EPA Criteria for Pesticide Dangers are Unethical and Flawed

Flawed Pesticide Studies Using Human Subjects Could Result In Higher Allowable Exposures For Both Children And Adults, trumpets perhaps the most comprehensive review ever of a set of studies at the EPA, published in the American Journal of Public Health. The study:

found the studies flawed by conflict of interest, failure to meet ethical standards established by the Declaration of Helsinki, unacceptable informed consent procedures, inadequate statistical power and inappropriate test methods and end points.

Depo-Provera Safety

Majikthise blogs a London Globe and Mail news release that is getting almost no media attention in the U.S.: Pfizer's injectible contraceptive can cause irreversible bone loss, putting users at significantly increased risk for osteoporosis. FDA has just required Pfizer to put a black box warning on Depo indicating that it should be used only if no other birth control mechanism is adequate. Where are the discussions of the evolution of this warning?

How Powerful are Drug Ads? Ask Hormone Replacement Therapy Manufacturers

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports on hormone replacement therapy rates today, based on an embargoed article in a Women's Health Initiative research project. The bottom line is that after the July 2002 shutdown of estrogen plus progestin therapy in WHI, due to results showing that standard-dose Prempro increase the risk of all sorts of things, and provided no benefit, promotional activities for hormone replacement therapy slowed dramatically across the board. The impact of the slowdown in promotion is incredible - a massive drop in prescriptions and use of all HRT, in direct correlation to spending on advertisements. No, drug ads don't matter a lot at all. Nope. Trust us ...