Category: Health

  • Wi-fi grows tits on bulls, or something

    I’ve just been given a press release (thanks, Paul) showing that Wi-Fi may be linked to autism – if by “linked” you mean “not linked”. It’s toss, of course, based on studies by a nutritionist and the infamous Wi-Fi “expert” Dr Carlo, a regular subject of Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science blog. An extract: The autistic…

  • ASA clouts Clarins for phone fear nonsense

    Remember those Clarins ads for face cream to protect you against evil electromagnetic fields? They’ve just been spanked by the advertising standards authority. We told Clarins not to state that electromagnetic waves generated by modern-day devices or domestic communications equipment could damage or age skin or to imply anti-ageing and pro-health efficacy claims for Expertise…

  • Mobile phones and electrosensitivity, again

    When I wrote about electrosensitivity for PC Plus a few months back, I mentioned that while every study to date had found no evidence that the condition was anything other than psychological, a key study at Essex University was taking place to look even more closely at the issues. The results are in, and guess…

  • Just ’cause you feel it doesn’t mean it’s there

    I haven’t been called a child killer for a while, so let’s talk about Killer Wi-Fi again, shall we? Gary Robertson’s show on BBC Radio Scotland this morning was about mobile phone masts, although inevitably killer wi-fi featured in there too. Gary’s a decent bloke and I do wonder what he makes of some of…

  • In the war on booze, let’s attack Luxembourg

    An interesting graphic in The Economist shows different countries’ average alcohol consumption – and we’re not at the top of the list. No, it seems Luxembourg is the land of the piss-heads, and we’ve fallen behind Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Moldova and the Czech Republic. None of these countries, as far as I’m aware, has the…

  • Ow

    Sorry if anyone’s waiting on emails, really exciting blog posts etc – a slipped disc means I can’t spend much time in front of the computer, so I’m spending most of my time lying on the floor feeling sorry for myself. And munching drugs, of course.

  • A little business idea

    The Scottish Executive’s war on booze is stepping up, with talk of price controls, making booze harder to get and, if doctors have their way, raising the legal age to buy booze in shops (but not pubs) from 18 to 21. Given that I have an estate car and England’s only an hour or two…

  • If it weren’t for smokers, smokers wouldn’t be so unpopular

    As pubs go, my local is fairly smoker-friendly: there’s a nice outside area with an awning to keep off the rain (when they remember to put it up), halogen heaters to stop you freezing, and a bunch of benches and tables you can park your arse on while you puff. Plenty of ashtrays, too: a…

  • The drugs do work

    My recurrent back problems have been making it difficult to work for a while now, so the doc’s given me some horse tranquilisers so I can get through the working day. Unfortunately they make me so drowsy I’ve spent half the day asleep. Oops.

  • Paracetamol and a hot water bottle: the cure for everything

    I’d love to panic about Wi-Fi and mobile masts, but this is the stuff that really scares me. The elderly mother of a woman I know hasn’t been well for some time, and her GP has prescribed a few things – water tablets to help her kidneys remove fluid, warfarin to keep her blood thin.…