From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Social phenomenon
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Health scare" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
A health scare can be broadly defined as a social phenomenon whereby the public at large comes to fear some threat to health, based on suppositions which are nearly always not well-founded.[1]
In 2009, an ABC News article listed "The Top 10 Health Scares of the Decade":[2] "Some of these threats turned out to be almost nonexistent. Others were arguably overblown. Some caused widespread harm." They listed the following scares:
- Swine flu (H1N1)
- Bisphenol A (BPA)
- Lead paint on toys from China
- Trans fats
- Bird flu (H5N1)
- Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)
- Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
- Hormone replacement therapy (HRT)
- Anthrax
- Cell phones.[2]
See also
[edit]- List of health scares
- Health crisis
- Aspartame controversy
- Dental amalgam controversy
- Thiomersal and vaccines
- Water fluoridation controversy
- COVID-19
References
[edit]- ^ Hooker C (January 2010). "Health scares: Professional priorities". Health (London). 14 (1): 3–21. doi:10.1177/1363459309341875. hdl:2123/12086. PMID 20051427. S2CID 21893028.
- ^ a b Brownstein, Joseph (7 December 2009). "The Top 10 Health Scares of the Decade". United States: ABC News.
Some of these threats turned out to be almost nonexistent. Others were arguably overblown. Some caused widespread harm.
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