If you worked for a federal agency that was killing people at the rate of 100,000 a year, every year, like clockwork, and if you knew it, wouldn't you feel compelled to say or do something about it?

At the FDA, which is, in fact, killing Americans at that rate, no one has ever felt the need to step forward and speak up.

Let's shift the venue and ask the same question. If you were a medical reporter for a major media outlet in the US, and you knew the above fact, wouldn't you make it a priority to say something, write something, do something?

I'm talking about people like Sanjay Gupta (CNN, CBS), Gina Kolata (NY Times), Tim Johnson (ABC News), and Thomas Maugh II (LA Times).

Dr. Sherri J Tenpenny warns about the perils of vaccination.

OK - I am addressing the popular question concerning why I don't recommend calcium supplements. Basically, the American public has been completely bamboozled by the American Dairy Association to believe that calcium is somehow the most important mineral ever and that we should all want to get as much of it in our diets or supplementally as possible ("don't forget to take your Tums!"). There is no rational foundation for this.

Calcium is, in fact, the single most abundant mineral in our food supply. Even if you completely avoid dairy products (which isn't the worst idea in the world, btw) there would still be plenty of existing calcium in other foods to meet anyone's daily requirements. If, for some reason you truly are deficient in calcium, the problem isn't likely to be a "deficiency" of dietary calcium. The problem is much more likely to relate to deficiencies in essential cofactors (i.e., magnesium, phosphorus, vitamin D3, vitamin A, vitamin K2, boron...etc.) OR - very commonly - an issue with insufficient hydrochloric acid production, absolutely required for the proper ionization of calcium so that it may be properly absorbed. Hormonal imbalances and errant signaling can also contribute improper calcium metabolism. If these happen to be your issues, then calcium isn't going to be the only thing you are likely missing and calcium supplementation is anything but advised.

Millions of people are unwittingly pouring hundreds of tons of tiny plastic beads down the drain. These can persist in the environment for more than 100 years, and have been found to contaminate a wide variety of freshwater and marine wildlife, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

Few consumers realise that many cosmetic products, such as facial scrubs, toothpastes and shower gels, now contain many thousands of microplastic beads which have been deliberately added by the manufacturers of more than 100 consumer products over the past two decades.

Plastic microbeads, which are typically less than a millimetre wide and are too small to be filtered by sewage-treatment plants, are able to carry deadly toxins into the animals that ingest them, including those in the human food chain such as fish, mussels and crabs, scientists said.

While many people have assiduously tried to recycle their plastic waste, cosmetics companies have at the same time been quietly adding hundreds of cubic metres of plastics such as polyethylene to products that are deliberately designed to be washed into waste-water systems - one estimate suggests that, in the US alone, up to 1,200 cubic metres of microplastic beads are washed down the drains each year.

Scientists and environmentalists have started lobbying the industry to stop using plastic microbeads in exfoliant skin creams and washes, but with limited success - a relatively small number of firms have publicly agreed to phase them out, and even then have given themselves several years to do so.

Britain, along with the rest of the EU, is being urged to follow the lead of New York State which last week became the first place in the world to prohibit the use of plastic micropellets in cosmetic products after a failure by the vast majority of personal-care companies to agree to an immediate voluntary ban.

The New York State Assembly decided to act after scientists found disturbing levels of microplastic beads in the Great Lakes of North America. The researchers said the beads arrived in waste water contaminated with the microplastic residues of more than 100 consumer products, including facial scrubs, soaps, shampoos and toothpaste.

Pornography now is so widespread in the United States that it deserves to be addressed seriously as a major public health crisis, a panel of activists has said.

On the eve of a two-day conference on sexual exploitation, they suggested that porn be tackled in the same manner as teenage smoking or drunk driving.

"There's an untreated pandemic of harm from pornography," said Dawn Hawkins, executive director of Morality in Media, which has campaigned against pornography since 1962.

"Could you please make sure the eggs aren't runny? I'm pregnant."

At their first prenatal appointment, pregnant women are doled out a list of NO's including deli meats, fish, and unpasteurized cheese. There is a growing awareness of the fact that this list may be dangerously NON EXHAUSTIVE (and largely misguided, especially when it comes to unpasteurized dairy and eggs).

Even a recent, bold pronouncement by the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, attempted to sound the alarm about chemical exposures with recommendations for "unproven" but potentially harmful exposures. They describe the importance of considering chemicals in personal care products, over the counter medications and supplements, metals and industrial pollutants in fish, and pesticides. However, they dilute their message by making statements such as "Realistically, pesticides are so rigorously regulated that human exposure via food residues is usually minimal, even in non - organic products."

Unfortunately, the concept of "dose makes the poison" is no longer operative in a world of multiple, synergistic chemical exposures, the toxicity of which appears to be contingent upon each individual's endocrine and immune system.

Activists pushing for greater disclosure on genetically modified foods in Oregon said they are working on a petition campaign to require labeling on such products, while one small community has plans to ban GMO food altogether.

Sleeping pills increase the risk of cardiovascular events in heart failure patients by 8-fold, according to research from Japan. The study was presented today at the Heart Failure Congress 2014, held 17-20 May in Athens, Greece. The Congress is the main annual meeting of the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology.

Dr Masahiko Setoguchi said: "Sleeping problems are a frequent side effect of heart failure and it is common for patients to be prescribed sleeping pills when they are discharged from hospital. They also have other comorbidities and may be prescribed diuretics, antiplatelets, antihypertensives, anticoagulants and anti-arrhythmics."

He added: "Cardiac function of heart failure patients worsens with repeated hospitalizations. We therefore decided it was important to investigate the relationships between drugs prescribed at discharge, rehospitalization and cardiovascular events in heart failure patients."

The researchers retrospectively examined the medical records of 111 heart failure patients admitted to Tokyo Yamate Medical Center from 2011 to 2013. Information was collected on the presence of coexisting cardiovascular and other medical conditions, medications administered during hospitalization and those prescribed at discharge, laboratory test results, electrocardiogram, echocardiogram and chest radiographic data and vital signs at admission and discharge.

Your mobile phone could give you cancer - but only if you use it for more than 15 hours every month over several years.

Researchers at the University of Bordeaux said in the scientific journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine that their study of people with meningiomas and gliomas in Gironde, in the Calvados, Manche and the Hérault, revealed a link between years of heavy mobile phone use and a specific type of cancerous brain tumour.

They found that regular professional mobile phone users, such as salespeople, living in urban areas were at greater risk of developing the tumours.

Selling energy drinks to minors will soon be illegal in Lithuania, as the parliament voted overwhelmingly to ban highly caffeinated beverages to people under the age of 18. Lithuania is the first EU country to enact such a ban.

The ban, which includes non-alcoholic beverages containing more than 150 milligrams per liter of caffeine, will take effect in November. It also applies to beverages containing a range of stimulants like guarana, ginsenosides, glucuronolactone, and taurine.

While considering the measure, the Baltic state's government cited health concerns, stating that a high concentration of caffeine may lead to addiction and hyperactivity. Citing scientists, the parliamentarians also stressed that it may encourage youngsters to try drugs.

As a result, lawmakers unanimously voted for the ban, with only six people choosing to abstain.

Now Lithuania, an EU member since 2004, hopes other countries in the 28-member bloc will follow suit.