Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Moll
Quote:
Originally Posted by dseymo1
I recently read that electric shock is now believed to be a predisposing factor for motor neuron disease.
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There is an article about this in New Scientist |
This interesting idea seems to be of immediate concern to those of us who, over a lifetime, have experienced a few 'belts'. Maybe that's all of us! So I looked a bit further.
Reading the article suggests that the kind of 'electric shock' considered in this theory is the type producing severe trauma, and possibly nerve damage. For example, one case involved a lightning strike on to a climber's ice axe. More recently, the Daily Mail and Daily Express seem to be expounding on these theories. No further comment necessary!
The NHS website comments:
"This was a prospective cohort study. Cohort studies follow large groups of people to see what happens to them over time. While this can be a good way to spot patterns and links between factors, cohort studies cannot prove that one factor (such as extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic fields) causes another (such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS))."
There seems to be some muddling between electric shocks, with their well-known risks, and low frequency magnetic fields, with little established evidence of risks. There's also an assumption that the welding and electrical contracting trades are exposed to high intensity fields, which seems to me unlikely when compared with some other professions.
Overall, causes of motor neurone disease (medical term ALS) remain a mystery, and an important one to solve, but, from the evidence mentioned, there seems little reason to think that electric shocks make a contribution.
Martin