Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

[SkeptInq@aol.com]

 Visit the CSICOP and Skeptical Inquirer Magazine website at
 http://www.csicop.org. Receiving over 200,000 hits per year, the CSICOP site
 was rated one of the top ten science sites by HOMEPC magazine. Send comments
 regarding SI DIGEST to editors Matt Nisbet at mcn23@cornell.edu and Barry
 Karr at skeptinq@aol.com.

 --CDC: Web Page Devoted to Internet Hoaxes and Rumors
 --USA TODAY: Mad Sheep or Sacrificial Lambs?
 --USA TODAY: Regulators Struggle to Diagnose Sick Buildings
 --NY TIMES: Food Companies Urged to End Use of Biotechnology

 --NEW CDC WEB PAGE DEVOTED TO HEALTH HOAXES

 http://www.cdc.gov/hoax_rumors.htm

 The Centers for Disease Control has constructed a Web page devoted to
 information Internet hoaxes and rumors.  Items include:

 Current Health Related Hoaxes and Rumors
 Does HIV Cause AIDS?
 False Email Report: Hantavirus Spread by Contact With Soda Cans or Grocery
 Packages
 False Email Report: Klingerman Virus
 False Internet Report: Bananas
 Needle Stick Hoaxes


 --USA TODAY: MAD SHEEP OR SACRIFICIAL LAMBS?

 Mad sheep or sacrificial lambs? A Vermont family says its flock is healthy,
 but the USDA says it can't risk letting the animals live
 For the full article, go to
 http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000720/2473413s.htm

 By Anita Manning
 USA TODAY

 [WARREN, Vt.--In what is shaping up to be a painful scene, a Vermont family
 of sheep
 farmers is preparing to witness the seizure and execution of its beloved
 Belgian sheep -- and what could be the end of the family's days as farmers
 in this beautiful mountain region known as the Mad River Valley.
 The U.S. Department of Agriculture has ordered three flocks of sheep, 376
 animals in all, destroyed, possibly as early as Friday, because tests
 indicate that they may be incubating a form of ''mad cow'' disease....]


 --USA TODAY: REGULATORS STRUGGLE TO DIAGNOSE SICK BUILDINGS

 Page 10D
 Regulators struggle to diagnose sick buildings While offices lack federal
 standards for air, ill workers are dismissed as disgruntled

 For the full article, go to
 http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000720/2473374s.htm .

 By Jonathan D. Epstein
 Gannett News Service
 NEW CASTLE, Del. -- Brenda Minner says she was a healthy woman in her late
 40s when she began working for Greenwood Trust Co. in the early 1990s. She
 went to her job every day at the bank's offices in New Castle, where it
 issues the Discover Card.
 But after a while, she says, she began feeling sick and eventually developed
 chronic respiratory distress, infections, chemical sensitivities, and brain
 and muscular disorders. She went on disability leave in February 1994, and
 today, at 53, she considers herself a virtual invalid.
 Minner says she was diagnosed with sick building syndrome, a hard-to-define
 condition that government and health experts link to indoor air quality.
 Greenwood Trust denies that its building had anything to do with her health
 problems. The dispute illustrates a complex issue that employers and their
 workers
 have increasingly been forced to deal with in the past three decades.

 --NY TIMES: FOOD COMPANIES URGED TO END USE OF BIOTECHNOLOGY PRODUCTS

 July 20, 2000

 Food Companies Urged to End Use of Biotechnology Products

 For the full article, go to
 http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/072000sci-gm-food.html .

 By ANDREW POLLACK

 [A coalition of consumer and environmental groups announced yesterday what
 they hope will be the biggest and best-organized effort yet in the United
 States to pressure food companies to abandon the use of genetically modified
 crops. Starting with the Campbell Soup Company, the coalition said it would
 target
 well-known food companies and try to generate thousands of consumer letters,
 phone calls and signatures on petitions urging them to stop using
 genetically modified foods until more testing was done. The group also wants
 all companies to label products that contain such ingredients....]


 --------------------------------

 SI Electronic Digest is the biweekly e-mail news update of the Committee for
 the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP.)

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