American Academy of Environmental Medicine

AAEM logo. The rings coming out of the head are not, officially, supposed to be Aquaman's aquatic telepathy.

Style over substance Pseudoscience

Popular pseudosciences

Alternative medicine Creationism Racialism Pseudopsychology

Random examples

Urine therapy Pulse diagnosis F. W. H. Myers David Sereda Social Darwinism What the Bleep Do We Know? Thom Hartmann Hollow Moon Pseudoscience v - t - e

Completely unrelated to the evidence-based group American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

The American Academy of Environmental Medicine is an association of physicians and associated professionals who — despite being freaking doctors — subscribe to numerous pseudoscientific/anti-scientific views, including opposition to GM foods, Wi-Fi phobia, and opposition to water fluoridation.

According to their website, the mission of the Academy is "to promote optimal health through prevention, and safe and effective treatment of the causes of illness by supporting physicians and other professionals in serving the public through education about the interaction between humans and their environment."

Positions

Autism

The Academy proposes, without evidence, that autism is caused by prescription medicines taken by the ancestors of the autistic: "Millions and millions of women who are now grandmothers took heavy doses of drugs during their pregnancies in the '50s and '60s. Escher wondered: Could the fertility, nausea and miscarriage drugs heavily prescribed in the past decades alter the fetus and lead to lasting, transgenerational abnormalities such as autism? … So far, no one has looked, although one ambitious study is about to be launched in Europe."

Water fluoridation

They oppose water fluoridation: "[the AAEM] supports banning the addition of fluoride or products containing fluoride to public water supplies and to any substances intended for human consumption."

Smart meters

They oppose smart meters: "We petition the bama [sic] administration to: Allow public [sic] to opt-out of smart meters without penalty & keep their analog meters. To investigate RF health effects." "Significant harmful biological effects occur from non‐thermal RF exposure showing causality. The AAEM also expresses concern regarding significant, but poorly understood quantum field effects of EMF and RF fields on human health."

Wi-fi

And they oppose Wi-Fi and all other radiation in general, just in case, because it's invisible and therefore scary, pending some indefinable and unachievable quantity of proof of safety, for the sake of the children: "While the debate ensues about the dangers of WiFi, cell phone towers and cellphones, it is the doctors who must deal with the inevitable health effects. Until we can determine why some develop symptoms and others do not, and some are debilitated for indeterminate amounts of time, we implore you to not take this risk, with the health of so many children whose parents have entrusted you to keep them as safe as possible while at school."

Vaccines

They oppose mercury in vaccines: "If someone insists that you or a loved one must get the Hepatitis B vaccine, be sure to read the package insert and know that you have the right to refuse the vaccination."

Genetically modified food

They oppose genetically modified food: "GE crop technology abrogates natural reproductive processes, selection occurs at the single cell level, the procedure is highly mutagenic and routinely breeches genera barriers, and the technique has only been used commercially for 10 years … [g]lyphosate is possibly "the most important factor in the development of multiple chronic diseases and conditions that have become prevalent in Westernized societies."

"Firsts"

According to their About page, the AAEM was the first organization to diagnose such "ailments" as multiple chemical sensitivity, Gulf War syndrome, and yeast syndrome. They also claim to be the first to describe or acknowledge food allergy (!), which is pretty amazing since they weren't founded until 1965.

External links

• AAEM web site
• Science-Based Medicine article on the AAEM
• Quackwatch list of questionable organizations, which includes the AAEM