Word: health
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Calif., who is quoted above. His 220-page polemic issues a general alarm about multifarious dangers that lurk in every nook and cranny of contemporary civilization. Even fluorescent lighting, he says, may, in some weird way, weaken the muscles. The book, billed as a "crash course in protecting your health from hidden hazards of modern living," is entitled How to Survive Modern Technology. Anybody with a frail heart might not even survive the book...
...sensible person would sniff at prudent precautions. Still, it is hard not to shudder at the sheer volume of disquieting cautions, at the constancy, variety and intensity of the fearful clamor. Indeed, one may reasonably wonder whether the very climate of alarm itself has not become a hazard to health and serenity. Everybody's psyche now takes a drubbing day in and out from the concatenations of danger. An American can scarcely make a move nowadays without being pushed into a state of alert...
...doctors. Taking a pill? Make sure it will not hook you. Worried about cancer? That very worry may cause cancer, some say. Anybody thinking of fleeing might peruse an other recent book, this one by Dr. Robert A. Shakman. Its title: Where You Live May Be Hazardous to Your Health. Its implicit message: You can't escape...
...complete list of warnings would fill a shelf of books. Plainly the 20th century has turned into the Age of Admonition. It is also clear that the atmosphere is distributing more than a bit of anxiety. A modern form of morbid gallows humor ("Life is hazardous to your health"; "Everything causes cancer") has now become the respectable coin of small talk...
...system under stress, however, solutions sometimes create problems. Massachusetts has become the first state in the nation to ban urea formaldehyde foam, the largest selling type of blown insulation. Public Health Commissioner Alfred Frechette says that "we find there is significant correlation between the foam insulation and such formaldehyde-linked illnesses as respiratory difficulties, eye and skin irritations, headaches, vomiting and severe irritation to the mucous membranes." Massachusetts estimates that some 7,000 houses in the state?and many more across the country?are insulated with formaldehyde. The cost of removing the stuff, where it can be removed, might...