Word: alarmism
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...troops in Bosnia, aid to Russia, Iran-Iraq sanctions plus sundry trade conflicts (e.g., over subsidies for the new monster Airbus that may do in Boeing's 747). These items galvanize the worst fears of the Europeans. They have a single name: American unilateralism. Nor should their alarm be shrugged off as routine babble of the smaller denizens of the international ecosystem. Those who live with an elephant have a right to worry when it starts ambling. More to the point, your allies have marked up all your foreign-policy speeches, including the transcript of your 75-minute TV interview...
...should parents and pediatricians react to the reports? Medical common sense should prevail, says pediatric radiologist Dr. Michael DiPietro of the C. S. Mott Children's Hospital at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. "If alarm prevents people from having tests done that really need to be done, then the chances of harm from that are much greater than the chances of harm from the radiation. The concerns raised by this study should highlight, however, the need for these tests being ordered appropriately, done correctly and interpreted correctly in order to get the maximum information from the minimum...
...students fled the room, others in the Science Center followed them. One student set off the building's fire alarm, and the building was evacuated without incident...
There is no proven reason, of course, to think that either of these steps is necessary. Never mind that the Federal Government insists there is no cause for alarm, or that no study has established a link between cell-phone use and illness. Shafransky and Wilson belong to a small but growing group of consumers who are fretting about whether there are health risks. The cell-phone companies contend the fears are unfounded but, savvy marketers that they are, most are quietly introducing more efficient--and therefore lower-radiation--phones...
...proved inadequate to protect consumers from the recent Firestone fiasco.) There's not even agreement on how to determine whether a cell phone really lives up to the standards. And while companies possess the technology to lower radiation sharply, they fear that marketing safety forcefully would only cause alarm...