This news article from Russia Today newspaper (http://www.russiatoday.com/)
may be of interest here:
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Storms in Space may 'cause Heart Attacks'
RUSSIAN space scientists this week linked interplanetary shockwaves to
increases in heart attacks and car accidents.
Also they warned that the next onslaught is due, because the Sun is nearing
the peak of its 11-year cycle of activity. Turbulent magnetic fields will
spike its surface with sunspots and give rise to bursts of energy, sending
writhing balls of plasma into space.
The resulting magnetic storms can interfere with radio, television and
telephone signals, damage satellites and disrupt satellite communications.
The International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics conference in Birmingham
was told on Tuesday that there may also be a link between space weather and
human health.
Prof Lev Dorman, formerly a researcher in Moscow and now head of the Israel
Cosmic Ray Centre, Tel Aviv, said: "We urgently need to organise global
research for 2000."
Prof Dorman's group worked with statistics from the seven million call-outs
the Russian ambulance service deals with each year, analysing data from the
last solar maximum - when the earth is struck by up to three solar wind
shockwaves a month.
In the days following each event, call-outs for heart attacks, strokes and
fatal car accidents each increased by 15 per cent. Shockwave impacts cause
the Earth's magnetic field to "ring like a bell" and it is thought this may
affect the body.
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Dr Mel C Siff
Denver, USA
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