WhatFinger


We are bombarded by lies from environmental and consumer groups, all of whom have their own agendas and which usually are intended to stop technological and other advances, denying their benefits to humanity

They’re Determined to Scare You



In 1990 I founded The National Anxiety Center as a clearinghouse for information about scare campaigns designed to influence public opinion and policies. I have spent the time since then doing what I could to educate the public, but the lesson learned is that old scares often do not die even when debunked, and new ones are always waiting to be sprung.
One organization I came to admire over the years is the American Council on Science and Health. They have done an enormous amount of good, vigorously exposing the scare mongers. They recently published “The Top Ten Unfounded Scares of 2011” and it's worth visiting a few. Their number one scare of 2011 was one concerning the HPV vaccine. The enemies of medicine in general and pharmacology in particular are always doing their best to keep people from protecting themselves against illness. Two vaccines, Gardasil and Cervarix, protect against human papillomavirus (HPV), a routine vaccination for girls aged 11 or 12. HTP, types 16 and 18, “are responsible for 70 percent of all cervical cancers.” The scare originated with a study published in The lancet that claimed a link to autism. The study has long since been retracted, not to mention proven to be “entirely fraudulent."

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Unfortunately, Michele Bachmann repeated the scare and the media ran with it. In a similar fashion, the television personality, Dr. Mehmet Oz demonstrated a total lapse of judgment or knowledge by telling viewers of The Dr. Oz Show that apple juice was full of arsenic and would kill any child drinking it. As ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross pointed out, “the presence of trace levels of arsenic in food is not a cause for panic,” adding that “People should realize that arsenic is ubiquitous; it’s found in drinking water, potatoes, soil and rocks.” The ancient rule of poison is that it is the “dose” that matters. Miniscule, “trace” amounts represent no risk. As if the people who make their living fishing in the Gulf of Mexico didn’t suffer enough of a blow from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in April 2010, you just knew some group would add to their problems. The quintessential environmental scare mongers are the National Resources Defense Council, almost compulsively on the wrong side of every issue. They claimed that seafood from the Gulf Coast had dangerous levels of contaminants. The Food and Drug Administration “has been consistently testing” the seafood and found no evidence of the NRDC claim. Environmental groups are almost unanimously opposed to anything that represents new sources of energy for America and now their stooges in the Congress, Reps. Henry A. Waxman, Edward J. Markey and Diana DeGette are spreading lies about fracking, a process that has been in use for more than sixty years, claiming that it is poisoning the water supply wherever drilling for natural gas or oil occurs. A so-called documentary called “Gasland” has furthered this claim. There are an estimated 4,244 quadrillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas in North America, enough to heat homes in the U.S. for the next 857 years, to supply the U.S. with electricity for 575 years at our present consumption level. Do you want to have fracking banned? I didn’t think so. In May 2011, the Environmental Working Group spread the word that “the majority of sunscreens are unfit to use.” They used the old tired scare of “hormone disruptors” and tossed about scary talk of “free radicals.” Suffice to say, keep applying sunscreen because skin cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer in the U.S., “with one to two million cases diagnosed each year.” Why would the EWG make such a feckless claim? They’re “environmentalists” and therefore fear every chemical that exists. Among some of the scares from the past were kept going in 2011. Among them was fluoridated water, deemed by the Centers for Disease Control as one of the top ten public health achievements of the 20th century. Generations before it was introduced, it was common for people to keep losing their teeth throughout their lives. Not any more. Another old scare being kept alive involves cell phone radiation, but the American Cancer Society, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventions have all concluded that there is no scientific evidence of any harm. I recommend you read the ACSH report. It will provide ammunition and peace of mind regarding these and other scare campaigns. As I have heard said, “A lie is halfway around the world before the truth gets its pants on.” We are bombarded by lies from environmental and consumer groups, all of whom have their own agendas and which usually are intended to stop technological and other advances, denying their benefits to humanity. © Alan Caruba, 2012


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Alan Caruba -- Bio and Archives

Editor’s Note: Alan passed away on June 15, 2015.  He will be greatly missed

  Alan Caruba: A candle that goes on flickering in the dark.

 

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