My organization debunks unscientific health claims – and unfounded health scares have been with us for a long time, from a panic over chemicals on cranberries in the 50s to the hysteria over Alar on apples in the late 1980s. Here's a list of the ones we considered most ridiculous in 2007:
Scare #1: There's deadly lead in lipstick. Not true – the tiny amounts are harmless.[1]
Scare #2: Fluoridated water jeopardizes your health. Nope – it promotes dental health.[2]
Scare #3: Red meat and processed meat increase cancer risk. Hogwash – the studies involved people eating huge amounts and leading very sedentary lives. Meat is fine in a balanced diet.[3–5]
Scare #4: The chemicals used to make Teflon cause low-birth-weight babies. No way – the variations in weight in the studies are too small to draw such conclusions.
Scare #5: Nitrites in cured meat cause lung disease. Baloney – super-high exposure of rats to a related chemical may cause cancer, but that's not relevant to us.[6]
Scare #6: Roses contain toxic pesticides. Here's a better idea – stop and smell the roses.[7]
Scare #7: Rubber duckies are toxic to kids because of chemicals called phthalates. Another attempt to get attention by frightening parents.[8]
Scare #8: Vaccines cause autism. Nope – many studies have shown small traces of vaccine preservative aren't harmful to kids.[9]
Scare #9: Office printers are as hazardous as secondhand smoke. No, no, no – they're only comparable in that you can arbitrarily lump smoke and printer particles together as “pollution.”
Scare #10: Water bottles cause cancer. Drink up – virtually no trace of the relevant chemicals leaches into your water.[10,11]
For details on these and other nonsensical scares, visit our site: www.acsh.org and until then, the American Council on Science and Health advises you to remain calm and skeptical.
That's my opinion. I'm Dr. Elizabeth Whelan of the American Council on Science and Health.
Footnotes
Reader Comments on: The Top Ten Unfounded Health Scares of the Year See reader comments on this article and provide your own.
Readers are encouraged to respond to the author at Whelan@ACSH.org or to George Lundberg, MD, Editor in Chief of The Medscape Journal of Medicine, for the editor's eyes only or for possible publication as an actual Letter in the Medscape Journal via email: glundberg@medscape.net
References
- 1.Food and Drug Administration. Lipstick and lead: questions and answers. Available at: http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/cos-pb.html Accessed February 25, 2008.
- 2.American Dental Association. Fluoridation facts. Available at: http://www.ada.org/public/topics/fluoride/facts/index.asp Accessed February 25, 2008.
- 3.Cho E, Smith-Warner SA for the Pooling Project of Prospect Studies of Diet and Cancer Investigators. Meat and fat intake and colorectal cancer risk: a pooled analysis of 14 prospective studies. Program and abstracts of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; March 27–31, 2004; Orlando, Florida. Abstract 491. [Google Scholar]
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- 7.Environmental Protection Agency. Assessing health risks from pesticides. Available at: http://www.epa.gov/opp00001/factsheets/riskassess.htm Accessed February 25, 2008.
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