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The World Health Organization's research arm has downgraded its classification of coffee as a possible carcinogen, declaring there isn't enough proof to show a link to cancer. But the International Agency for Research on Cancer, or IARC, also announced in a report published on Wednesday that drinking "very hot" beverages of any kind could potentially raise the cancer risk, and it classified them as "probably carcinogenic" to humans. (6/15)

From New York state to Seattle to Chicago, proposed taxes on soda and other sugary drinks have failed in just about every place that has tried to enact one. That’s largely thanks to Big Soda — specifically, spending by the American Beverage Association. In New York, for instance, the ABA spent $12.9 million in 2010 to halt a sugary drink tax — almost more than the next three biggest lobbying groups combined that year. The group dropped $9.1 million in San Francisco two years ago. It says it has defeated 45 soda tax measures nationwide since 2008. But one big city is now on the verge of defeating Big Soda. That’s Philadelphia, whose City Council this Thursday is expected to finalize a new tax on sugary beverages. (Premack, 6/14)

Operating was also a tremendous risk. The brain material was too big to fit back in his skull. And Bentley’s situation was so unusual, doctors couldn’t predict what would happen once they shaved off his luxurious light brown curls and cut into the mass. Their quest to give Bentley a future would lead his parents, Dustin and Sierra Yoder, from their small town in Ohio to Boston Children’s Hospital, which just completed a $12 million surgical simulation center to help doctors practice difficult operations before making the first incision. (Weintraub, 6/14)

Jess Thom says the word “biscuit,” about 16,000 times every day. Her brother-in-law counted once. That’s just one of the tics that Thom, a London-based performance artist, has to manage as part of her life with Tourette syndrome. (Fine, 6/14)

A new kind of water contamination has shown up all over the United States, including in New England. This time it’s not lead, — as was the case in Flint Michigan — but a chemical used to manufacture everything from Teflon pans to firefighting foam. ... Although companies have stopped using this chemical because of potential health risks, a new replacement chemical is also causing concerns. (Corwin, 6/15)