THE OTHER DAY, I FOUND MYSELF SEARCHING for placenta in my shampoo, to make sure it was not listed as an ingredient. The day before I was sent on a mission to make sure there was no aluminum in my deodorant.

Both evidently cause cancer, according to my mother. She’s not a doctor, just a concerned parent who finished watching “Datelineâ€Â or “20/20â€Â or “Forensic Filesâ€Â and decided to warn her daughter, who lives an hour away, about the dangers that lurk in beauty products.

I get these calls often. One time she called near midnight, worried, in order to get this message across: if I perchance upon a person who wants to put me in their movie or photo shoot, I should not agree to meet them anywhere because they are going to murder me.

These investigative reporting shows cause a new level of paranoia in everyday life. Now any man over a certain age is suspected to be the next star of “To Catch A Predatorâ€Â while every piece of junk mail that may contain personal information has to be shredded or lest our identities be stolen.

A recent study printed in the British Journal of Psychiatry conducted an experiment using virtual simulations. In it, 200 volunteers wore headsets that simulated a London subway train for four minutes equipped with avatar passengers, or computer-generated people, they could interact with.

Nearly more than half of the volunteers felt at ease on the train with the strangers while the other 40 percent admitted to having at least one paranoid thought of their fellow passengers.

The paranoia was driven mostly by alleged excessive eye contact with an avatar or the assumption that one of them was a thief or felon of some kind.

So is the world really more dangerous than it was for our parents and their parents before them to cause such a panic?

Yes and no.

In an attempt to better our health and to find peace in the world, we are also welcoming in advanced germ viruses and what we may think to be preventing harm is really doing quite the opposite.

For instance, there are nerve-damaging toxins found in anti-bacterial soap. Vaccines have mercury in them for preservation, which causes neurological damage. This is the same for silver fillings you may get put in your mouth; they are made from mercury as well.

Antidepressants have been linked to school shootings. Flame retardant chemicals can cause neurological disorders. Sunscreens have ingredients that actually lead to skin cancer and prohibit our body from getting vitamin D.

As for extra predators to be weary of, they just have more outlets.

Thanks to technology, it is faster and easier to get taken advantage of. Though the cliché may place dark alleyways as the ultimate danger zone, a close second, now, is the chat room.

After the zombie movie “28 Weeks Laterâ€Â came out, in a fit of panic a friend of mine created a plan action in case zombies ever invaded Fresno while she was at work.

As ridiculous as this sounds, it̢۪s actually not a bad idea. With threats all around us, a good exit strategy would come in very handy. Plus, by the escalation of global warming, I̢۪m not exactly dismissing the risk of zombies.

The news uses scare tactic to get viewership. “What could be in your salad dressing that’s harming your family?â€Â

Sometimes peanuts, if you̢۪re allergic.

If media wants to be effective, they should save their crying wolf for when it really matters.

Otherwise mothers call daughters at odd hours to warn of practically non-existent ingredients in their shampoo bottles.