The Chicago Tribune launched a hard hitting investigative series this week on the downsides of flame retardant chemicals. Opening with the line “The average American baby is born with 10 fingers, 10 toes and the highest recorded levels of flame retardants among infants in the world”, the series paints a picture of corporate greed, misinformation [...]
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Cross posted from 2020 Science Robin Erb has a good piece on cosmetics and safe ingredients in the Detroit Free Press this week – it tackles the very limited regulation over what goes into cosmetics, but balances this with a useful perspective on consumer choice and how this in turn can drive business decisions on [...]
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You’ll have realized from Rick Neitzel’s post earlier this week that he has abandoned the delights of Ann Arbor this summer for those of Sweden (we’re just hoping we get him back before he gets a taste for the good life over there!). Totally coincidentally as it turns out, he was the vanguard of a [...]
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Information about chemicals in U.S. workplaces is regulated by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) under the Hazard Communication Standard (“HazCom” for short). Starting in the 1980s, HazCom set up a chain of communication in which hazard information (in the form of labels and material safety data sheets) flows from chemical manufacturers to [...]
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I‘ve been following the Lean Finely Textured Beef (aka Pink Slime) story with interest for a few days now, and have been struck by how tough it is to dig up hard facts on what the basis of the concerns are here – beyond an instinctive distaste over finding out what goes into today’s processed [...]
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Cross posted from 2020 Science The US National Academy of Science today published its long-awaited Research Strategy for Environmental, Health, and Safety Aspects of Engineered Nanomaterials. I won’t comment extensively on the report as I was a member of the committee that wrote it. But I did want to highlight a number of aspects of [...]
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As 2011 drew to a close, controversy was brewing in the offices of some of the most prominent scientific journals in the field: both Science and Nature received manuscripts in the last quarter of the year describing research on the highly-pathogenic influenza virus A subtype H5N1. This virus is historically very highly lethal, but barely transmitted [...]
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Earlier this month, the Risk Science Center had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Craig Cormick (who wrote or most recent guest blog on Issues in Public Engagement on Nanotechnology) for our Risk Science Unplugged series, which focuses on engaging leading experts in conversation on key issues that have evolved at the intersection between risk and [...]
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A guest blog by Pulitzer Prize winning science writer Deborah Blum. As images and videos of UC Davis students calmly being “pacified” with pepper spray spread across the internet this weekend and outrage grew over the apparent indiscriminate use of this chemical agent, I wanted to write something about the risks of associated with exposure [...]
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The past few years has seen an explosion of interest in silver nanoparticles. Along with a plethora of products using the particles to imbue antimicrobial properties on everything from socks to toothpaste, nanometer scale silver particles have been under intense scrutiny from researchers and policy makers concerned that they present an emerging health and environmental [...]
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Last month, John Viera – Ford Motor Co.’s Director of Sustainability – kicked off the 2011 Risk Science Symposium with a great presentation on why innovation and sustainability are critical to the economic and social growth of the 21st century. This is the transcript of that talk. Innovate or Perish Why Innovation and Sustainability are [...]
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Despite the popularity of the aphorism that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” evidence continues to mount that organizations are unwilling or unable to successfully integrate preventative solutions into their occupational health strategies. Earlier this month, a study released by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), an HR research [...]
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Today’s New York Times includes a report that citizens groups in and around Tokyo have been performing radiation testing separate from government efforts. Of concern, these groups are finding hot spots of radiation, including several spots with levels of radioactive cesium comparable to those observed in areas near the Chernobyl reactor in Russia. There is [...]
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In his opening remarks at this year’s Summit on the Global Agenda, World Economic Forum founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab placed the need for new models to support effective use of technology innovation firmly on the table. This is the fourth year I have participated in the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Summit – [...]
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Colleen Davis is a Master of Public Health Candidate for 2012 at UMSPH, and holds a B.S. in Biology from Hillsdale College. She is a member of the Environmental Health Sciences Department, specializing in Human Nutrition and Dietetics. In the field of nutrition, I’m constantly wading through conflicting advice and recommendations. On any given day, [...]
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Don’t worry. Everything will be fine. It turns out that the NFL Players Association and the owners have reached an agreement and the 2011 NFL football season will go on. And, college football began last week. Stop crying, America! We will still have something to do over the weekends this fall. It has all worked [...]
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Blockbuster movies aren’t usually noted for their scientific accuracy and education potential. But since its release last week, Steven Soderburgh’s Contagion seems to be challenging the assumption that Hollywood can’t do science. The other day I posted a piece about how director Steven Soderburgh and screenwriter Scott Z Burns’ attention to detail and plausibility left [...]
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Cancer prevention in a pill: Science vs. Marketing
by Shara Evans on May 18, 2012
The following post is written by Andy Gard. Andy is a second-year International Health MPH student at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. He worked four years in biotech and healthcare scientific communications and is now developing research skills for work in developing countries. This summer he is conducting research on cervical cancer [...]
Tagged as: Cancer, dietary supplements, FDA, Marketing
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