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Senator Charles Schumer Calls for Ban on Chemical Used in Bread that Obama's FDA Says is Safe as Used
Reason: It's Also Used in Yoga Mats

February 10, 2014  •  National Center for Public Policy Research

New York, NY/Washington DC - The following is the response of Jeff Stier, director of the National Center's Risk Analysis Division, to the call of Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) for a ban on azodicarbonamide after Subway restaurants removed the FDA-approved substance from its bread in response to an activist's petition:

Subway's move came as a result from pressure from Vani Hari, a blogger who calls herself "The Food Babe."

The move had everything to do with public relations and nothing to do with food safety. Bread itself, by virtue of being a baked carbohydrate, has the carcinogen acrylamide in it. That doesn't mean it is dangerous at the levels humans consume it.

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At 'HuffPo' Fearmongering Is an Olympic Sport

February 4, 2014

In a dazzling display of confusion between association and causation, Huffington Post environmental and public health columnist Lynne Peeples writes that:

Health care spending in the U.S. has surged more than eightfold since the 1960s. Skyrocketing in that same time: Rates of chronic disease, use of synthetic chemicals, and evidence that many of these widely used substances may be wreaking havoc on human health.

Her theory begins with three statements of fact from longtime anti-chemical crusader Dr. Philip Landrigan, chairman of the department of preventative medicine at New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

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Blowing smoke over e-cig ad

February 3, 2014  •  New York Post

One of Sunday's most controversial Super Bowl ads came with the message "Friends don't let friends smoke." Bizarrely, it's organized anti-smokers in the public-health establishment who want the commercial banned.

The line comes in an ad for the NJOY King, an electronic cigarette produced by Scottsdale, Ariz.-based NJOY. The commercial shows people helping each other in situations like moving a couch up a flight of stairs or helping a friend in a bar fight. Then one man starts to light up a cigarette, only for his friend to offer him an NJOY King.

For most people, the message is clear: If someone close to you smokes cigarettes, try recommending they switch to a smoke-free alternative.

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Iowa should tread carefully on e-cigarette rules

January 29, 2014  •  Des Moines Register

Attorney General Tom Miller would like the Iowa Legislature to change the state's "Smokefree Air Act" to include the use of e-cigarettes. This would be a huge mistake.

The law's findings clearly state the purpose of the smoking restriction: A reduction of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke "would improve the public health of Iowans."

Restricting the use of e-cigarettes, known as "vaping" for the vapor they emit, would undermine the very goal of this law.

First, it wouldn't reduce exposure to environmental smoke, better known as second-hand smoke, because there is no smoke. There isn't even any first-hand smoke.

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In Defense of E-cigarettes

January 2, 2014  •  Politix

He saved his worst ban for last. Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg's nanny-state policies have left a trail of damage. His defeated soda ban, the ban on food donations to homeless shelters and other antics have cost New Yorkers money, jobs, food choices, and even their freedom to give charity.

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