Critical Science

This is the last episode of Critical Science. It's not goodbye. It's more like, "until we meet again." Thank you for listening! Thank you for watching! It's been a lot of fun. I learned a lot, and I hope you have, too. I also hope you had some fun along the way. This actually ran a LOT longer than I ever expected. I appreciate everyone's support! I fully anticipate creating a new podcast series at...

Summary In this episode, Dr. Lyle Burgoon discusses a study published in JAMA Network Open that claims a link between prenatal exposure to certain chemicals and metabolic syndrome risk in children. He analyzes the study using the seven tips he discussed in a previous episode and highlights several flaws and limitations in the study design. Dr. Burgoon emphasizes the importance of being skeptical a...

I get asked now and then if I have tips to help people spot poorly done science, bad science, or what I prefer to call pseudoscience. Here are 7 tips! If you want to see the infographic, visit our Critical Science website (https://critscipod.com/episode-25-7-tips-for-assessing-science/). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Summary In this episode, Dr. Lyle discusses benzoyl peroxide and the recent concerns raised by Valashur about the presence of benzene in benzoyl peroxide products. He explains that Valashur has a history of testing products for impurities and notifying the FDA. However, the benzene was only found in products that were exposed to high heat for extended periods, which is not how they are supposed to...

Summary In this episode of the Critical Science podcast, Dr. Lyle Burgoon discusses the topic of drug testing, with a focus on methamphetamine testing. He explains the different forms of methamphetamine and how they affect the brain. Dr. Burgoon highlights the presence of levomethamphetamine in over-the-counter products and the potential for false positive methamphetamine tests. He emphasizes the...

Happy New Year! New Year, New You, right? Well, it wasn't quite in the new year, but the American Academy of Pediatrics may have re-made themselves into a Merchant of Fear. In December 2023, the AAP released a statement that although GMOs themselves are fine, glyphosate (which is commonly associated with GMO crops) is not okay for children. In fact, the AAP says that glyphosate "Recent studies sho...

Thanks for your patience while I was away on travel. I spent a couple of weeks in Korea presenting at 2 conferences, including 1 Keynote Address. And somehow one of my kids speaks better Korean than me!?! (It's not hard to speak better Korean than me). Anywho, big few weeks in the toxicology world. The European Commission granted another 10 year approval to glyphosate! I did not have that on my bi...

Well, California has gone full chemophobic on us. Governor Newsom signed an incredibly anti-science bill into law. They have decided that banning chemicals that will not cause cancer at human relevant concentrations in food is the way to go. This is the first step towards building an anti-science, chemophobic society. But I think the thing that irritates me most is that politicians believe they kn...

You know, this is all my opinion, and by now you know, I have a lot of opinions. In this episode, I want to talk about one of the Merchants of Fear, the Center for Food Safety, and some of the latest misinformation and bullshit they're spreading. The Center for Food Safety is scaring the public again by insinuating that the US EPA isn't protecting the American public. I'm still extremely annoyed b...

Welcome to Summer 2023, or as I like to call it, the Summer of Sweeteners! It seems like everywhere I turn, someone is talking about how artificial sweeteners will give you cancer, or will give you a leaky gut, or some other such nonsense. In today's episode of Critical Science I am talking about the latest paper to throw sucralose under the proverbial bus, Schiffman et al. (2023). I'll cut to the...

Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in! I had a bit of an unintended extended break, but I'm back in the saddle again. Hope your summer is going well, in spite of all the scare headlines about aspartame, sucralose, and other artificial sweeteners. Does aspartame cause cancer? NO! That's about as emphatic as I can type it. Let's talk about how IARC got to this conclusion, and why IARC has no credibilit...

Have you ever had lunch with a bunch of strangers? And things seem to be going well, right? And then the conversation turns to agriculture -- I'm sure this happens to everyone! And funny enough, the conversation becomes one not about food security, but instead, it's a conversation about organic agriculture. And I like talking with people who have different ideas from me, because it helps me unders...

[Editorial Note: June 27, 2023: I updated this episode because I made a mistake about benzene. I got it confused with a different chemical. We don't make benzene in our bodies. So I edited that stuff out in the new version of the episode. Sorry about that. I should have caught it during post production.] Thanks for your patience while I was on a short hiatus. I've been on the meeting circuit, talk...

I was talking with a colleague about an article from a few weeks ago. A person tested positive for a biomarker associated with vinyl chloride (note the word associated). This person lives in East Palestine, OH, and immediately concluded that they are still being exposed to vinyl chloride from the train derailment. Okay -- full stop. I feel bad for this individual and any other folks in East Palest...

If you've heard the podcast before, you know I'm pushing you to think critically. Don't accept what you read in headlines, or in the press, as the truth. There's a pretty little hype machine at work, and it's tuned to your fears. PFAS is the latest boogeyman in the chemophobia arsenal. But did you know we actually don't know much of anything about more than maybe 2-5 PFAS chemicals? Yet, the CDC s...

What does scientific uncertainty, and communicating about uncertainty, have to do with the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio? A lot. In today's episode, I talk about what uncertainty in science is, and why it is important to communicate our uncertainty about science to the public. For me, I cringe at absolutes and certainty. When I hear someone express certainty in a conclusion I want to kn...

Lots to say here. In today's episode I'm going to talk about something that bothers me -- science by press release. Not all science press releases are bad. Some are fine. But some are just downright awful. When a press release trumpets some alarming and scary number (like a chemical causes a 500% increase in Parkinson's Disease) when the evidence doesn't support it -- that's wrong. And that's what...

A listener asked me recently, "What's clean makeup?" And ya know what? I didn't have a clue. I mean, I guessed what it was, and I found out I was right (I'm a good guesser sometimes). But what does "clean" mean for your makeup? Should you buy it? Is clean makeup safer than "non-clean" makeup? There's a lot to unpack here! Find out more in today's episode! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for...

This is a bit newsy -- the makers of Banana Boat have recalled several products due to a benzene contamination. So, what is benzene? Why are the press saying it could give you cancer? Is there really a risk? And I'll talk about my prediction that we're going to see more of these types of recalls. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Risk 101 is a series within the Critical Science Podcast that will introduce you to some of the key terms and concepts that you need to know. These are concepts and terms that we should have been taught in high school, but weren't. In this episode I discuss the difference between risk and hazard. Oh, and there's some great trivia in the episode, too! Do you know what the #1 killer of children in F...

I love bacon! Actually, I loved cured meats! I also love veggies high in nitrates! And fortunately, for me, all these things love me, too. But for people who suffer from heartburn, could these foods high in nitrates and nitrites actually give them cancer when they take ranitidine/Zantac? Thankfully, the answer is a very clear and resounding no! But due to some really bad science fooling a lot of a...

I'm taking a short break for the holidays, and will be back in January 2023! But remember -- just because someone detects a chemical in a food, that doesn't mean it's going to hurt you! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In old Westerns, you'd see the hero come in wearing white. It was a subtle hint, a subtle clue that this was the hero. The Lone Ranger wore white. He was the hero, there to save the day. Your hero! Your savior! We tend to have a bias to lionize those who we believe our there to help us out, to protect us from harm. We believe these saviors and heroes, because they have no reason to harm us -- they...

Ever heard of noise? I'm certain you have. In science, when we talk about noise, we're normally talking about the variance or the variability when trying to measure something. In toxicology, that noise is usually the variability associated with a control or unexposed group. If you were to look at heights across a large number of people, you'll no doubt see a distribution that looks kinda like a be...

In 2006, Satoshi Kanazawa published a paper where he said very attractive parents will tend to give birth to more daughters. Yep, he said that. He believed that he had evidence of the Trivers-Willard Hypothesis (an evolutionary biology hypothesis) in humans. Want to know more? Curious what Trivers-Willard is all about? Today's podcast is for you! But really, this is a story of sex, not necessarily...