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

[Syd H. Levine]

A simple explanation can be found in literature.  The "taste of fear" has
been described as metallic, and some times as the taste of copper.  I don't
think it is surprising that these folks, many scared to death, had a
metallic taste in their mouths.

Syd H. Levine
AnaLog Services, Inc.
Phone:  (270) 276-5671
Telefax:  (270) 276-5588
E-mail:  analog at logwell.com
Web URL:  www.logwell.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Jacobus" <crispy_bird at yahoo.com>
To: <Rainer.Facius at dlr.de>; <bcradsafers at hotmail.com>; <radsafe at radlab.nl>
Sent: Monday, February 13, 2006 2:59 PM
Subject: Re: AW: [ RadSafe ] TMI - reported "metallic taste"


>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
>
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