Chemical Controversies
Pesticides are substances that prevent, destroy, repel, or reduce the severity of pests. Pests are living things that occur where they are not wanted or that cause damage to humans, crops, or animals. Pests can be insects, rodents, unwanted plants, bacteria, viruses, or different types of fungus. Pesticides can vary in how toxic they are to humans and the environment. Some are persistent in the environment, animals, and birds, lasting for years; others break down soon after they are released. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grants licenses, or registrations, to pesticides that it has found do not pose unreasonable risks to human health and the environment; it has registered at least 865 pesticides, which are used in thousands of pesticide products.
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Viewpoint: Here’s a reminder of what life was like in RFK Jr’s.’ ‘good ol’ pre-vaccine days
In the early 1800s, some people rejected the smallpox vaccine because they didn’t trust the doctors and scientists promoting them, ...
While raw milk increases health risk by 70,000% percent, cheese made from raw milk is safe to eat
The only real way to wipe out H5N1, the bird flu that has been ruining egg prices since last year, ...
Viewpoint: Social media’s herd mentality undermines how we view farming and food
The information superhighway has many potholes to navigate and treacherous off ramps that will result in people getting lost on ...
Sociogenomics—How our environment molds genes and shapes our
The new field is called sociogenomics, a fusion of behavioral science and genetics that I have been closely involved with ...
Viewpoint: PFAS disinformation—How extremist environmentalists have demonized an entire class of safe-as-used properly chemicals
PFAS in cosmetics is the latest frontier for advocacy groups who have pressured regulatory agencies to ignore the scientific evidence ...
GLP Spaces on X: Deadly Thin Mints? $5 million chemical tort scam targets Girl Scout cookies
Tired of chasing ambulances and suing chemical companies, tort lawyers have identified a new villain: the Girl Scouts. You may ...
Vaccines for cancers? It’s coming, and we’ll have COVID response-spurred mRNA vaccines to thank
Cancer vaccines weren’t a proper field of research before the pandemic. There was nothing. Apart from one exception, pretty much ...
Ultra-processed foods lead to chronic diseases? Bread, breakfast cereals, yogurt and dairy desserts are all associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes
[G]iven the prevailing sense of certainty that ultraprocessed foods are a prime culprit in chronic disease, it may surprise you ...
RFK, Jr. calls the HPV vaccine ‘dangerous and defective’. He’s made millions of dollars litigating this falsehood
HPV is a virus that can live and replicate in certain cells on the surface of the skin and mucous ...
Push for transparency in research: Corporations and academic institutions under pressure to advance public disclosure
If you Google my name along with “Monsanto,” you will find a series of allegations from 2013 that my scholarly ...
Viewpoint: Anti-glyphosate hysteria pushed by RFK, Jr. and MAHA allies throws a dark cloud over modern agriculture
[L]ooming concerns such as talk of a possible glyphosate ban and tight time lines for national carbon emission goals have ...
Viewpoint: Kill Prop 65—It’s past time to ditch California’s science-twisting and misguided attacks on safe-as-used chemicals
Proposition 65 was a voter referendum that stated if a chemical was correlated to cancer, it needed to have a ...
Greenpeace USA faces possible dissolution after losing $667 million defamation suit for orchestrating ‘unlawful’ demonstrations against a North Dakota pipeline project
Energy Transfer filed the colossal lawsuit in 2019, accusing Greenpeace of providing resources, including supplies, intel and training, to encourage ...
Viewpoint: ‘This is like banning life-saving medicines because some patients take overdoses’: Pakistan debates banning key agricultural chemicals that some say are misused
A proposed government ban on 12 widely used agrochemicals has triggered alarm across Pakistan's agriculture sector as experts warn it ...
RFK, Jr. claims that the measles vaccine ‘causes deaths every year’. He’s wrong, that’s activist propaganda
Parsing every claim about the measles vaccine that [Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.] has made would take a long time, so ...
Promoted by RFK, Jr. and food influencers bashing seed oils is in fashion. Nutrition scientists shake their heads at this mass ignorance
[‘Seed oil’] is the catchy description coined by internet influencers, wellness gurus and some politicians to refer to common cooking ...
Guided by RFK Jr.’s scientifically illiterate advice, many Texas families with measles-infected children avoid going to the doctor, sometimes until it’s too late
Struggling to contain a raging measles epidemic in West Texas, public health officials increasingly worry that residents are relying on ...
Viewpoint: Food security vs. sustainability aspirations—Reality hijacks European Green Deal advocates
The EU aimed to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050 with the European Green Deal (GDR) announced in December ...
Viewpoint: The health and environmental case against genetically modified crops in Kenya distorts the facts
Maize is Kenya’s staple food, yet its annual production consistently falls short of demand, hindered by degraded soils, limited access to ...
Viewpoint: The FDA under Trump 2.0, Marty Makary and RFK, Jr.: Uncertainty threatens
What would the Food and Drug Administration look like under Martin "Marty" Makary, a Johns Hopkins surgeon, President Trump's soon-to-be ...
Natural. Locally produced. Eco-friendly. Organic—Marketing buzzwords or meaningful descriptors?
[B]ased on a survey of 37 000 consumers in 40 countries, [r]espondents are generally most interested in natural, locally produced, ...
An aspirin a day keeps the doctor away? No, that won’t limit strokes and could very well lead to stomach, intestinal and brain bleeding
Many people still believe the benefits of taking an aspirin every day to prevent heart attacks and strokes outweigh the ...
Center for Science in the Public Interest: Here’s why you should not waste your money on cold- and flu-fighting supplements
In one study, researchers bought and analyzed 30 supplements that were being marketed on Amazon for immune health. According to the ...
Viewpoint: Challenging the agricultural misinformation zealots—Sustainable agriculture requires judicious weed management and crop chemicals
Any discussion of crop chemicals must consider the broad sweep of agricultural history, the pivotal moments of technological innovation, and ...
Viewpoint: MIT computer scientist (frequently cited by RFK. Jr.) predicted that by 2025 50% of all U.S. children would be born autistic due to glyphosate exposure. She was off by only 1600%
In the annals of failed doomsday predictions, Dr. Stephanie Seneff’s claim that half of all U.S. children would be autistic ...
Viewpoint: Environmental activists, food elitists and trial lawyers profiterring on science disinformation put American farmers and U.S. agricultural policy at risk.
Food elitists contend America's farmers and ranchers have lost their way. They want to overturn the system for food production ...
RFK, Jr.’s NIH blocks funding of all research into vaccine hesitancy and is poised to withdraw support of mRNA vaccines
The Trump administration is slashing long-standing areas of research funded by the National Institutes of Health, claiming they no longer ...
