[meteorite-list] Can Meteors Make You Ill?

From: lebofsky at lpl.arizona.edu <lebofsky_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2007 09:10:46 -0700 (MST)
Message-ID: <1233.128.196.250.86.1190218246.squirrel_at_timber.lpl.arizona.edu>

Based on my vast experience, they can spawn zombies (and other similar
things), carry invaders, and produce singing plants. I can always check my
collection of bad and not so bad movies. Oh, you can also become a
superhero, but if it is green, superheros need to beware.

Larry

On Wed, September 19, 2007 8:47 am, Ron Baalke wrote:
>

> 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.
>
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Received on Wed 19 Sep 2007 12:10:46 PM PDT