Reply #33: Illness in Cambodian factories called "mass hysteria" [View All]

[bread_and_roses]

Gee - who do we think benefits from promulgating this POV?

from something called "live science" linked on yahoo (I know, i know - yahoo - but it's my personal e-mail provider so it's my home page (and having used three variants of Outlook, gmail, and several other lesser known e-mail systems for work, I still think yahoo's e-mail is the easiest, most intuitive program out there - at least for free. However worthless the rest of the site. Besides, yahoo is pretty widely used, thus making it a good gauge of what distractions are being offered today for the hoi polloi)

http://news.yahoo.com/mystery-illness-plagues-asian-factories-142804130.html

Mystery Illness Plagues Asian Factories
LiveScience.comBy Benjamin Radford | LiveScience.com – 22 hrs ago

Researchers from the United Nations recently met in Cambodia to solve the mystery of why large numbers of female workers in that nation have succumbed to an unknown (and temporary) illness. But rather than a physical illness as the source, the scientists may want to look at the mind as the root cause.

... Workers in shoe and clothing factories have reported feeling fatigued, dizzy and nauseated. Most claimed that they felt faint, though none actually fainted. After some rest and medical attention, the women quickly recovered and went back to work; few if any reported lingering symptoms. So far no one has found any toxin or environmental contamination that could cause the symptoms.

... The Cambodian factories — full of women, chemicals, smells, stress and boredom — are ideal environments for the development of mass hysteria. Denial is typical in these cases; victims usually reject the diagnosis and remain convinced that some unknown agent is causing their discomfort. Unless investigators find another cause for the mystery illness, it will likely be traced to mass hysteria.

(notice "women" included that list.... )

So, in a factory full of chemicals, the most likely cause of what sure sounds like the symptoms of exposure to an airbourne toxin is "mass hysteria?"

Now, I live near a huge abandoned shoe factory - ancient brick buildings that I've been told (I cannot vouch for how reliably, but having talked to people who worked in them years ago I think likely) that among the reasons these huge buildings are not torn down is that they are so full of toxins from the shoe-making process that there is no way to demolish them without releasing vast clouds of dangerous pollutants.

But even aside from that - notice not a word in the article talks about working conditions or worker safety in these factories other than to note that they are "full of...stress."

How convenient. I guess those sickened by Mountaintop removal pollutants or oil poisoning from refineries are just succumbing to "mass hysteria" too? Like the indigenous in the rainforest - I guess someone got a belly-ache one day and all of a sudden everyone is sick and blaming it on water full of pollutants - mass hysteria!

What else could it possibly be?