Around the watercooler

SURFING FOR HEALTH TIPS: About 98 million adults use the Internet to find health-related information, according to a poll conducted by Harris Interactive.

The number of "cyberchondriacs," as Harris describes them, has grown from 54 million since 1998 and they now account for roughly 86 percent of all Internet users.

Of the 1,001 adults polled by Harris, 13 percent of respondents said they look "often" for health information, 40 percent said "sometimes" and 33 percent reported their use to be "hardly ever."

Harris said the survey was conducted by telephone and has a statistical precision of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

INFORMATION OVERLOAD?: A study of home technology found that one-quarter of American families now have two or more personal computers and 80 or more television channels to choose from.

The survey of more than 2,000 households, conducted by Statistical Research Inc. of Westfield, N.J., also found cell phone ownership to have grown by more than one-third since 1998, meaning roughly 48 percent of American households have at least one wireless phone.

Families also tend to want bigger TV sets, according to the survey. Twenty-six percent of respondents reported owning a television with a 30-inch or bigger screen. That's up from 19 percent just two years ago.

WHAT'S HOT: The four-door Mercedes S-Class (models 1997 through 1999) had a combined frequency of theft and insurance losses 10 times greater than the average passenger car in the United States, according to the insurance industry's Highway Loss Data Institute.

The two-door and four-door Acura Integras were ranked second and third, respectively.