Scared to death : from BSE to global warming : how scares are costing us the Earth / Christopher Booker and Richard North.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Booker, Christopher.

Contributor:

North, Richard.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Product safety.

Public health.

Mass media and public opinion.

Physical Description:

xiv, 494 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Continuum, 2007.

Summary:

This book for the first time tells the inside story of each of the major scares of the past two decades, showing how they have followed a remarkably consistent pattern.>

Contents:

Part 1 The Food Scares

Chapter 1 Countdown to an Explosion: How Scares Became a Disaster Waiting to Happen, 1981-8 9

Chapter 2 'Killer Eggs': The Great Salmonella Scare, 1988-9 36

Chapter 3 Enter the Hygiene Police: Paying the Price, 1990-4 69

Chapter 4 'Listeria Hysteria': The Lanark Blue Case, 1995 92

Chapter 5 Mad Cows and Madder Politicians: The BSE/CJD Scare, 1996-9 100

Chapter 6 Officials Can Kill: Meat, Cheese and E. coli, 1998 128

Chapter 7 The [pound]1 Billion Blunder: The Belgian Dioxins Debacle, 1999 138

Epilogue to Part One: The Rise of the 'Health and Safety Culture' 153

Part 2 General Scares

Prologue to Part Two: The Millennium Bug 161

Chapter 8 A Sledgehammer To Miss The Nut: A Wider Look at the Scare Phenomenon 167

Chapter 9 The Modern Witch Craze: Ritualized Child Abuse, 1987-94 185

Chapter 10 'Speed Kills': A Safety Scare That Cost Lives 209

Chapter 11 'We Love Unleaded': How Confusion Over Lead Cost Billions 222

Chapter 12 Smoke and Mirrors: How They Turned 'Passive Smoking' Into a Killer, 1950-2007 246

Chapter 13 'One Fibre Can Kill': The Great Asbestos Scam 273

Chapter 14 Saving The Planet: Global Warming - The New Secular Religion 331

Chapter 15 Licensed To Kill: OPs - The 'Scare That Never Was' 410

Epilogue: A New Age of Superstition 453.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0826486142

9780826486141

OCLC:

57637938