I’m always attracted to issues in environmental health, not least because ecology was my first academic love. And so two news items caught my eye last week.

The first was a study by researchers at USC that found fine particulate air pollution is much more damaging than previously thought, causing chronic illness like heart disease and diabetes at 4 times the rate previously thought. [Read more…]

I’m astounded by how stupid people with PhDs can be. Yesterday’s news carried a story about research claiming that B vitamins did nothing to prevent heart attacks. Not one but three separate studies tested whether folic acid, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12 reduced heart risks. The studies were set up to test the hypothesis that a buildup of homocysteine increases risk. [Read more…]