[Will]

Those aren't scientists. There are some people who claim to be scientists that use scare tactics like that, but that claim is often just as dubious as the "sky is falling!" claims that they spout off. The majority of the media reports about health risks, disasters, etc. are the result of JOURNALISTS, not scientists, misconstruing data and results from scientific reports. Sometimes researchers go along with it for the extra exposure and cash, but you'll notice most of the time, media reports only on "published studies", and don't bother interviewing the researchers and scientists themselves. Usually because it doesn't make "good news", meaning something that will increase Ratings and thus advertising revenues.