The possible dangers of electromagnetic fields to health are in the news again. The Valley News had a long article yesterday and a number of major newspapers have reviewed a new book by Paul Brodeur whose article in the New Yorker have contributed to the national concern about this issue.
1. Read the review of Brodeur's book that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle last week. As a group discuss what kind of experiment, or experiments you think should and could be carried out to determine just how great a threat electromagnetic fields are.
2. There are two hospitals Mercy and Hope in your town. Under the new national health plan you must choose one of these for health care. You decide to base your decision on the success of their surgical teams. Fortunately, under the new health plan the hospitals are required to give data on the success of their operations broken down into five broad categories of operations. You get the data for the two hospitals and you find
You notice that, in all types of operations, Mercy hospital has a higher success
rate than Hope hospital and yet Hope has the highest overall success rate. Which
hospital would you choose and why?
Journal Assignment: Read the articles handed out on electromagnetic fields and write in your journal your current thoughts on the danger of these fields.