Radiation and Decline of Scholastic Aptitude Scores

Abstract

Recent research suggests children born after nuclear testing began could have encountered genetic damage which might partially explain the decline in Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores witnessed since the 1960s (6). Continued nuclear testing allegedly could have produced an accumulation of damage to the gametes of parents, resulting in the continued drop in scores (2). In the wake of revelations concerning possible delayed physiological effecrs of nuclear radiacion on persons proximal to bomb test sites or Three Mile Island, such speculation appears more plausible than it once might have. It may also make sense, however, to examine the effects of a different, and possibly more prevalent, form of radiation-the electromagnetic radiation emitted by sets. Perhaps not coincidentally, the successive cohorts of children born into the television generation and a culrure increasingly preoccupied with have produced the initial and continued decline in SAT scores. Moreover, the advent of basically fits the five conditions which would have to exist to allow for a widespread ecological underlying the decline in scores (1). Those concerned with the SAT controversy have implicated only on the grounds that it allegedly produces effects such as passivity, shortened attention spans, or alienation from the print media. However, could prolonged and frequent exposure to TV radiation contribute to additional behavioral and psychologic~l changes and. ultimately, the decline in aptitude test scores? In one study, 30 children with unexplained symptoms of nervousness and fatigue received rapid and dramatic relief when physicians ordered them to abstain from their excessive television-viewing habits (4). Ott (5), concerned that possible radiation problems were never considered by the children's physicians, exposed plants and animals to TV radiation. Plants exhibited excessive vine and leaf growth and laboratory rats showed stimulated abnormal activities and then became exceedingly lethargic. Findings from other research (3) strongly suggest that hyperactive behavior in school children might be decreased by shielding the radiation from fluorescent lights in school classrooms. Additional evidence on the effects of electromagnetic radiation in the radio frequency wavelengrhs has been reviewed elsewhere (3, 5). The effect of radiation on scholastic aptitude remains unknown' bta appears to be as plausible a factor as genetic damage from nuclear test radiation. Of primary concern here, then, is the possible insidious effect of and light radiation on humans.