Toying with titles

Your article "Vinyl toys, medical devices get clean bill of health" notes that the American Council of Science and Health (ACSH) offers reassurance about the safety of phthalates in these items.1 The article identifies the leader of this panel as Dr. Everett Koop, former US surgeon general and by implication an independent authority. However, what is not revealed in your report is that the ACSH may be heavily freighted with conflicted interest. One source claims that the ACSH receives 76% of its funding from industrial contributors, including Exxon, the largest manufacturer of phthalates in the world, and that "most of the ACSH panel have ties to the chemical industry."2

The Pugwash Foundation, which addresses health and environmental issues related to scientific advances, claims that the scientific community has to a certain extent lost the trust of the public.3 The title and content of your article illustrate one of the reasons. A firm conclusion on a controversial scientific question is headlined and supported by an apparently credible source without mention of competing interests. A policy of stating such interests is applied elsewhere in CMAJ but apparently not in the News and analysis section.