Melvin A Benarde

Rutgers University Press, $28/£23.50, pp 304

ISBN 0 8135 3050 4

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As his title suggests, epidemiologist Melvin Benarde is not one to mince words. For him, television, radio, and newspapers are “the scoundrels at whose doorsteps must be placed our current pandemic of mediagenic diseases.” He cites recent scares over “an extraordinary range of potential causes of cancer,” including “asbestos, dioxin, hot dogs, breast implants, pesticides, coffee, liquor, hair dryers, mouthwash, dietary fat, magnetic fields and cellular phones.” He blames the media for creating “an epidemic of anxiety, year after persistent …