- The old line about British television
being the best in the world is a debateable one. What is beyond
dispute though is the fact that Britons are a nation of TV addicts and
with the advent of cable and satellite TV that trend is likely to
continue. Whether or not that is a good thing is another matter
entirely. For its influence could literally be described as deadening,
as a growing amount of scientific evidence would seem to indicate. But
don,t expect to hear that from the mainstream media, particularly
television; there is simply too much at stake here, politically and
economically, for what follows to become more widely known.
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- According to Daniel Reid, writing in
the Tao of Health Sex and Longevity, the rays from a TV flicker
erratically, causing uneven and irregular stimulation of the retina.
"This choppy stimulus is transferred directly into the brain via the
optic nerve, which in turn irritates the hypothalamus. In scientific
experiments conducted in the US but ignored by both the government and
the television industry, rats exposed to colour TV for six hours a day
became hyperactive and extremely aggressive for about a week.
Thereafter they suddenly became totally lethargic and stopped breeding
entirely." In effect their endocrine systems had been 'burnt
out.'
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- Equally significant was the fact that
during the experiment the TV screens were kept covered in thick black
paper so that only the invisible rays came through. Thus, the damage
was done, not by the visible rays, but by the invisible
radiation.
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- These findings were echoed by Dr H.D.
Youmans of the U.S. Bureau of Radiological Health, quoted by
Associated Press in 1970: "We found rays escaping from the vacuum
tubes to be harder and of higher average energy than we expected. They
penetrated the first few inches of the body as deeply as 100-kilowatt
diagnostic X-rays. You get a uniform dose to the eyes, testes and bone
marrow."
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- The same year Dr Robert Elder,
director of the BRH, testified before Congress that even very minute
doses of radiation, which fall below the legal limit cause damage and
that the damage is cumulative.
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- In fact the evidence is beginning to
mount to the point where it can no longer be ignored, unless you
happen to watch a lot of TV, in which case you may not have noticed
the results of a study by Sally Ward. One of Britain's leading
authorities on children's speech development, she completed a ten year
study which showed that the background noise in the average two year
olds' day can delay his or her acquisition of a language by up to a
year. Almost invariably, the background noise came from television.
Amongst other things she found that:
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- * Children learn to speak from their
parents and parents don,t play or talk enough with their children when
the TV is on.
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- * Background noise from TV or radio,
confuses infants. In response they learn to ignore all noise and then
they ignore speech.
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- * Children of two years or older
should not be exposed to more than two hours of TV a day.
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- * Children of one year old or younger
should not be exposed to television at all..
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- Sally Ward is currently preparing to
focus on television and the way it affects our attention. In
particular she will be looking at Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity
Disorder (ADHD). "A lot of people think it's chemical," she says, but
in her view . . . "it's very peculiar that at the onset of children's
television it got a lot more prevalent, and at the onset of children's
videos it became a lot more prevalent."
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- Her concern is being reiterated in
America where child psychologist John Rosemond has stirred some
controversy by suggesting that ADHD is environmentally created; a
suggestion that is completely at odds with the pharmaceutical
industry, which maintains that the disorder is genetically inherited
and makes considerable profit as a result. "Ritalin may work,
temporarily," says Rosemond, "But pharmaceutical intervention won't
change behavioural and motivational problems." And these he blames on
television - "the endlessly changing images, flickering like the
attention spans of ADHD children."
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- Interestingly, Rosemond began
questioning the role of TV after his own son began displaying symptoms
of ADHD. In response he got rid of his television and within six weeks
the boy's behaviour was transformed. Today, he is a commercial airline
pilot, a job which requires the most serious concentration.
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- Still, there may well be a place for
television in modern society: in our prisons. No, seriously...at a
time when its budget is being cut by over 15% you may ask why Britons
prisons service is spending an estimated £5 million on television sets
for a third of its inmates? Why? Well, according to David Roddan,
general secretary of the prison governors association: "It's the best
control mechanism you can think of."
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- Extracts from The Tao of Health, Sex
and Longevity, Simon & Schuster and GET A LIFE! David Burke and
Jean Lotus (Bloomsbury ISBN
0-7475-3689-9)
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