This book provides the first proper analysis of what in the past two decades has become an astronomic hidden drain on the economies of the western world: the 'scare'. From salmonella and BSE to asbestos, we have seen bogus science, compounded with ignorance, being exploited by interested parties to whip up media and political hysteria. This is then used to justify an absurdly disproportionate and costly regulatory response until, by the time the flaws in the original 'science' have been exposed, the damage is done.
The book shows how, behind all these scares, there is a remarkably consistent pattern. It provides a set of individual case studies, analysing the historical course of a series of different 'scares', beginning with the great 'salmonella in eggs' scare of 1988/9, in which one of the authors played a central part.
In each case the book shows:
- how and why the scare was launched on its way, on the basis of flawed science;
- how it then developed, according to the pattern, with the media and interested scientists wildly exaggerating the dangers to public health;
- how the political machine was then cranked up to produce a wholly inappropriate response;
- how the flaws in the science were eventually exposed;
- the shocking scale of the cost.
