 The NHF also opposes mainstream public-health measures such as water fluoridation and compulsory childhood vaccines.The NHF was founded by Fred J. Hart in 1955, after he was ordered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to cease marketing radionics devices.Mainstream medical organizations have criticized the NHF for promoting dubious alternative cancer treatments and health claims; the American Cancer Society recommends that cancer patients avoid products promoted by the NHF, while Quackwatch describes the NHF as "antagonistic to accepted scientific methods as well as to current consumer-protection law."