Word: harmlessness
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...that they are produced without the ionizing radiation of X rays. In significant doses, X radiation can damage cells and may be a factor in causing cancer; it may be particularly dangerous to the rapidly dividing cells of children and pregnant women. NMR, by contrast, appears to be harmless. "We can look at the developing brain of an infant easily and safely," says Dr. Robert Steiner of London's Hammersmith Hospital...
Then, two days before Christmas, the Federal Government released Environmental Protection Agency findings that oil mixed with the deadly poison dioxin, sprayed on unpaved streets a decade ago as a seemingly harmless means to hold down dust, had left dangerous concentrations of the chemical in the soil. But since the EPA samples were taken before Dec. 5, it is still unclear whether the flood waters washed away much of the chemical, making Times Beach safer, or unearthed more dioxin, spreading it throughout the town. The EPA plans new tests, scheduled for this week...
...instrument, developed in West Germany and Austria, is now making this surgery obsolete in many cases. The percutaneous nephroscope allows doctors to remove stones through a tiny opening in the patient's back or to shatter them into harmless fragments with bombardments of sound waves. Introduced in the U.S. in the fall of 1981, the technique is being used by more than a dozen major medical centers around the country...
...Newman: "Yeah, but you'd screw up second gear"). The only "Paul Newman" nonsense of the evening is harmless: a very pretty teen-age waitress turns pink and forgets her list of pies as she stares at Paul. He twists his nose goofily between thumb and forefinger and goes cross-eyed; she turns pinker and hides her face, bubbling with giggles. Someone tells him that he did well in an hourlong nuclear-freeze interview for Ted Turner's Cable News Network; he is not sure. On the air he knows his material cold, but some instinct for humility...
Sensible people usually shop by catalogue for definite, affordable needs. There are, however, restless dreamers who cannot confine themselves to such a mundane activity and plunge wrist-deep into the pages of the glossier catalogues, fantasizing over offerings that are dizzyingly expensive. This pleasant addiction, though, is harmless and may even be cheaper than going to see a movie in the shopping mall cinema. No lines, no waiting: instant extravaganzas of luxury...