Drowning in too much information

Unless you've been under a rock these past few weeks, you've unavoidably heard or read the latest study about how baby bottles made with polycarbonate (PC) leach a chemical called Bisphenol-A, which can pose a potential health risk to infants. The key word here is "potential", with a number of studies appearing to prove – and then disprove—the same exact data, but it's understandable that parents would panic over even the mere suggestion of risk.

In today's safety-conscious, slightly hypochondriac world of ours, when parents are getting ready to have a child, they spend their every waking hour kid-proofing their home and testing their walls for lead paint, so it's natural that news like this would lead to panic.

In some parts of the United States, you can't find a glass baby bottle if you bribed the clerk at your local Toys R Us right now! Panicked parents are bidding for them online and back-ordering them from suppliers, in their feeble attempt to protect little Timmy or Tammy from ingesting polycarbonates, which may or may never cause premature puberty, changes in prostate and mammary glands and even weight gain.

One can't blame parents for wanting to protect their children from a potential health threat, but if those young kids can escape their first few years unscathed, they'll have plenty of opportunity to get acquainted and exposed to Bisphenol-A since it’s also found in the lining of food cans, electronics and even anti-cavity sealants. In the words of Homer: "Doh!"

I don't have kids, but being that I read more than is obviously good for me, I've also turned into one of those overly hysterical health nuts who don't know how to find that middle ground between indifference and detecting the information that really matters.

"Don't drink tap water because it's not filtrated adequately. Don't drink fluoridated water because it's bad for your health. Don't drink non-fluoridated water because it's bad for your teeth. Drink bottled water because it's safer. Don't drink bottled water because it's bad for the environment. Drink bottled water from reusable Nalgene bottles. No, wait! Don't drink from Nalgene bottles because Bisphenol-A seeps into your body and, in certain doses, can cause brain damage! Always carry water with you to stay hydrated. Don't drink too much water because it can be bad for you. Don't drink water from the water bottle that's been sitting in your car the past few days because Sheryl Crow told Ellen it caused her breast cancer."

The massive amount of misleading information at our fingertips (how many times have you been sick and attempted to self-diagnose yourself by researching your symptoms on Google, only to discover that, according to what you just entered, you're now the only known victim of the Ebola virus in North America) has lead us to live panicked lives.

Yes, it's important to be informed and pay close attention to matters of public health, but at what cost? I suspect that, lost in the maze of real and not-so-real health hazards, what's really bad for our health is that we've lost the art of "Que Sera, Sera" that Doris Day once sang about.

We've come to fear too much in our daily lives. Like the rest of you, my goal is to also die in my sleep of old age, but in the meantime, I really don't want to spend my days wondering whether my water bottle is going to kill me.