Archive for the ‘Arsenic’ Category
It was easy enough to be dismissive when Dr. Oz was flogging the issue of arsenic in apple juice being purchased by U.S. consumers. However, the issue just doesn’t seem to be settling to the level of importance that it deserves, which, in the larger scheme of things environmentally-healthy-related, is not much. Thoughtful journalists and those not-so-thoughtful seem to feel compelled to make it grow unduly in an already overgrown media landscape. The proximate cause of this media attention is the current issue of Consumers’ Report, which by itself appears to be a reasonably insightful discussion – more on that later – through once again through the magicks of short attention spans and the news cycle, momentary uproar and alarm and another opportunity to be stupid about this issue have been created. Read the rest of this entry »
Mehmet Oz is a physician who’s made the most of the opportunities afforded him as a television celebrity. He supports complementary and alternative medicine, which draws in criticism from advocates for evidence-based medicine. Dr. Oz most recently emerged in the news with a “study” highlighting the health risks from arsenic in fruit juices, which given the size of his megaphone engendered nationwide controversy. The FDA took him to task over it, and I picked it up from reading PZ Myer’s blog. PZ does a public service drawing attention to the issue and in particular highlighting FDA’s opinion of Dr. Oz’s data, but didn’t convey anything about the nature of the risks, either significant or insignificant, about arsenic in apple juices. Deborah Blum has a great story about what real arsenic risks look like, depicting arsenism in Bangladesh including a brain-curdling picture of someone with an arsenic-related hyperkeratosis (a disabling thickening and roughening of the skin). She also takes Dr. Oz to task for doing bad risk assessment and bad risk communication. Read the rest of this entry »