People in the United States can look forward to a future of ill health. I say this not because the medical care system, euphemistically yet universally referred to as the health care system, is failing under the weight of overdiagnosis and overtreatment but because our political culture has, for quite some time now, entirely abandoned caring for those least capable of caring for themselves. Mostly children. [Read more…]

Like many people, I was angered and alarmed at news that 1 of every 150 children in the US is autistic. After swimming around in the Bay of Environmental Causation where mercury plays a major role as the culprit, I looked at the study itself. I was taught a lesson I’ve been taught before: what is the actually data, does the data support the conclusions, and what are the politics behind how those conclusions are turned into messages delivered to use through the media. [Read more…]

Fast food restaurants have taken a beating for decades. Even tons of advertising and promised changes in response to critics haven’t helped much. Witness the success of the documentary Super Size Me and the book and now movie Fast Food Nation.

And yet business is brisk. [Read more…]

The San Francisco Chronicle’s business section recently carried a series on the business of bottled water. It’s a very big business indeed: $11 billion in sales and 8.3 billion gallons consumed in the United States alone during 2005. According to the article, that’s “more than any other commercial beverage except soda. More than milk. More than coffee. More than beer.” [Read more…]