angrytoxicologist
Posts by this author
August 9, 2007
What do the Abigail Alliance and steroid use have to do with each other? Read on.
The US DC Court of Appeals on Tuesday overturned the finding for the Abigail Alliance and ruled for the FDA (supported by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and the National Organization for Rare…
August 8, 2007
Reading my Chemical and Engineering News (nerd alert!), I came across the article: "Toxicity Testing Without Animals" by Celia Henry Arnaud. "Oh no, here we go again", I thought. It may come as a surprise to some of you but cells in a dish don't equal whole bodies and even more shocking, we don't…
August 7, 2007
So I'm looking around at news stories and I find one on Eurekalert about neurodegenerative disease entitled "Researchers link metal ions to neurodegenerative disease". My first thought: "Wow." Then I read the article. Then I thought: "Wow. Eurekalert screws it up (again)."
According to the news…
August 2, 2007
The last of the ELF (Earth Liberation Front) arsonists was sentenced yesterday for the burning down of a Redmond OR horse slaughterhouse in 1997. Thank goodness. I'm concerned abou the environment and I guess I would classify myself as an environmentalist but I certainly don't want to be associated…
August 1, 2007
Scientists took lettuce, corn, and potatoes and grew them using soil treated with hog manure that had the commonly used livestock antibiotic Sulfamethazine in it. All three plants uptook the Sulfamethazine. You know what that means: mmmmm... Wait, no, I think I meant yuk. With 9-13 million kg of…
July 31, 2007
A study in Neurology came out today ($ required) that found that those with better reading skills had 2.5 times less cognitive brain damage due to lead! Reading ability is one of the best ways to measure cognitive reserve (CR), the ability to maintain good cognitive performance despite disease or…
July 27, 2007
Meatheads of the Week (or so)
Michael Vick, Tim Donaghy, Michael Rasmussen, and Barry Bonds for good measure. For Dogs, Gambling, Lying, and Doping. The Wonderful World of Sports!
Genius of the Week
Kyle Smith. For his brilliant review of The Simpsons movie as a Simpsons script. You must go read it…
July 26, 2007
Seems appropriate since controversial topics like vaccines are on the agenda this week.
A study published in EHP finds that high fluoride (mean of 8.3 mg/L) or arsenic in water decreases IQ (it's very rare to have a fluoride level this high in the US, artificial fluoridation is supposed to be 0.7-1…
July 25, 2007
I'm angry so today you get what you came for...
I wrote a post on Autism and Vaccines a while back that went through why there are people still arguing about this and took the position that I don't think that there is a link between autism and thimerosal but that some of the arguments that people…
July 24, 2007
A study done at the University of Michigan found that organic crops produced yields no different than conventional farming in developed countries and may actually increase the yields in developing countries. This could be for a couple of reasons including "narrow row spacings, environmentally…
July 23, 2007
The NYTimes reports today that the Charles River is clean enough to swim in. Well, sort of. Caveats:
No diving...lest that stir up the toxic sediment at the bottom of the river.
Do not expect to see the river bottom. The water is too murky.
Be prepared to encounter bits of flotsam and jetsam.
Toxic…
July 20, 2007
For the un-initiated, I believe Fridays are good for coffee (I only drink caffeine once a week), doughnuts, and random stuff, not science (does this get me kicked off Science Blogs?).
Meathead of the Week: Ken Ziman, partner at Simpson Thatcher. A piece in the NYTimes talks about how law firms are…
July 19, 2007
A study this month ($) in Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety (just rolls off the tongue doesn't it?), looked at poison control data during 2001 for two herbal supplements: St. John's wort and Echinacea.
There were 356 contacts for SJW and 406 contacts for Echinacea. That's not what interests me;…
July 19, 2007
The NYTimes reports that some genetic links to restless leg syndrome have been found and this might reduce the ridicule that the drugs that treat the condiditon are getting.
Not from this quarter, though. Almost all of our traits have a gentic link. That doesn't mean they need to be cured. I have a…
July 18, 2007
Gee, ya think?
At Al Gore's daughter's wedding he, gasp, ate some Chilean Sea Bass, which is endangered. A lot of people are getting in a huff about this.
Hmm...Possibly, possibly it could be because Mr Gore didn't look over, research, and approve every aspect of his daughter's wedding?
C'mon, just…
July 18, 2007
I am a Ph.D. scientist in the public health sector with a good amount of toxicology and regulatory knowledge. I'm not going to be dishing about projects I am privy to, but I am much freer to make my opinions known anonymously, than I could do in a completely public forum.
Although other topics will…
July 17, 2007
Over at the Pump Handle, David Michaels has a post on how ineffectual the CPSC is. He makes the point that the CPSC is "toothless", wimpy and uses a NYTimes article that talks about the Magnetix case as an example of how the CPSC can't get the job done. Although David does acknowledge how much of…
July 13, 2007
Meathead of the Week: The Bush Adminstration Official who blocked the Surgeon General from going to the Special Olympics because it's supported by the Kennedys. "Why would you want to help those people?". New low for the Bush admin. What are they, 3rd graders? Forget that, even most third graders…
July 2, 2007
The Washington Post reported yesterday on the vaccine court proceeding that starts today. Almost 5000 families will make the case that vaccines caused their children to develop autism. I don't think the families have a good case. To start off, the large majority of findings would suggest that there…
June 4, 2007
Do you ever get the feeling that we're not really living in the first world but in the third? I was thinking so when I read this LA Times article (excellent piece for its short size).
Illegal dumps are spread across the Torres Martinez reservation like ugly wounds, making it the most polluted…
May 10, 2007
Poison ivy, nightshade, cobras, green tea.
Uh, green tea?
Yeah, you heard me right. Don't put down your cup of tea just yet, but if you're near a GNC please run, don't walk, the other way (good advice anytime).
A review ($) came out in one of my two favorite journals, Chemical Research in…
May 2, 2007
It's been too long a wait for someone to do a study like this. In the wake of the large study that found that vitamin supplements are not helpful and some may be harmful, we have a simple study that should have been done long ago to determine if it's the fruit and veggies or the anti-oxidants that…
May 1, 2007
Why, yes it is, and that's why I've got a stupid product for you not to buy (not that my above-average-intelligence audience would anyway ;)Â ).
The POD, or Personal Oxygen Device, by GO2, is simply that: portable oxygen for you to "energize" and "refresh, restore, renew your mind and body on the…
April 27, 2007
The WaPo reports today that Assemblywoman Sally Lieber (D) has introduced a bill to ban diacetyl use by 2010. The chemical is an artificial butter flavoring most commonly used in microwave popcorn. Numerous studies have found links between the chemical used by flavor workers and a rare disease…
April 24, 2007
Possibly this should be the 'absolute failure of logic' edition. In the WaPo today (page A07), you'll find a story about how the FDA is going to be testing food additives from China for melamine. It's all fine and boring except for two crucial facts. Let's do the grading:
Melamine, a nitrogen-…