Free Republic

This past August, the National Toxicology Program, of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), issued a report indicating that there seems to be a connection between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids. Based on this, US District San Francisco Judge Edward Chen ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) "to take steps to lower the potential risk." EPA spokesperson Jeff Landis asserted that "adding fluoride to the nation's drinking water was one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century. We doubt whether the few IQ points lost could outweigh all the cavities...

In mid-April, 69 percent of 2,394 registered U.S. voters polled said it is “necessary” to develop a coronavirus vaccine “before we reopen the economy.” Politicians are beginning to shift the goalposts in this direction as well, from “flattening the curve” to avoid overwhelming hospitals with COVID-19 patients to restricting social and economic activity “until we have a vaccine.”For example, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday that Californians will not be allowed to get “back to normal…until we get to immunity and a vaccine.” This while he unveiled “Depression era” job losses that have already cost California taxpayers billions in unemployment...

Our leaders are making decisions based on training, experience, intelligence, and wisdom, and they have our best interests in mind. But this does not mean they are always correct. I had a patient once with a liver lesion. At the community hospital where I worked, I reviewed her MRI with the radiologist carefully and we concluded it was a possible liver cancer. Unfortunately, I shared her care with a university hospital. In their opinion, the lesion was definitely cancer and they so informed her. She promptly drank herself to death. Of course, it could be argued that the university care...

A whole nation following the tragedy of a mine cave-in in Utah was struck by the further tragedy of another cave-in at the same mine, killing men who had gone underground to try to rescue the miners trapped there. The second tragedy was avoidable — but only if we were willing to talk about human life in terms of trade-offs. But our society has become too squeamish to do that. As day after day went by, with no sign whatever that the trapped miners were still alive and with dwindling chances each day of their remaining alive, even if they...

Today: June 11, 2006 at 16:17:5 PDT Armor Causing Humvees to Roll Over ASSOCIATED PRESS DAYTON, Ohio (AP) - Thousands of pounds of armor added to military Humvees, intended to protect U.S. troops, have made the vehicles more likely to roll over, killing and injuring soldiers in Iraq, a newspaper reported. "I believe the up-armoring has caused more deaths than it has saved," said Scott Badenoch, a former Delphi Corp. vehicle dynamics expert told the Dayton Daily News for Sunday editions. Since the start of the war, Congress and the Army have spent tens of millions of dollars on armor...

A Camry hybrid costs about $5,000 more than it's nonhybrid brother, or is it sister? If a driver goes 15,000 miles a year with an efficiency of 39mpg s/he will save about $500/yr. Easy math. It will take 10 years to get your money back. The good news is a Toyota will last 10 years and 150,000 miles. The bad news is Americans won't drive the same car for that long. But then neither will anybody else in any other country. The Japanese will change cars every 3-5 years. This is one of the reasons why the hybrid market only...

Cracking open the facts on birds and banned pesticides "A dupe of the radical Greens!" "A disingenuous corporate stooge!" What could provoke such contradictory ad hominem attacks on your humble science correspondent? My simple observation in last week's column on the 30th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act: "It is generally acknowledged that banning DDT, which thinned bird's eggshells, brought back the bald eagle, the peregrine falcon, and the brown pelican." The controversy over the pesticide DDT and bird eggshell thinning is still going strong more than 30 years after the pesticide was banned in the United States. DDT and...