Hair dye. Sunscreen. Band-Aids.

If you believe this week's medical news, the stuff in your bathroom cabinets may pose a substantial health risk. Or it may not. It's hard to tell with the mixed information we hear in the media.

First, there's hair color. A couple weeks ago, TV news shows sounded an alarm: Hair dye could be linked to an increased risk of lymphoma. Since some 54% of women regularly color their hair, they understandably wanted more information. Yesterday's New York Times tried to put the risk in perspective with this quote: "...using hair dye may present a remote risk to your health, but it would still be less risky than crossing the street..."

The newspaper also knocked two popular TV news shows for misleading the public with "often breathless press coverage" that "stokes fears."

Then, there's sunscreen. For years, physicians, mothers, editors, cosmeticians, pretty much everyone except the dog has drilled it into our heads: Slather on as much sunscreen as possible. Then slather on some more to guard against skin cancer and wrinkles.

Now comes the news that sunscreen may actually be harmful because we need a daily dose of UVB rays -- or Vitamin D -- to fight 12 types of cancer. I don't what to believe. But I've decided to throw caution to wind and keep using it.

And finally, there are Band Aids. The New York Times devoted highly valuable space on its editorial page to inform us about a radical change in scientific thinking about Band-Aids. Old science: If you cut yourself, apply antibiotic cream and pop on a Band Aid. New science: If you cut yourself, apply Vaseline, expose the wound to open air and pick at the scab whenever tempted.

I'm not sure which is more startling — that we should pick at our scabs or that the Times is surprised by a 180-degree turn regarding medical advice.

Stay tuned for next week, when I'm sure we'll learn that seatbelts don't save lives after all, and smoking is a great for the lungs, breath and crows feet.