[meteorite-list] Can Meteors Make You Ill?

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2007 08:47:37 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <200709191547.IAA27525_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7002506.stm

BBC News
September 19, 2007

Q&A: Do meteors make you ill?
Hundreds of people in Peru have needed treatment after visiting the site
of what they believe is a meteorite crash. BBC News looks at the health
issues.

What are the complaints?

The symptoms are varied - ranging from eye irritation to headaches,
dizziness and nausea. Several police officers who visited the site had
to be taken to hospital afterwards, and even a scientist wearing a mask
at the scene declared the fumes were so strong his throat and nose
flared up.

What does a meteorite emit?

Meteorites do not in themselves let off any dangerous fumes. They can
however expose rotting organic matter, and the air can be filled with
methane, hydrogen sulphite and carbon dioxide.

But there is some debate as to whether this is a meteorite - or indeed
an object from space - in the first place.

Some scientists are suggesting that people may have witnessed a
fireball, set off to investigate, and found a lake of sedimentary
deposit that was already there. The biological process here could mean
that the kind of fumes listed above are also emitted.

Can these really make people feel so ill?

Intense smells, even those that are not particularly toxic, can make
people feel poorly, while high levels of carbon dioxide mean people at
the site may not be getting enough oxygen.

At a purely physiological level, walking some way with some trepidation
as to what one might find could well have an impact on the body and
produce feelings of nausea and dizziness, sensations which may be
compounded by the fact that other people say they are suffering from the
same complaint.

So could mass hysteria play a role?

Symptoms could well be caused in part by what is known as a Mass
Sociogenic Illness (MSI).

There are countless examples of this through history and up to the
present day.

Amid fears of a gas leak late last year for instance, dozens of British
pupils were taken to hospital with nausea and other symptoms. However no
gas or environmental cause was found, and doctors could establish
nothing wrong with the children. It was ascribed to mass hysteria.

Meanwhile, the Belgian Coke scare of 1999 - when many said they fell
sick after drinking contaminated cans - was also said to be an example
of MSI when laboratory analysis showed levels of contamination were not
high enough to cause any of the illnesses reported.
Received on Wed 19 Sep 2007 11:47:37 AM PDT