe Washington Times.
Save the Whalers (9/10/97) FromThe Wall Street Journal, here's an op-ed dealing with some misconceptions about whales.
Is There a Link Between Pollution and Crime? (9/6/97) Watch for this new hypothesis coming from a Dartmouth University researcher!
Stethoscope Proficiency and Fen/Phen (9/4/97) Here's the intersection of a new study about physicians who aren't proficient with stethoscopes and fen/phen hysteria.
Food Safety Fantasies (9/4/97) From The Washington Times, here's an op-ed by the Cato Institute's Jerry Taylor on how the government could improve food safety.
Diet-Pill Sales Plummet As Medical Concerns Rise(9/4/97)From The Wall Street Journal, here's an article about the economic costs of fen/phen hysteria.
Gore's Defense of Glacier Tourism Trivializes Global Warming Debate: Montana Weather Shows No Warming Trend Over the Last Century (9/2/97) Global warming allegedly is causing glaciers to retreat. Here's a press release from Dr. Fred Singer's Science and Environmental Policy Project debunking that myth.
FDA-zed and Confused (9/1/97) The FDA runs amok right before the Labor Day holiday.
Food Safety's Waiting Weapon (8/29/97) From The New York Times, here's an op-ed about the benefits of food irradiation-- a lifesaving technology not used because of the anti-nuclear crowd.
Additive-free smokes (8/29/97) From The Washington Times, here's an editorial about the new cigarette additive-advertising controversy.
A Big Fat Target (8/29/97) From The Wall Street Journal, here's an op-ed about the next target for the behavior police after they finish-off the tobacco industry.
FDA Weighs Using Thalidomide for Leprosy and AIDS Wasting (8/28/97) From The Wall Street Journal, here's an article about new uses for thalidomide. Should thalidomide not be available to AIDS and leprosy patients because it should not be used by pregnant women in their first trimester?
Despite Confusion, Women Need Access to Implants (8/28/97) From USA Today, here's an eloquent editorial on silicone breast implants.
The Real Ozone Hole (8/28/97) Is the measure of success of the Montreal Protocol the fact that it existsþor should that measure have something to do with ozone depletion?
The Actively Sick (8/26/97) From The Wall Street Journal, here's an editorial on chronic fatigue syndrome... oops... I mean "myalgic encephalomyelitis." That's a better-sounding disease.
Label Caffeine as a Drug -- Even in Soda (8/26/97) From The New York Times, here's a letter-to-the-editor from the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The food police never rest... too much caffeine?
Lead Heads (8/26/97) A Junk Science Home Page quiz: Does lead cause brain damage in the children of construction workers or lead researchers themselves?
Junk Science: It's the Law (8/25/97) From Investor's Business Daily, here's an op-ed by Mike Gough and me about the Tulane estrogen research scandal.
Amherst's Smoking Ban: Town Board of Health is Bored of Science (8/20/97) Find out why the Amherst, Massachusetts Board of Health believes in "junk science über alles!"
Another Enviro-Scare Debunked (8/20/97) From The Wall Street Journal, here's Texas A&M's Dr. Stephen Safe on the environmental estrogen scare.
Nature's Flawed Understanding of Science (8/19/97) Here's a reprint of a truly bizarre commentary by Nature magazine. Nature says scientific robustness -- not certainty -- is the key to good environmental regulation. Huh? Of what value is "robust" uncertainty?
Tulane Begins Inquiry into Retracted Research (8/17/97) Was it bad science or fraud? Tulane wants to know... and so do we!
A Scoop of Phoney Baloney (8/17/97) Check out Ben and Jerry's new flavor of ice cream?
Big Social Changes Revive the False God of Numbers (8/17/97) From The New York Times, here is John M. Broder's article on how government statistics are not what they are cracked up to be. Now where have I heard that before?
Climate Treaty's Potential Fallout (8/16/97) From The Washington Times, here is Christopher Douglass' op-ed on the potential unintended consequences of the upcoming global warming treaty.
The Clean Air War (8/12/97) From The New York Times, here's Ohio Governor George Voinovich's op-ed on why Ohio is not responsible for New York's air pollution problems.
Is the Scientific Method an Endangered Species? (8/12/97) Is that a silly question for this page or what? Anyway, read about (successful) efforts to hide government-funded scientific data.
The Environmental Working Group's Tough to Swallow (8/11/97) Ready to choke down another "report" by the factually- and scientifically-impaired?
Progress on Cancer (8/11/97) From The Washington Post, here's another op-ed in the debate about whether the war on cancer has been a bust.
Experts' Testimony Excluded Under Daubert As Irrelevant, Unreliable, Ninth Circuit Says (8/7/97) A federal appeals court says "NO" to junk science.
Leukemia "Uncluster" Discovered? (8/7/97) Humor from the pages of the Health Physics Society Newsletter
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Testimony Inadmissible Under Daubert, Court Rules (7/31/97) MCS plaintiffs (and their money grubbin' lawyers) get slammed by a federal judge who says testimony on MCS is too speculative to constitute scientific knowledge.
Jocelyn Kaiser Practices the Madeleine Jacobs Principle (7/31/97) Read about the first winner of the new Madeleine Jacobs Trophy.
A Nuclear "So What?" (7/31/97) The latest in radiation scares.
Tulane Researchers Retract Environmental Estrogen Study (7/28/97) What are Tulane University researchers finally admitting? Nothing that Junk Science Home Page readers didn't know a year ago!
Ross Gelbspan: Pulitzer Prize Fraud (7/24/97) In a Junk Science Home Page exclusive, the author of a highly touted book on global warming turns out to be a legend in his own mind!
Bruce Babbitt: The Joe McCarthy of Climate Change? (7/23/97) Watch out for the witchhunt for those "un-American pseudo-scientists" -- courtesy of the Secretary of the Interior!
Can't Barry Levy Answer a Simple Question (7/23/97) The president of the American Public Health Association dives for cover when asked whether spending billions annually on the new smog and particulate air regulations makes sense from a public health standpoint.
HIV from Kissing? (7/21/97) Junk Science Quiz: When is the kiss of death really the kiss of life?
Mammograms and Breast Cancer (7/21/97) Should women trust the National Institutes of Health Consensus Panel on mammograms?
Fen/Phen Hysteria (7/9/97) The latest in diet drug scares: front page news stories and network news coverage. It must be true?
Dancing Around a Dilemma (7/9/97) The Washington Post actually printed an op-ed skeptical of the global warming nonsense!
What's in a Name? Secondhand Smoke and Adverse Birth Outcomes (7/7/97) A little Shakespeare with your junk science!
Trick or Treaty: An Energy Tax in Disguise (7/7/97) With permission of The Washington Times, here's Dr. Fred Singer's op-ed on the recent climate change meeting.
Power Lines Don't Cause Leukemia, Study Concludes (7/3/97) From The New York Times, here's Gina Kolata's article on the new New England Journal of Medicine EMF study. The NEJM editorialized that if this study shows anything, it shows that we should stop wasting our limited resources (i.e., hundreds of millions of dollars so far) on EMF research.
Science Made Easy: The Madeleine Jacobs Principle (7/2/97) Woe is the editor of the American Chemical Society's Chemical and Engineering News.
How Does Carol Browner Sleep at Night (7/1/97)? EPA finalizes the new air quality standards for ozone and soot. But the true need for these standards is evidenced by their implementation timetable.
More Mars Rock Intrigue (7/1/97) And I thought the Mars rock nonsense was ONLY about getting NASA more dough. Boy was I wrong! Read what Professor John Farley of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas has to say!
Wake-up, and Smell the Coffee (7/1/97) Could EPA have prevented the skyrocketing price of your double-half-caf-skim-mocha-latte?
Cancer: So Close to Success (7/1/97) Last month, the New England Journal of Medicine published an article declaring the "war on cancer" to be lost. According to the article, our only hope was cancer prevention. Here's a more encouraging perspective (and a call-to-arms against wasting public resources on junk science)