Health

"If you are wondering why Americans are losing the wars on cancer, heart disease and diabetes, you might look at the funding sources of the major public health groups," Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman write. "Big corporations dump big money into these groups. And pretty soon, the groups start taking the line of the big corporations. Case in point: the American Diabetes Association (ADA). Earlier this month, the ADA cut a deal with candy and soda pop maker Cadbury Schweppes.

A National Cancer Institute study found that "workers exposed to average levels of benzene" were four times more likely to develop cancer. Benzene is a component of gasoline, so tighter regulations would have "an impact on gasoline production," said a former Mobil Oil toxicologist.

Perhaps due to the Vioxx and teen antidepressant scandals, "the Food and Drug Administration is pelting drugmakers with letters warning that they have run afoul of promotional regulations." Advertising Age writes that the FDA's actions are "threatening to tip the $4 billion direct-to-consum

"Missions that might be considered conflicting are not new for Porter Novelli," a PR firm that "has worked for both the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and for Guinness stout and Johnnie Walker Scotch." But Porter Novelli's $2.5 million contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to update the food guide pyramid concerns some.