Sugar should be controlled like alcohol and tobacco toprotect public health, according to a team of UCSF researchers, who maintain ina new reportthat sugar is fueling a global obesity pandemic, contributing to 35 milliondeaths annually worldwide from non-communicable diseases like diabetes, heartdisease and cancer. Many of the interventions that have reduced alcohol andtobacco consumption can be models for addressing the sugar problem, such aslevying special sales taxes, controlling access, and tightening licensingrequirements on vending machines and snack bars that sell high sugar productsin schools and workplaces. These recommendations show the tendency of somepeople interest in public health Gotten the seven deadly sins of public healthnoted in Harvey Fineberg's monograph published this week by the Institute of Medicinewhich include Sloth, Greed, Ignorance, Complacency, Timidity, Obstinacy &Arrogance. The tendency of some academics to lose touch with reality of whatgoes on outside the University is typical in things that laws change behaviors,they rarely do.  Further, once an item ismade into a wall there is a tendency to tamper with it that every possibleopportunity making the original intent far worse than anticipated. Therecommendations in this research is would move us even farther toward total “Nanny”state.  

Perfluorinatedcompounds, a class of manufacturing chemicals, may be harmingthe immune system in a way that reduces the effectiveness of standardchildhood vaccines according to Environmental epidemiologist PhilippeGrandjean of the Harvard School of Public Health and his colleagues who measuredPFC levels in 587 children in Denmark, while still in utero and at age 5, whenthe children came in for their booster shots, and age 7. Comment: There were no control subjects without PFC levels present sofurther studies should be made using children without PFCs in the blood forcontrols. If this is confirmed then we must consider how to develop methods totest almost everything inhaled, eaten or applied to skin, which may be impossible.We also need better epidemiology to identify diseases that might be biologicallyplausible as environmentally dependent.

Drinkingthree cups each day for six months lowered both diastolic and systolic bloodpressure by 2 to 3 mm, according to Jonathan Hodgson, PhD, of the University ofWestern Australia in Perth, and colleagues. Following a randomized trial thatincluded 95 men and women ages 35 to 75 (mean age 56 for men and 57 for women)who were regular tea drinkers. Comment:It is important to differentiate between statistically and clinically significantresults. This was a poor study using a small population who were already teadrinkers and with very small numbers when the subgroup were divided by age andsex, and no history given of length and strength of previous tea drinking.