Bad Science in Consumer Health Products and Services

Have you ever encountered an advertisement claiming that a natural health product can cure cancer? Have you seen ads on social media for devices alleging to optimize your brain function? Has a chiropractor in your community been offering "immune boosting" adjustments? Canadians are constantly exposed to marketing claims for health products and services that range from mildly implausible to absolutely absurd. While regulatory authorities exist who are tasked with upholding science-based standards, many gaps in our system leave vulnerable Canadians exposed to predatory snake oil peddlers. In this talk, Bad Science Watch's Ryan Armstrong will explore the various ways in which consumer health products and services are regulated in Canada. In particular, we will examine the intersection of science and regulation, identifying what our system does well, what the deficiencies are, and how the public can participate to ensure effective regulation.

About the speaker:
Ryan Armstrong is a public health and consumer advocate who became interested in science-based activism after encountering unscrupulous claims by regulated health professionals offering implausible therapies to vulnerable patients. Initially interested in science education and communication, he shifted his focus to science justice after witnessing the harm of pseudoscience as a tool to de-educate the public for profit. As the Executive Director of Bad Science Watch (https://badsciencewatch.ca/), Ryan hopes to mobilize passionate science advocates to work for stronger and smarter science-based regulations that better protect the public from false claims and dangerous therapies.