Science Education & Policy

Should the government tell you what mayonnaise to buy? Liberals and conservatives would probably agree that freedom is paramount when it comes to sandwich spreads, this is America, after all, but everyone across the ideological spectrum would also agree that some common definition of terms would be called for if someone brought a “cake” and it turned out to be a “vegetable loaf.” And that is the controversy around mayonnaise. A company called Hampton Creek wants to sell mayonnaise but the Code of Federal Regulations, which govern ‘standards of identity’, was created in 1938 specifically to…

The War on Fast Food hasn't led to the health care bonanza overzealous regulators assured us would result - but that hasn’t stopped them from opening another front on Happy Meals. At the American Council on Science and Health, we think micromanaging behavior is misguided, but not unexpected. In 2010, as part of the Affordable Care Act, menu labeling of calorie counts became law, but it took four years of heated debates for the FDA to propose the rules for those who’d be affected, as well as how the law would be implemented.  The New York City Council doesn't want to wait until December…

People with life-threatening or incurable diseases may be willing to try experimental drugs and unproven treatments. Credit: juicyrai/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND By Tina Cockburn, Queensland University of Technology and Bill Madden, Queensland University of Technology People with life-threatening or incurable diseases may be willing to try experimental drugs and unproven treatments, but they face the risk of exploitation. Is the law the best avenue to ensure that they are protected while medical innovation is encouraged? Protection of vulnerable people is a thread running through many laws, in…

As we approach the August bank holiday and a three-day weekend, it is worth reassessing the amount of time we devote to work. What if all weekends could last for three or even four days? What if the majority of the week could be given over to activities other than work? What if most of our time could be devoted to non-work activities of our own choosing? To even pose these questions is to invite the criticism of Utopian thinking. While a fine idea in principle, working fewer hours is not feasible in practice. Indeed, its achievement would come at the expense of lower consumption and…

Natural American Spirit has discovered how to gain market share; tout the organic, all-natural status of its product. It must be healthier, right? Not when it comes to cigarettes, but it has been very good strategy for the company to do what organic food and soap corporations have done so well - frame the discussion so that their process seems physically and ethically superior to "conventional."  There was a time when critics who were worried about corporate denial of science and health facts would claim a technique was 'right out of the Big Tobacco playbook', but that analogy seems…

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is about to be sued because they have not banned fracking. Natural Resources Defense Council and vassal fundraising groups say oil and gas companies might be dumping drilling and fracking waste in ways that threaten public health and the environment. Might be? They have no evidence but are suing anyway? Don't be shocked, the NRDC spends its $100 million per year primarily on lawyers and they have to be doing something with them. Lest you think, 'Oh, the EPA will not like this, it will create friction between them and anti-science activists', that isn't…

A total of 25 states weigh public school students to monitor obesity rates. In 10 of these states, parents are then notified. Today’s New York Times addresses these “BMI report cards” and their effect on students’ weight (or lack thereof). This tactic is meant to identify students who are potentially at risk for weight-related problems and to prompt parents to act by seeking medical diagnosis and taking steps to change their child’s eating or exercise habits. Some nutritionists and parent groups think the letters contribute to eating disorders and poor body image for a demographic that is…

Democrats (myself included) enjoy ridiculing Republicans who deny the scientific consensus behind climate change. But we then deny the inconvenient truth behind our own preferred climate policies: they will have regressive impacts on the poor and middle class. The Energy Information Agency (EIA) projected in May that President Obama’s new Clean Power Plan (CPP) will lead to retail electricity prices 3%-7% higher for the nation as a whole in 2020-25, before falling to “near-baseline” levels in 2030. Yet speaking in the White House on August 3, the president denied the CPP would “cost you more…

Even before President Obama announced the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan on August 3 to regulate carbon emissions from power plants, there were a number of legal challenges to block the law at its proposal stage – none of them successful. Earlier this year, the DC Circuit court told opponents, which included a coal company joined by twelve states, that their arguments were premature. Now that the rules are final, the new court challenges will come fast and heavy. The legal arguments against the plan will be focused on two issues. The first is based on an unusual…

Following the British Medical Association's plan for a 20% sugar tax to subsidize the cost of fruit and vegetables - which some pundits must believe contain no carbohydrates - another group have added their voices to such scientization of politics in BMJ. Sirpa Sarlio-Lähteenkorva, adviser at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health in Finland, believes that a specific tax on sugar would reduce consumption. "Increasing evidence suggests that taxes on soft drinks, sugar, and snacks can change diets and improve health, especially in lower socioeconomic groups," she writes, and says that taxes…