Skepticism, evidence, science, mythbusting, consumer protection
News headlines from Europe about skeptical activism, mythbusting, science related policy decisions, consumer protection, frauds, health scams, alternative medicine, bad scientific practices, pseudoscience etc.
Friends of the Earth (FOE) misled the public in a leaflet which claimed fracking can cause cancer, UK’s advertising watchdog the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has said. A leaflet issued by FOE also featured a photo of Grasmere in the Lake District – despite there being no plans for fracking in the area. A draft report from the ASA said that the charity failed to substantiate its claims about the dangers. The provisional ruling, which was apparently leaked to The Times newspaper, was produced after the ASA received a complaint from energy firm Cuadrilla.
Dan Larhammar, current board member and former President of VoF (aka the Swedish Skeptics Association) has been appointed “Pharmacist of the year 2016” by the organisation Svensk Farmaci (Swedish Pharmacy). The prize is awarded every year to a “phamacist in Sweden who through his/her actions has contributed to strenghten, develop or confirm the role of pharmacy in society”.
Dan Larhammar is a pharmacist and a professor of molecular cell biology at the University of Uppsala. He is also a member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Science and is a long time member of the board of VoF, where he served as President 1998-2004. His research includes functional studies of neuropeptides and peptide hormones. His research in the 1990s was the first to be able to clone receptors for the neurotransmitter neuropeptide Y (NPY), which among other things are associated with obesity, memory and learning.
The Dutch Society against Quackery, Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij (VtdK), has awarded the 2016 Bruinsma Brothers Medal to Member of Parliament Henk van Gerven (Socialist Party). The Society praises him for his long record of fighting dubious medical practices:
Van Gerven’s Socialist Party (SP) has revealed itself as a party that doesn’t just combat abuses in regular medicine, but also deals with quackery in our country. Unlike other parties, the SP has consistently denounced all unproven therapies. The party’s parliamentary questions about non-regular medicine, first by Agnes Kant, and in the last ten years by former GP Henk van Gerven, are numerous. The jury ruled that both were very well aware of the dangers of such types of medicine.
Van Gerven will be presented with the award during the upcoming VtdK Symposium on 1 October in Amsterdam.
The Bruinsma Brothers Medal (Gebroeders Bruinsma Erepenning) was introduced at the occasion of the VtdK’s 125th anniversary. The name refers to the brothers Gerard and Vitus Bruinsma, who founded the Society in 1880, making it the oldest skeptical organisation in the world.
A new community of Pharmacists dedicated to the promotion of scientific medicine and resistance to pseudo medicines has announced its constitution by sending an open letter to the Ministry of Health, President of the Pharmacist’s College, the Deans of Pharmacy Faculties and the Presidents of Pharmaceutical Sciences Associations.
The letter condemns the presence of homeopathic potions in pharmacies and urges all parties to live up to the profession’s ethical code and not to allow pseudo medicines to hide behind the shield of pharmacist’s respectability.
Jesús Fernández, a Pharmacist in Madrid, is the spokesperson and driving force behind this initiative.
http://www.escepticos.es/sites/default/files/FarmaCiencia%20carta.jpg
These are the ECSO’s founding documents: the Establishment Agreement and Charter, as adopted on 25 September 1994.
They were drafted during the sixth European Skeptics Congress that was held in Oostende, Belgium. At earlier conferences and in letter correspondence in the run-up to this weekend, extensive negotiations had taken place between eight organisations from different (Western) European countries with the same goal: to protect the public against harmful misinformation, to investigate extraordinary claims and to promote evidence-based science policies. As it happened, the French skeptics’ representative had to return home due to grave family conditions, so seven organisations (including the U.S.-based CSICOP) became the founding members (with the later approval of the national and regional organisations’ boards). Here is a photo of the people who signed on behalf of each (you may recognise some of them):
22 years later, the thus established European Council of Skeptical Organisations has grown and expanded to include many more groups across the continent, especially the east and north. Ten more Congresses and several symposia and campaigns have been held in support of transnational skeptical activism. The ECSO is currently looking to cooperate with associations in countries where organised skepticism is still relatively new and could use the support and know-how of the old family. Internationalisation requires skeptics to work together, because pseudoscience and extraordinary claims have also profited from fading boundaries and new technologies.
The Finnish association of skeptics have released most of their back catalogue of Skeptikko magazine free of charge and for everyone to read or download. Full issues of the magazine are available from the year 1988 up to the year 2014. Get full PDF-versions of the magazine from the home page of Skepsis ry and have fun learning about the history and current state of our activities and skeptical topics in Finland.
Despite being widely condemned for what it essentially is, industrial bleach, MMS has been cropping up a lot lately among the regular smorgasbord of SCAMs (Supplements, Complementary and Alternative Medicines).
José Ramón Alonso is Professor of Cell Biology at the University of Salamanca and Director of the Laboratory of Neural Plasticity and Neuro-repair at the Neuroscience Institute of Castilla y León. In this article he explains what MMS is, its origins as a “therapy” and why it’s dangerous.
http://www.escepticos.es/monografia/4611
Norwegian food retail giants Rema, Coop and Norgesgruppen requests government to stop the import of GMO corn, (corn 1507).
The corn is mostly used to feed livestock, and is not actually in use in Norway. The reason for the proposed ban, is that the norwegian environmental department have proposed that the corn should be allowed for import.
The food retailers claim that the norwegian consumers are fearful of GMO products and pesticides. And that the norwegian market therefore do not want GMO products.
The norwegian government currently does not allow import or harvesting of GMO plants to feed human or livestock, but the government will be reevaluating this fall.
On 20.9.16 people near Dartmoor in South West England were shocked when a UFO was spotted over their area. The object, ‘a bizarre light’ can be seen hovering in the distance in amateur footage taken by Tanya Davis and her daughter Charlee. They claim that it remained there for around two to three minutes, after which it slowly disappeared into the distance. ‘Friends told them that the light could have originated from a drone, but the pair said that it was “too big” and “silent” for that to be the case’.
However, a police officer dismissed the UFO theory, announcing that the lights were caused by a source closer to home and planet Earth. ‘I can confirm there are no #UFOs over #Okehampton. @BritishArmy have an exercise ongoing with flares. Countless 999 calls now… #WordsFail’ – he tweeted. (See Aliens are not launching an attack on West Devon – it’s just an Army exercise)
Dartmoor is used mainly for training exercises by Royal Marines and other forces.
During its 1 October symposium, the Dutch Society against Quackery, Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij, will announce who has won this year’s Master Quack Award (Meester Kackadorisprijs). Nominated are:
The prize is meant for the institute, person or enterprise that has contributed most to the spread of quackery in the Netherlands last year by means of act, word or writing. On skeptical blog KloptDatWel.nl, you can vote for whom you think should receive the 2016 ironic award until Friday 16:00 CET.
