Hank Campbell
ACSH
New York, NY, United States
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Past articles by Hank:
If You Buy Organic Wine, You May Be Funding Far More Soil Damage
Basile Tesseron, who runs the Lafon-Rochet estate (one of the ten Quatrièmes Crus [Fourth Growths] listed in Emperor Napoleon III's Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855), is walking away from the organic process for his wine, and while he won't tell other farmers what to do, he notes that organic marketing's 'you are with us or against us' ultimatums are not worth it. And after two bad… → Read More
Weed Control: EPA Extends Registration, Sets New Guidelines For Dicamba Use
Due to concern about misapplication, or accidental spread, of the weedkiller dicamba in 2017, which harmed some crops that were not optimized for it, EPA has expressed concern about its use and was set to end registration but after meetings with scientists and the agriculture community has extended the date to end for use on genetically engineered cotton and soybeans to December 20, 2020. They… → Read More
Halloween Means More Pedestrian Deaths
The laws of probability should lend themselves to the notion that if you have a lot more people walking, often in dark costumes, and just as many people driving, and more people drinking than would otherwise occur on a Wednesday, pedestrian fatalities go up. In that context, Halloween is actually a really safe evening. New analysis of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data shows it… → Read More
National Survey Finds 40% Believe Cancer Can Be Cured Without Medicine
America may be the most science literate country in the world, we may be dominant in Nobel prizes and science output, and at least we are not France, but a new survey by Harris shows that we still have a long way to go. The results reveal that 47 percent of those aged 18 to 37 have become convinced by efforts to promote alternatives to medicine and think they can cure cancer with food or… → Read More
In California, Trees Have A Prop 65 Cancer Warning
California loves to show "leadership" by putting warning labels on the things they are not yet allowed to ban. Showing leadership is, of course, a dog whistle for the kind of social authoritarian mentality that is the enemy of science and progress. Though California is run in both houses of the legislature and the Governor's Mansion by one party they can't get a majority vote for everything they… → Read More
Ethanol Is Bad Science And Bad Policy
In the 1980s and '90s, environmentalists touted ethanol as ideal renewable energy because it's made from corn, which can obviously be regrown each year. They claimed it was equivalent in efficiency to gasoline and therefore superior to fossil fuels. The political and financial push for ethanol by greens was so strong that Vice President Al Gore broke a 1994 tie in the Senate to force an… → Read More
IARC Retraction Watch Begins: They Faked Images In Controversial Claims
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has a new leader, an Old Guard insider named Dr. Elisabete Weiderpass, who promised not to change the status quo, which means they remain stuck with an old problem; credibility. While for its first 20 years they were a much-needed voice of reason that stood up to activists claiming that some new chemical of the month was a carcinogen because… → Read More
Phantom Particles: Estimate Claims PM2.5 Air Restrictions In China Will Mean Virtual Lives Saved
It's hard to have a serious discussion about pollution while pretending that 2.7 billion, over a third of the world's population, are not creating pollution because they have been given "developing" nation status. Yet air quality and emissions have become a political issue and not a scientific one. America already has the best air quality in the world so activists have moved the goalposts to… → Read More
Celebrities Vs. Science: Pierce Brosnan Shouldn't Be Hosting The Breakthrough Prize Ceremony on National Geographic?
The Breakthrough Prize Foundation has breathlessly announced that "acclaimed actor, producer and philanthropist Pierce Brosnan" will host the Breakthrough Prize ceremony, which they have self-declared is the “Oscars of Science”, on November 4th. The funders certainly have the money to do positive things; the backers are Sergey Brin and his ex-wife Anne Wojcicki, which means Google cash, plus… → Read More
IARC Retraction Watch Begins: They Faked Images In Controversial Claims
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has a new leader, an Old Guard insider named Dr. Elisabete Weiderpass, who promised not to change the status quo, which means they remain stuck with an old problem; credibility. While for its first 20 years they were a much-needed voice of reason that stood up to activists claiming that some new chemical of the month was a carcinogen because… → Read More
Smirnoff Concedes Their Non-GMO Label Is Just A New Marketing Gimmick
Smirnoff, a vodka brand owned by British company Diageo, recently undertook an ad campaign starring celebrities Ted Danson and Jenna Fischer touting how they are gluten-free and non-GMO. Wow, healthy vodka. Who knew that was possible? Well it isn't possible, but since labels on most consumed products are a free-for-all they can get away with it. Except when it comes to alcohol. On that, they… → Read More
PNAS And Microbiomes: Will They Publish A 'Study' About Bee Chakras Next?
Over the last 15 years, PNAS, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has gone into serious decline. An organization once so prestigious Carl Sagan, the most prominent scientist in America, was unqualified to be admitted, is now scrambling to stay relevant. They recently announced they are going to cease print publication, but austerity is not their problem, embrace of junk science… → Read More
We Were in Smithsonian Magazine, Washington Post, On The Radio, And More Last Week
1. In his regular bi-weekly radio spot, Dr. Alex Berezow talked about a study showing that conventional farms are better than the organic kind - by far, how scientists in Europe would like to fight back against the political war on biotechnology, which threatens to leave them behind for a generation, torn ACLs in athletes, and much more. 2. In Smithsonian, they covered our work on how the artist… → Read More
Dear FDA: 2.5% Of High School Students, Most Current Or Former Smokers, Is Not A Vaping 'Epidemic'
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has done many positive things recently: they eased red tape on generic drug approval, which is 85% of U.S. spending for pharmaceuticals, setting a new record last year by August and are on pace to exceed that again before the end of this fiscal year; they finally stated they were going to look into the suspect labeling claims made by Big Organic, which are… → Read More
RIP Jane Newton | American Council on Science and Health
I am writing today about a woman you may never have heard of - but she was a hero of science, and I want to share her story. Professor Mike Newton worked at Oregon State University for 58 years, published almost 400 papers, and was, in his words, a very healthy guinea pig after voluminous and nearly continuous exposure to compounds like Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, which the science community… → Read More
EU Gets Less Green By Pushing Wood Burning Over Natural Gas
Christmas tree farms don't cause global warming - and that is the scientific basis for why Europeans have decided to meet their emissions targets by...burning wood. You read that right, they have decided to burn more wood to offset the increases in emissions that will be caused by closing nuclear plants. Because wood is renewable. Christmas tree farms prove it. Renewable energy certainly sounds… → Read More
Media Should Have Far Less Confidence In Meta-Analysis Claims Than They Do
Do you think video games have led to more violent attacks by young people? You are not alone. Lots of people do. It was in every major newspaper because a meta-analysis once showed it was so. But then another meta-analysis showed that belief is false. Journalists gushed over both claims(1) even though one was suspect to anyone who understands the nature of selection bias in meta-analyses. So… → Read More
General Mills Discovered It's Not About GMOs, Activists Are In A War Of Extinction
A few years ago I was giving a talk at an event along with Brent Smart, CEO of advertising giant Saatchi & Saatchi's headquarters in New York, who had managed their General Mills campaign prior to that. He talked about why General Mills had rolled out a new non-GMO label on Cheerios. He was literate, funny, and his description of being a prominent executive while only being able to afford a… → Read More
Nexus Of Hype: Household Chemicals Cause Obesity, And the Undefined Gut Microbiota Is Invoked Too
A new paper grabs media attention by suggesting household chemicals cause obesity in babies - and it does so by changing the gut microbiota, whatever that is. Oh no. What household chemicals are we talking about? Let's get rid of those. Well, we don't know. Nor do the authors of the paper. As if 'changes in gut microbiome', the 2000s version of endocrine disruption hysteria, was not suspect… → Read More
Washington Post Goes Science Conspiracy Theory, Faux Health Advocates Exposed, And More Media Links
1. Washington Post published an op-ed with a provocative title - Scientists know plastics are dangerous. Why won’t the government say so? - so it seems strange that with "Scientists know" as the first two words no editor asked the writer to include at least one scientist. But they didn't. You can further imagine my disappointment when instead of it being a legitimate journalist the op-ed writer… → Read More