A TV programme I watched a year or so ago did an interesting scientific experiment re waves
from radio masts.
They put volunteers in a house in the middle of nowhere and asked them to record their
symptoms each day.
They found far more symptoms reported when the volunteers could see the radio mast set up
in the courtyard and were told that it was functioning than when they were told it was
switched off.
There was no relationship at all between when the radio mast was ACTUALLY switched on
or off (the researchers lied!)
(They'd actually done a proper literature search too - or properly reported one that had been
done - it was a v unusual programme in that it was evidence-based! It also included
interviews with people who were convinced their health was affected by local masts but they
were not at all convincing).
Jenny
>
> I have been wondering if this issue is analogous to the placebo/nocebo
> question in medicine. There are some interesting debates on the
> ethical physician's response. Of course, one can never know with
> certainty that it is purely perceptual. Martin
>
>
> Martin Birley
> http://www.birleyhia.co.uk/
> Mobile +44 (0) 7725040361
> Landline +44 (0) 208 546 0823
> Skype(mic/cam) martinbir
> Conference call access number +44(0)7953 953 953
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Health Impact Assessment for the United Kingdom and Ireland
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Joffe, Michael Sent:
> 21 December 2006 01:30 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re:
> high-voltage lines
>
> If itīs true that the main (or even possibly, the only) harmful
> effect of something is to cause public concern and anxiety, what
> is the legitimate role of HIA in this? To the extent that the
> adverse health effects are from a perception, is the role of HIA
> to try and reduce that perception, and thus also reduce the health
> impact? - in other words, to undermine the perception that is
> harming some people? Or is it just to accept the public perception
> and go along with calls for the agent to be controlled/reduced as
> if it were really toxic in a chemical or physical sense?
>
> Mike
>
>
>
>
Dr Jennifer Mindell
Clinical Senior Lecturer
University College London
Health and Social Surveys Group
Department of Epidemiology & Public Health
1-19 Torrington Place
London WC1E 6BT
Tel 020 7679 1269
Fax 020 7813 0242
Mobile 07770 537238
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