Re: Absence of Proof... (car seats=NPP reactors?)

["Björn Cedervall" <bjorn_cedervall@hotmail.com>]

>     Let us start with the simple things: Except for the theorems of
>mathematics, SCIENCE HAS NEVER PROVEN ANYTHING!

We had a TV program in Sweden yesterday (and earlier last week) about 
the "radiation in cars". A noisy instrument detected magnetic fields 
at levels below 200 nanotesla. A guy with glasses (15 extra perceived 
IQ points according to a psychology investigation presented in Sci. 
American decades ago) said that 140 nanotesla was much compared to 
"norm values" (vague) of 25 nanotesla. He further said about one car: 
There isn't much you can do - you must change car. The talk included 
discussions of Alzheimer's disease, cancer and other diseases. A 
woman said that "prostate cancer was increasing" (no ref. to any 
particular population, age-group, year etc). A number of classical 
types of weird statements and suggestions were made. The scientist 
interviewed said that the fields are weak but you can see tha car as 
a microwave oven on wheels.

The program leader said that you should not buy a car unless proven 
undangerous. ... And the "car branch has long neglected the warning 
signals regarding magnetic fields that in a longer perspective may 
result in deadly diseases." And then approximately: "Research is 
ongoing to investigate the relationship between these electrically 
heated car seats and cancer" (I can imagine what "research" means 
here).

They also said that "researcher(s)" that the TV folks had been in 
touch with said that sitting on a electrical blanket in a car was 
like sitting on a nuclear power plant. (the word "researcher" in 
Swedish is the same in singular and plural - if you formulate this 
smart enough you don't know if it is one or several people referred 
too - it made the impression of meaning several but I bet (a pop 
soda) that it was only one researcher - namely the one they 
interviewed in the program and who made the statements about 
Alzheimer's etc. He was involved in the idea that these various 
diseases had not been excluded as caused by "EMF". The mobile phones 
were also involved in the discussion (mobile phones are essentially 
in everyone's pocket now in Sweden).

For anyone reading Swedish, you can see much of the reporting (there 
are pictures also BTW) at
http://www.svt.se/falun/trafikmagasinet/indexe4.htm

The last sentences say: "And we shall not buy cars from which we 
cannot exclude harmful effects of electricity. Demand to get your car 
"measured" at your car dealer." I turned off the TV after the 10 
minutes of "exposure" but according to a friend of mine, there had 
also been a suggestion to the TV watchers to report prostate cases 
that might relate to their story. My ten minutes of VCR recording 
will be valuable for future semantic analysis with students...

:-(

bjorn_cedervall@hotmail.com

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