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.

Have you noticed that there has been an absolute explosion in the number of people developing chronic illnesses, heart disease, diabetes and cancer? If you are like most Americans, you probably have quite a few family members and friends that are seriously ill right now. Sadly, most Americans have absolutely no idea why this is happening. Most of them just assume that all of this sickness is just "normal". But that is not the case at all. The truth is that we are slowly killing ourselves by what we eat, by what we drink and by what we allow to be injected into our bodies. The vast majority of people out there have never even heard about the dangers posed by aspartame, fluoride, genetically-modified food, pesticides, high fructose corn syrup, pharmaceutical drugs, cell phones and toxic vaccines. Most of them have no idea that our food is toxic, our water is toxic and our vaccines are toxic. Right now, it is estimated that approximately 70,000 chemicals are being used for commercial purposes, and as a result of our "modern lifestyles" we are literally being endlessly bombarded with toxins. This has resulted in a massive tsunami of death, disease and chronic illness in America. But very few people actually understand what is being done to all of us. The following are just a few of the ways that the "soft killing" of the American people is taking place...

GM crops that resist herbicides are bringing ever higher levels of toxic chemical residues to our food, even mothers' milk, writes Pat Thomas. As the 'endocrine disrupting' effects take place at minute concentrations, there is only one answer - to keep the herbicides off all food crops.

Question: "How many government officials does it take to make sensible decisions about pesticide regulation?"

Answer: "Nobody knows, because it's never been done."

Anybody who follows the pesticide news trail will be aware of the recent report from the US that traces of glyphosate - which since the introduction of GMO crops has become the world's most widely used herbicide - have been found in samples of breastmilk.

This was not a scientific study but a small survey by a group called Mom's Across America, intended to galvanise a full scientific study based on a large sample of women.

There have been reports in the UK press this week of a report that informs us that we are sleeping quite a lot less than we did a few decades ago, and the problems that may befall us as a result. Here's a typical story which appeared in the UK broadsheet The Daily Telegraph.

Short sleep and sleep deprivation have been linked with a variety of mental deficits (including problems with decision-making and memory) and physiological changes too including an increase in levels of inflammation in the body [1]. Inflammation in the body may participate in the poor functioning of hormones such as insulin (insulin resistance) and leptin (leptin resistance) - both of which are implicated in obesity. In one study, just one night of about 4 hours sleep was enough to impair insulin functioning [2]. Short sleep also has been found to lower levels of the hormone leptin [3] and increased levels of the stress hormone cortisol [4] (excess cortisol can cause fat deposition, usually around the midriff).

Sleep deprivation may impair the rate at which we burn fat. In one study, disrupting men's sleep with an alarm clock and allowing them only an average 6½ hours sleep, compared to no alarm clock and 8 hours sleep, caused their metabolism of fat of to fall by two-thirds [5]. Perhaps not surprisingly, lack of sleep can also bring about unhealthy changes in body composition. In one study, shortened sleep was found to reduce fat loss but increase muscle loss [6]. This effect may have something to do with the ability of sleep deprivation to increase levels of cortisol, as this hormone predisposes to muscle loss as well as fat gain.