AW: [ RadSafe ] TMI - reported "metallic taste"

[John Jacobus]

A confounding factor also be the way the information
was gathered.  One could ask of a resident around TMI,
"Did you notice anything different?"  Alternately, one
could ask, "Did you notice anything different, like a
metallic taste?" hinting to iodine or some other
factor.  If people believe that they were harmed,
their memories become a bit clouded.  Or biased.

--- Rainer.Facius at dlr.de wrote:

> Bjorn:
> 
> Thank you for communicating this interesting or
> rather astounding self experience. Rainer 
> 
> Dr. Rainer Facius
> German Aerospace Center
> Institute of Aerospace Medicine
> Linder Hoehe
> 51147 Koeln
> GERMANY
> Voice: +49 2203 601 3147 or 3150
> FAX:   +49 2203 61970
> 
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl
> [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] Im Auftrag von
> Bjorn Cedervall
> Gesendet: Montag, 13. Februar 2006 16:48
> An: radsafe at radlab.nl
> Betreff: RE: [ RadSafe ] TMI - reported "metallic
> taste"
> 
> >In reports from TMI, some residents mentioned
> noticing
> a "metallic taste."
> 
> Can anyone give me a physiological basis for this?
> ---
> 
> I would build a hypothesis on a psychosomatic
> mechanism.
> 
> To take a different example, I spoke in depth (40
> minutes) with a so-called electrohypersensitive
> person (he is not a nuts type, basically a smart
> engineer) about his problems a week ago. He is at
> one of my workplaces and has been so for many years
> so I know him a little (large workplace - thousands
> of employees). I knew that he had problems with the
> computer environment and other electronic equipment.
> Now I decided to hear his ideas about the
> mechanisms. He promptly first  responded
> "psychosomatic".
> 
> Then he went on and told me that he for some time
> had lived out in the countryside with very little of
> electrical gadgets around etc and he felt much
> better. Then one day - when he thought about his job
> - he almost immediately got the
> "electrohypersensitivity" symptoms back.
> 
> Besides this he mainly pointed at general stress +
> perhaps flickering light tubes (low frequency). He
> is well read about most aspects relating to the
> controversy.
> 
> Bearing this in mind - and going back to the
> "metallic taste". Why not an associative mechanism -
> something happening in the mind?
> 
> 
> I can take something different from myself: When I
> was a kid I had a lot of 
> these legless lizards (Anguis fragilis):
>
http://images.google.se/images?hl=en&q=Anguis%20fragilis&btnG=Google+Search&sa=N&tab=wi
> 
> I was only allowed to bring two to Stockholm during
> winter (and outsmarted 
> my parents by always including a pregnant
> female...). I kept these in a 
> small terrarium and fed them with earthworms etc.
> From that came a certain 
> smell that I obviously accepted and got used to.
> This was in the early 
> 1960:ies and I used to listen to the pop music of
> that time.
> 
> Now to the point: If I today, more than 40 years
> later, hear some of those 
> pop songs, they trigger my mind to give me a
> sensation of the smell of that 
> lizard installation.
> 
> I am pretty sure that our minds can stand for all
> sorts of "automatic" 
> associations (just think about dreams!) - so why not
> a metallic paranoia?
> 
> Just my personal reflections,
> 
> Bjorn Cedervall   bcradsafers at hotmail.com
> 


+++++++++++++++++++
"It is not the job of public-affairs officers to alter, filter or 
adjust engineering or scientific material produced by NASA's technical 
staff."
MICHAEL D. GRIFFIN, NASA administrator.

-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail:  crispy_bird at yahoo.com

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com