Here's a cool new term for the modern dictionary: idiopathic environmental intolerance.
This is the label applied to people who think they're being made sick by WiFi signals, EMF, or wind turbines. Research shows that people with general anxiety are especially likely to complain of feeling ill if they're shown a film about an environmental problem like EMF, and then given a sham exposure to that environmental condition.
Fifty-four percent of the people in this study reported symptoms that they attributed to their fake EMF exposure.
As the researchers concluded,
Media reports about the adverse effects of supposedly hazardous substances can increase the likelihood of experiencing symptoms following sham exposure and developing an apparent sensitivity to it. Greater engagement between journalists and scientists is required to counter these negative effects.
2 comments:
"Greater engagement between journalists and scientists is required..."
I'm not holding my breath waiting for that to happen.
I think additional research needs to be done on the incidence of anxiety in our culture, both general and specific. I tend to believe that the information overload we have now heightens the anxiety level. If that's the case, then perhaps the numbers for the idiopathic environmental intolerance could be much, much higher.
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