A fair and balanced compendium of spontaneous exclamations and excited utterances, with 22 entries on the front page.

And, now, Home of the YATSASS™ Reports

Yet Another True Story About Stupid Studies:

Wednesday, March 12, 2008


YATSASS: Sticking People In a Room with Diesel Exhaust Stresses Them Out

It's been a while since our last YATSASS Report. Not from any lack of studies worthy of note, but from a recessionary blogging trend here at R&R in general, but this one just cried out for attention. Leave it to the Dutch: Paul Borm from Zuyd University has found that inhaling diesel exhaust triggers a stress response in the brain.
Borm and his team put 10 volunteers in a room filled with exhaust from a diesel engine for one hour and monitored their brain waves with an electroencephalograph (EEG). The level of fumes was similar to that found on a busy road or in a garage.

After about 30 minutes, brain wave patterns displayed a stress response, suggesting changes in information processing in the brain cortex.
First, how does anyone get volunteers to do that? But more importantly for our purposes, someone spent money to scientifically determine that sucking an exhaust pipe sucks!

While I offer no comment on the study methodology, I can certify that it complies with all of the underlying YATSASS criteria, and offer the following as conclusive evidence:
We can only speculate what these effects may mean…
followed by
Further research is needed…
Yes, indeed. Hey Paul, here's a time and money saving idea: why not head down to the Greyhound station on a hot August afternoon and ask everyone how they're doing?
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© 2002-2008 Rob Falk, All Rights Reserved. All Wrongs Denied.
Your mileage won't vary; it will be less.
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