Think of a person born at the beginning of the 20th century. Life expectancy in the US at that time was 50.7 for women and 47.9 for men.

African Americans could not expect to live to 35. Approximately 100 babies out of 1000 died before reaching their first birthday.

Modern medicine had yet to be invented. Surgical procedures, for those unlucky enough to face such a dreadful experience, was little changed from the 1800s or the 1700s.  The popular anesthesia was ether, and more often than not, patients were given alcohol. During the building of the Panama Canal, for example, workers were dropping dead every day from malaria. At the same time, the hospital in the canal zone attempted to cool the rooms by placing bowls of water in the windows. All they accomplished, of course, was the breeding of more mosquitos.

Food contamination was common. Working conditions in America's factories and mines were frighteningly dangerous. Less than five percent of homes had indoor plumbing. And there was virtually no government safety net - Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and a host of other programs we all now take for granted had yet to be created.

Americans today, however, sincerely believe they live in a world of great risk.  What would the generation that came of age in the first half of the last century think?

Levels of deadly pollutants up to 40 times the recommended exposure limit in Beijing and other cities have struck fear into parents and led them to take steps that are radically altering the nature of urban life for their children. As conditions worsen, parents are taking extreme measures, continue reading here

In an effort to change entrenched medical practices, 17 major medical specialty groups recommended on Thursday that doctors greatly reduce their use of 90 widely used but largely unnecessary tests and treatments. Read more in this article from the New York Times.

2012 will break a record set in 1998. According to this USA Today article, climate center data shows that 7 of the top 10 warmest years in U.S. history have occurred since 1998; Data from the environmental group Climate Central reports that average annual temperatures have been rising in every state since 1970, which they attribute to man-made global warming.

According to this USA Today article and Pauline Sakamoto, member of the Human Milk Banking Association of North America "We're just struggling to keep up...our freezers are empty, but the demand is skyrocketing..." More new moms are using another mother's donated breast milk to feed their babies. Why are the numbers up? Because more hospitals are using donor milk for pre-term infants and the internet. "Before, with casual sharing, you knew the woman. She might be your sister or somebody you knew really well. In the age of the internet, you only know them by what you read on the computer"

A growing body of research suggesting exposure to BPA can lead to a variety of health risks spurred the FDA to ban the use of the chemical in baby bottles and sippy cups, according to this Washington Post article.