risk

With childbirth, the stakes are too high to add a risk factor or another hurdle. A healthy mom and healthy baby should be the goal of any delivery.
Better safe than sorry. That's a great lesson for a child when a parent explains why she should wear a helmet when riding her bicycle. But that refrain makes for terrible public health policy.
From forensic science to bioethics and societal issues, this rather eclectic mix reveals what captivates us and captures our attention.
Cigarette smoking is at an all-time low, and secondhand smoke exposure is also collapsing. So some public health officials have manufactured a new threat: Thirdhand smoke.
U.S. public health agencies struggle to endorse an obvious solution to a true public health menace. Hopefully, the UK Parliament will provide a much-needed boost to the forces of common sense.
The ubiquitous, on-screen advertising about prescription drugs is highly structured by the FDA. That helps explain why the voice-over's claims and cautions are delivered so quickly at the end of the commercial. 
Despite the fact “everything” is not possible to test for, the science for many of these perceived threats are not there. That said, spontaneous and acquired mutations are a reality. But chasing “what ifs” usually perpetuates fear, anxiety and misplaced concern.
The point isn't to scare people about accidental carbon monoxide poisoning, which kills, on average, 374 people per year. Given our population of 319 million, that's a minor threat. Instead, this is to show that the chaotic stuff that makes the nightly newscasts is far less likely to kill you than boring, everyday things.      
Federal health panel officially recommends annual lung cancer screening with chest CT scans for high-risk smokers and some ex-smokers. Potential to save over 20,000 lives.