The 5 Most Ridiculously Over-Hyped Health Scares of All Time

[formerlurker]

The 5 Most Ridiculously Over-Hyped Health Scares of All Time
By Adam Brown
 
Fear is our national pastime. As a society, we have a long history of getting whipped into a collective frenzy over threats to our health or children that are nearly (or completely) non-existent. No danger is too small or remote to be exaggerated and screamed from the headlines.
 
#5.Three Mile Island


On March 28, 1979, what should have been a minor plumbing problem somehow escalated into a reactor fuel meltdown at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Station in Pennsylvania. Within five days, the Governor had ordered the evacuation of all children and pregnant women (**** you, dad!) within a five-mile radius of the area. Since that time, the name Three Mile Island has been synonymous with nuclear disaster. Hooters even named one of their hottest (and most delicious) wing sauces after it!



But unlike other nuclear disasters, Chernobyl for example, which caused at least 4,000 eventual deaths, Three Mile Island was responsible for a whopping zero fatalities. In fact, there weren't even any injuries. Later tests revealed that the level of radiation people were exposed to in the five-mile radius was equivalent to the amount of radiation a person is exposed to while flying on a commercial airliner. In other words, the danger was nil.

So why all the ruckus? Much like that restraining order Catherine Zeta-Jones slapped us with a few years back, we blame Michael Douglas for this.

Just 12 days prior to the incident at TMI, The China Syndrome premiered. In the film, Michael Douglas plays a television news reporter who surreptitiously films a nuclear power plant crew as a near meltdown is taking place. As luck would have it, the events depicted in the movie almost perfectly mirrored what occurred at TMI. With the movie stirring public debate about the safety of nuclear power, there was no way the incident at TMI occurring just days later would do anything less than scare the ever-loving shit out of people. And that's exactly what it did.


"Hi, I'm a giant asshole."

In 1979, Three Mile Island killed fewer people than ...


Robot attacks. Ford factory worker Robert Williams was killed when a robot hit him in the head, thus outranking Three Mile Island's death toll, 1-0.


http://www.cracked.com/article_16078_5-most-ridiculously-over-hyped-health-scares-all-time.html

[DixieBelle]

LOL! I love the way that site writes articles.

There is another one about the "9 most racist disney characters ever" and someone posted it on a site I visit (it's all girl gossip). Anyway, they are SO up in arms and offended. Sheesh!

[Lord Undies]

That was a fun little stroll down Hysteria Lane.

Thanks for the laughs.

[Rebel Yell]

My old man has been telling me this for years.  He remembers spreading DDT and every time he turned around at the end of the field, he would be engulfed in a cloud of it.  He's still healthy as a horse.

1.DDT



If you're looking for another reason to hate that hippie friend of yours that won't shut up about the plight of every plant, animal and insect in danger of extinction, DDT is a good place to start.

Widely considered the first major victory of the environmentalist movement, DDT was banned from use in most applications thanks to a series of insanely half-assed scientific experiments and a book about birds. That book, Silent Spring, was released in 1962 and argued that DDT was not only a carcinogen, but also damaging to wildlife and, especially, certain birds. The public, upon hearing about the possibility of having to live in a world without peregrine falcons and ospreys, did what it does best in situations like this--they lost their shit without a second thought.

 
The single most important bird on the planet.

Soon, pesticides were the cause du jour for environmentalists and average folks that believe whatever the hell they read, and DDT was banned in 1972. The problem was, the science quoted in the book was all kinds of faulty. One scientific study that purported to show that DDT exposure led to a higher incidence of leukemia in mice was later proven to be more than a little tainted. Turns out, the mice in the experiment were fed moldy food that contained aflatoxin, a known carcinogen. When the test was repeated minus the rancid food, the test results were exactly the same, except without all of the leukemia and stuff.

As for the birds, Audubon Society studies showed that 26 different kinds of birds actually increased in population during DDT's heyday. In cases where bird populations did decline, it was revealed that in most cases the decline began either well before widespread use of DDT began or years after it was banned. Environmentalists dispute the findings, but on the other hand ... who gives a **** about the damn birds? Especially considering ...

In 1972, DDT killed fewer people than ...



****ing malaria.

See, what many people don't know about DDT is that the person who discovered that it could be used as a pesticide actually won a Nobel Peace Prize. Why? Because it was kind of effective in fighting malaria. When spraying of DDT stopped in Ceylon (present day Sri Lanka), malaria cases rose from 17 in 1963 to 2.5 ******* million in 1969, an increase of approximately a bajillion fofillion percent. And to this day, the mosquito remains the deadliest killer Mother Nature has to offer, with a confirmed 2 million kills per year.

But, hey at least there's a lot more ospreys around.

[Rebel]

Because it was kind of effective in fighting malaria. When spraying of DDT stopped in Ceylon (present day Sri Lanka), malaria cases rose from 17 in 1963 to 2.5 ******* million in 1969, an increase of approximately a bajillion fofillion percent.

 

I'm sorry, the way that was worded has me 

[jinxmchue]

Because it was kind of effective in fighting malaria. When spraying of DDT stopped in Ceylon (present day Sri Lanka), malaria cases rose from 17 in 1963 to 2.5 damn million in 1969, an increase of approximately a bajillion fofillion percent.

 

I'm sorry, the way that was worded has me 

Yeah, it's funny as well as sad and maddening.  Hopefully everyone behind getting DDT banned will face judgment in the here-after for all the malaria deaths they contributed to.

[DixieBelle]

^Agree. There's a school here named after Rachel Carson. Ugh.

[Ptarmigan]

Rachel Carson is the biggest piece of shit. Hell has a special place for her along side with Adolf Hitler, Mao Zedong, Osama bin Laden, Jeffrey Dahmers, and Lori Drew. Her life is worthless like theirs were.
  

[Duke Nukum]

Some scares I remember from the 1970's not mentioned in the article:

New Ice Age, early in the 1970's my Weekly Reader had this uber scary drawing of a frozen tundra with cities encased in geodesic domes.  I remember being afraid of "what if I get caught outside the domes!



Killer Bees, all through out the 1970's from horrible movies like The Deadly Bees and The Swarm to very special episodes of In Search Of we were warned that by the 1990's killer bees would be invading the U.S. and we would all probably die and there was nothing we could do about it.  Possibly, the Super Dome was our only hope, though I was never clear as to how we would get all the bees in there, depending on small subcompact cars seemed dodgy as far as plans go.  In retrospect, Katrina was probably a planned attack by the killer bees before they rage their final assault on humanity in America



I thought I had one more but I can't remember it.  Must be the dioxin in the water or something.  Oh wait, The Swine Flu, that was it, it wasn't all throughout the 1970's but I remember we were all going to die from something called The Swine Flu and it seemed kind of scary because I didn't know exactly what The Swine Flu was but I had had The Flu several times prior and always lived through them so it didn't seem that scary to me but since, throughout History, the flu has been one of the major killers:



In the 1990's and early 00's I guess they tried to bring the fear of The Swine Flu back in the form of The Avian Flu and it seemed about as effective as The Swine Flu.  And then SARS.

[Ptarmigan]

New Ice Age, early in the 1970's my Weekly Reader had this uber scary drawing of a frozen tundra with cities encased in geodesic domes.  I remember being afraid of "what if I get caught outside the domes!

I don't mind a new ice age. Ptarmigans would love it. 

Killer Bees, all through out the 1970's from horrible movies like The Deadly Bees and The Swarm to very special episodes of In Search Of we were warned that by the 1990's killer bees would be invading the U.S. and we would all probably die and there was nothing we could do about it.  Possibly, the Super Dome was our only hope, though I was never clear as to how we would get all the bees in there, depending on small subcompact cars seemed dodgy as far as plans go.  In retrospect, Katrina was probably a planned attack by the killer bees before they rage their final assault on humanity in America

Killer Bees are no more venomous than honey bees. They are just more aggressive. Actually, bee farmers are the ones who should worry the most because killer bees compete with honey bees and they are less productive.

I thought I had one more but I can't remember it.  Must be the dioxin in the water or something.  Oh wait, The Swine Flu, that was it, it wasn't all throughout the 1970's but I remember we were all going to die from something called The Swine Flu and it seemed kind of scary because I didn't know exactly what The Swine Flu was but I had had The Flu several times prior and always lived through them so it didn't seem that scary to me but since, throughout History, the flu has been one of the major killers:

Dioxin is not the most toxic. Botulin is WAY MORE toxic than dioxins. It has the lowest LD50 level. VX nerve agent is also more toxic than dioxins. Natural toxins are more dangerous than any manmade toxins.

In the 1990's and early 00's I guess they tried to bring the fear of The Swine Flu back in the form of The Avian Flu and it seemed about as effective as The Swine Flu.  And then SARS.

Swine flu is thought to be responsible for the great Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919. More people died than from it than being killed in World War I.

The late 1960s and 1970s was the Wasted Decade.

[Lord Undies]

AIDS ranks up there somewhere.  Maybe #1.