If you have ever bought a natural health product approved by Health Canada, you must watch this 22-minute episode of CBC’s Marketplace.

Do you have any idea how easy it is to get approval from Health Canada to manufacture and sell a natural health product?

You will hear from me on this topic in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, watch this incredible report:

http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/episodes/2014-2015/drugstore-remedies-licence-to-deceive

This is required reading, folks.

“The ‘science communication problem,’ as it’s blandly called by the scientists who study it, has yielded abundant new research into how people decide what to believe—and why they so often don’t accept the scientific consensus. It’s not that they can’t grasp it, according to Dan Kahan of Yale University. In one study he asked 1,540 Americans, a representative sample, to rate the threat of climate change on a scale of zero to ten. Then he correlated that with the subjects’ science literacy. He found that higher literacy was associated with stronger views—at both ends of the spectrum. Science literacy promoted polarization on climate, not consensus. According to Kahan, that’s because people tend to use scientific knowledge to reinforce beliefs that have already been shaped by their worldview.”

As a quote I’ve read recently says, “Humans are not rational beings; we are rationalizing beings.”

Go read…

After being accused by a magazine of promoting “disproven and discredited therapy systems” at their conference, the organizers of the Northwest Territories Wellness Conference (taking place this weekend) used the old “complementary” trope to excuse their choices.

Indeed, a cursory look at their schedule reveals workshops with the following descriptive phrases: “how to use local plants to make your own ointments”, “the opportunity to heal and feel the collective Qi”, and my personal favourite, “Science is finally catching up with what a minority of people from many different cultures around the world has known since the beginning of time: that there exists an energy within all of us that can heal.”

These offerings are woven into panels involving actual MDs and focusing on cancer treatment and maternal infant health.

But the organizers reassured skeptics by revealing their thorough vetting process.

“The cold laser therapy guy – the first time he…

It is one thing for scientists to agree on the evidence, but what is the gap between scientific consensus (or near-consensus) and public acceptance of these same facts?

“Asked whether genetically modified food is safe, 88 per cent of the scientists say Yes, but only 37 per cent of the public agreed. That’s a gap of 51 percentage points.

“The idea that humans are changing the climate got support from 87 per cent of the scientists and 50 per cent of the public in the U.S.”

Should animals be used in research? 89% of polled scientists said “yes”; the public?

You can read the Vancouver Sun’s reporting of the latest Pew Research Centre poll here.