Articles

It was with some dismay this week that I  read a report by the group Action on Additives that revealed that most children’s medicines on sale in the UK still contain additives known to provoke adverse effects. I was writing about this kind of thing 12 years ago and naively assumed that  things might have […]

The world is getting louder and louder – and it’s taking a toll on our health. Two studies this week found that living in close proximity to aircraft noises substantially raises your risk of both hospital admission and death from heart disease and stroke. This is not, unfortunately, news. For years the World Health Organization (WHO) […]

This week a Cambridge university academic has suggested that children as young as 7 should be routinely screened for mental health problems. In a letter published in the British Medical Journal, Simon Nicholas Williams, a visiting professor at the university’s Institute of Public Health, said three-quarters of adult mental disorders were “extensions of juvenile disorders” […]

Antibiotic-resistant infections cause two million infections and claim the lives of 23,000 people in the United States every year, according to a new landmark report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The report, Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States, 2013, presents the first snapshot of the burden and threats posed […]

After a week of events throughout the UK aimed at highlighting the health risks of eating genetically modified foods, Pat Thomas highlights a key health message that many of us have missed… It’s easy to see why biotech companies are anxious to separate the pesticide issue from the GM debate We are continually told that […]

Silicon Valley magnates with unlimited cash, very little social conscience and a canny ability to exploit patent laws are set to take control of our food supply – are you ready for fake food to become the new real? “May you live in interesting times” is an ancient Chinese curse – and if you are a […]

It’s not easy to keep your eyes on every health story. These days they seem to be coming at us thick and fast it can be hard to maintain a broader focus. But while stories of GMO health threats and a worsening obesity crisis seem to grab most of the headlines, a little acknowledged story […]

One of the immutable truths in the life of a journalist is this: the moment you take a holiday, an interesting story breaks. So it was that while I was recharging amidst family and friends in the desert in America’s Southwest, the world’s first lab-grown hamburger was unveiled. The tiny patty of beef was the […]

GM foods are safe to eat – that’s what we are told time and time again. So many people have eaten them that if there was any possibility of health problems we would have seen it by now – that’s what our regulators and politicians keep saying. And yet an article published in of all places, the […]

We read a lot about ‘risk’ in our office. Comparing the risks of certain things is always tricky and sometimes the facts just get lost in what seems to be an escalating noise about how threatening and unsafe the world is in general. Several things have caught my eye in the last week or so. […]