Will the day come when the Independent starts to get embarrassed about the scientific illiteracy of their columnist Julia Stephenson—otherwise known as the Green Goddess? In this weeks bad science blog, which also appears in the Guardian, Ben Goldacre highlights the ‘ludicrous false information and claims’ she makes in her article on electromagnetic sensitivity.

This is the same Julia Stephenson who both promotes and is promoted by ‘Europeans for Medical Progress’ (EMP). We have exposed this organisation many times as an animal rights group masquerading as a medical body. Stephenson has claimed in various articles that animal experiments are ineffective and ‘put people in danger’. Most recently, she made the standard animal-rights claims last month that there was a link between animal testing and the thalidomide disaster, the Northwick Park tragedy of the trial of TGN1412, and the side-effects of Vioxx.

All of these false claims have been systematically rebutted many times over. In the case of thalidomide, a letter to the Independent showed the true story—that the disaster could almost certainly have been averted if proper animal tests had been carried out. The findings of the expert committee relating to animal testing and the clinical trial of TGN1412 were posted on this blog, as were the facts about Vioxx.

But it is not just how wrong the animal rights campaigners get their facts that put them to shame. Their arguments are riddled with inconsistencies and contradictions which speak for themselves.