March 2009
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
« Feb   Apr »
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  

Day 16 March, 2009

Detox quackery

Prince Charles detox ‘quack­ery’, BBC

Noth­ing would, of course, be easier than to demon­strate that detox products work. All one needed to do is to take a few blood samples from volun­teers and test whether this or that toxin is elim­in­ated from the body faster than nor­mal,” [Pro­fessor Ernst] said.

But where are the stud­ies that demon­strate effic­acy? They do not exist, and the reason is simple: these products have no real detox­i­fic­a­tion effects.”

Earlier this year the char­it­able trust Sense About Sci­ence pro­duced a report seek­ing to debunk claims made about detox products.
Its research­ers reviewed a series of products, from bottled water to face scrub, and found the detox asser­tions to be over­whelm­ingly meaningless.

It seems out­rageous for com­pan­ies to be mak­ing money selling mean­ing­less products but for the heir to the throne to be doing so, at £10 a pop, is even more inap­pro­pri­ate,” said Tom Wells, who helped carry out the ori­ginal research.

We must break link between green issues and altern­at­ive medi­cine, The Guard­ian, George Monbiot

Envir­on­ment­al­ism is, or should be, a move­ment led by sci­entific find­ings. I see the role of envir­on­ment­al­ists as being to explore and explain the implic­a­tions of what the sci­ence – whether on cli­mate change, hab­itat loss, biod­iversity, fish­er­ies, pol­lu­tion or resource deple­tion — is say­ing, and how this should trans­late into pub­lic policy.