The disturbing health warnings on 3-D TVs

On March 17 I wrote:

… I don’t know how any human being could go on watching a program that has repeated advertisements for prescription drugs in which half the ad consists of a long list of medical conditions. “If you suffer from high blood pressure, heart disease, liver disease, diabetes, brain cancer, lung cancer, bone cancer, Hodgkins lymphoma, ulcers, you should not use Cialis.” “If you find yourself experiencing nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, vertigo, blackouts, impotence, flaking skin, flatulence, anxiety, insomnia, suicidal thoughts, schizophrenic episodes, or fantasies of mass murder, immediately stop taking Cialis and call your doctor.”

First, why would anyone want to purchase a drug that had so many horrific possible side effects? Wouldn’t that list of possible side effects make a person recoil from the product?

Now guess what. The same types of warnings are being attached to, not prescription drugs, but television sets, as told in an an editorial in the April 15 New York Daily News:

Fried couch potatoes: 3-D TV has more health warnings than a case of Viagra
Thursday, April 15th 2010, 4:00 AM

If you like to live life on the edge, go skydiving. Try to scale Mount Kilimanjaro. Or lay out a few thousand bucks for a 3-D HDTV set and boldly plop your butt on the couch.

Samsung’s new model comes with caveats that are:

(a) the work of paranoidly crazed lawyers;

(b) misplaced from a box of powerful prescription medication;

(c) truly scary, or

(d) all of the above.

Before you slip on the goofy glasses and reach out to touch Jay Leno’s chin, here’s what Samsung wants you to know:

“Children and teenagers may be more susceptible to health issues associated with viewing in 3-D and should be closely supervised.”

“Some viewers may experience an epileptic seizure or stroke when exposed to certain flashing images or lights contained in certain television pictures or video games. If you suffer from, or have a family history of, epilepsy or strokes, please consult with a medical specialist before using the 3-D function.”

“Pregnant women, the elderly, sufferers of serious medical conditions, those who are sleep-deprived or under the influence of alcohol should avoid utilizing the unit’s 3-D functionality.”

“If you experience any of the following symptoms, stop viewing 3-D pictures immediately and consult a medical specialist: 1. altered vision; 2. lightheadedness; 3. dizziness; 4. involuntary movements such as eye or muscle twitching; 5. confusion; 6. nausea; 7. convulsions; 8. cramps; and/or9. disorientation.”

“Viewing 3-D television may also cause motion sickness, perceptual after-effects, disorientation, eyestrain and decreased postural stability.”

Ah, for the days when kids, grandparents and everyone in between, including insomniac drunks, had confidence that to watch TV was but to enter a vast—and harmless—wasteland.

[end of Daily News editorial]

- end of initial entry -

Gintas writes:

Most of the warnings are overblown, probably due to lawyering. Remember playgrounds when we were young? Here are some warnings that could have been attached to various childhood toys:

Teeter-totter: At some point, you will be smashed in the face by the seat, and eventually you will plunge to the ground and your head will be severely jarred when your partner suddenly gets off when his seat is at the bottom and you are at the top. Your friends will think this is funny.

Merry-Go-Round: you will fly off at high speed and scrape across the dirt. You will feel sick for an hour at least, and likely vomit. Your friends will laugh.

Swings: You will fall off at the high point of the swing, and the resulting fall will hurt badly. You will swing into someone, and the crash will be violent and painful. Observers will be amused.

Tall Metal Slides: You will be burned on a hot day. You will stumble while climbing, and smash your face into a metal step. You will run into somebody climbing up the slide, and both of you will plunged to a near-death crash. You will climb up the slide and someone will clear you off the slide violently. Your friends will think this is funny.

Trees: You will fall out and break bones.

Bicycles: You will do daring stunts and be reckless and hurt badly all over. Racing on gravel will cause large scrapes and gouges in the flesh.

Skateboards: Prepare to die, or at least break bones and be covered in bruises and scrapes.

Sledding: You will hit a tree head-first and be nearly killed. Your blood will flow.

Parents today recoil in horror, and have banished most of these things on playgrounds, and the others are safely padded. The warnings on 3-D TV? They shrug their shoulders, say, “Not bad. Now, when I was young … “

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 16, 2010 12:30 PM | Send