Providentia

Cyberbullying and Domestic Abuse

"My main concern is my safety, because if he sends the wrong sex-crazed maniac to my house … and he forces his way in, who knows what could happen,"

In a recent story published by CBC News, an Edmonton woman who cannot be named for her own protection described the terror resulting from a bizarre harassment campaign launched by an ex-boyfriend. Over four evenings, the woman was visited by over thirty men, all of whom were drawn in by a series of fake profiles placed with online singles sites. The men who attempted to gain entrance to her home all report responding to proposed sexual meetups apparently orchestrated anonymously.  The ex-boyfriend, whom she described as a "very, very abusive man" had reportedly threatened to send men to her house if she "didn't do the right thing" and end the emergency restraining order she had taken out against him. While Edmonton police are still investigating, one spokesperson reported that the online site, Plentyoffish.com, is actively cooperating and the person responsible will likely be caught.  

With the rise of social media and online communications, cyberbullying and other forms of online harassment are becoming more common.  This seems to be especially true in domestic abuse cases as more and more abusers take advantage of anonymous postings to harass partners who might otherwise be protected by restraining orders.  Not that such restraining orders are necessarily providing sufficient protection for the estimated ten million American women victimized by a domestic partner each year.

To read more, check out my new Psychology Today blog post.

PTSD Murder-Suicide Case Reveals Mental Health Crisis in Alabama

"It shouldn't be this hard to get help. He was trying to get help to be a better person, a better husband, a better man, a better father."  

With these words,  Jennifer Johnson, expresses her own grief and frustration over the recent suicide of her brother, Joshua Stiles.   Stiles, a 30-year-old Army veteran, killed himself on May 16 shortly after killing his 22-year-0ld wife Brittney Stiles in front of her sister and their two-year-old daughter Mary Jane in Russellville, Alabama.  He then fled the scene and evaded a police chase before taking his own life.

According to his sister, Joshua Stiles had been suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression for years prior to the murder-suicide but was unable to get proper treatment.  His sister tried to have him voluntarily committed to Decatur Morgan Hospital only to be told there were no beds available.   Another facility that Stiles contacted just days before his death told him that he would need to make an appointment.   Even after contacting Veterans' Affairs, they were told that he would be sent paperwork to fill out and, if her were feeling suicidal, that he should go to the nearest emergency department for treatment.

The problem of finding mental health treatment in Alabama has been aggravated by the recent closing of several mental health facilities, not to mention funding cutbacks, which have left many patients scrambling to find help.   Veterans are particularly vulnerable to mental health problems and a worker at the Veterans' Administration in Alalabama reported that veterans have one of the highest suicide rates.  "We've got to do better at educating veterans about what we can do to help them when they leave military service," said VA social worker Amy Burks in an interview with local media. Of the 20 veterans who die by suicide each day, an average of 14 aren't being treated by the VA.

According to Jennifer Johnson, her brother had been suffering from PTSD long before being deployed to Afghanistan due to trauma from their childhood.  After joining the military in 2012, his problems became more severe and, following his return from deployment, "he just came back different,"  she said.    Amy Burks says that this is not uncommon for veterans.  "Mental health issues are compounded for veterans who serve combat tours," she said. "It's identity confusion when they are thrown back into civilian and family life with no road map. The system is just too hard to navigate."

Along with mourning the death of her brother, Jennifer Johnson and her other family members are also mourning the death of Brittney Stiles whom she describes as "the most beautiful, wonderful, sweet person. It's not like I just lost my brother. She was my best friend and my sister. She did not deserve this or anything they've been through. I am heartbroken for her loss as well. I feel like I failed them both."

"He wasn't this person," Johnson said of Joshua. "My brother would've never done this if he was in his right mind. I wish I could've saved him, and I tried. But, the mental health system just makes it too hard."

For more information

 

 

The Rainmaker (Part Two)

Continued from Part One

With the stories that were rapidly spreading about his success as a rainmaker, er, I mean, "cloud coaxer," Charles Mallory Hatfield was riding high in 1915 when he was approached by a group of businessmen operating out of San Diego.  Since San Diego and the surrounding areas were primarily agricultural back then, the frequent droughts often meant economic disaster for farms and businesses alike.   For that reason, the city had built the Morena reservoir  in the 1890s although it had never come close to being filled, something they were hoping Hatfield could correct.   

Ever the entrepreneur, Hatfield extended his usual offer:  that the city would owe him nothing if he failed but, if the rain came, then the city would pay him $1000 for every inch of rainfall between forty and fifty inches (any rainfall exceeding fifty inches would be free).   With a handshake deal in place, he and his brother Paul went through their usual routine of setting up evaporating tanks on high platforms near San Diego's Morena Dam and everyone waited to see what would happen.  By all accounts, the smell of the chemical smoke from his cauldrons was dreadful and many nearby farmers reported seeing flames leaping skyward (no EPA back then).   A t the same time, newspapers began a countdown on the days left for Hatfield to complete his contract.

Unfortunately for the Hatfields, not to mention most of southern California and Arizona, one of the worst storms in that area's history struck in early January,  just days after Hatfield released his chemical brew into the atmosphere.   A week of torrential rain led to San Diego being completely isolated from the rest of the state.  Homes and farms were destroyed, dozens of people lost their lives, and many San Diego residents were left destitute.   Not only did flooding wipe out highways and telephone lines, but airplanes represented the only way that emergency aid could be brought into the city.   And even worse was to come.

Though the storm clouds let up on January 20 briefly, the storms began again immediately.  Most of the dams and reservoirs became dangerously overfilled until, finally, on January 27, the Lower Otay and Sweetwater Dams partially collapsed allowing billions of gallons of water to flood the valley. Damaging floods spread along the entire river system with flood waters destroying highways and leaving thousands more homeless.    All in all, it was one of the worst floods California had ever seen.

Which made things very awkward for Charles and Paul Hatfield....   From the vantage point near the Morena reservoir, their rainmaking appeared to be a complete success and they were too isolated to hear about what was happening further downstream.  Only while the Hatfield brothers were dismantling their equipment did they learn about the disaster for which they were supposedly responsible.   Concealing their identity to avoid being lynched by angry farmers, the brothers decided to tempt fate by asking to be paid for their work.   

Acting on advice from the city's attorney,who warned that paying Hatfield might leave them open to claims for flood damage, the city council announced that no money would be forthcoming.  Despite the lack of a written contract,Hatfield threatened to sue.   At was then that the city made him a new offer:  in return for the $10,000 originally promised, he would accept full responsibility for the estimated $3.5 million dollars in damages from the flood as well as the sixty or so deaths that had occurred.   Not being a fool, Hatfield turned down this offer but continued with his lawsuit.  The case would drag through the  courts for twenty-two years before it was eventually ruled that the flooding was an Act of God and Hatfield wasn't eligible to receive his money.

  Even with this setback, the veteran rainmaker was still flooded (sorry) with requests from potential clients around the world.   While he rarely left California, some of his rainmaking contracts took him as far as Honduras.   Critics continued to insist that he was a humbug however.   According to one scathing article published in 1925 in the journal Science, Hatfield's success was solely because he offered his services at the end of a dry season and, when the inevitable change in the weather occurred, he would then claim the credit.   This article did little to stem business however.   Not until the Wall Street crash of 1929 and the resulting Depression did Hatfield's career as a rainmaker finally came to an end.  

Along with potential clients being less able to afford his fees, the opening of Boulder Dam in 1928 meant that California farmers had a new supply of water courtesy of the Colorado River.   This meant less demand for Hatfield's unique services and greater financial hardship for the one-time rainmaking champion.   To make ends meet, he went back to being a sewing machine salesman and, to make things worse, his wife decided to divorce him.   Stories about his rainmaking skills still lingered though.  At one point during the divorce proceedings, raindrops could be heard against the courthouse windows though weather reports had predicted clear skies.  The judge reportedly looked nervous and said, "I hope this isn't an expression of the defendant's displeasure."   

Ever the showman,  Hatfield continued to drum up publicity for his services and even insisted that his weather-making skills might have prevented the dust storms that gave the Dirty Thirties their name.  But advances in weather prediction, not to mention improved agricultural techniques such as cloud-seeding, made rain-making obsolete.  

Not that he was completely forgotten.  When the  movie, The Rainmaker, starring Burt Lancaster and Katharine Hepburn came out in 1956, Hatfield was invited to the premiere.  He died two years later on January 12, 1958  although, as per his instructions, no formal notice of his death  came out until months after his burial   As he had long vowed, he took his rainmaking secrets with him to the grave.   Over his long career, he personally took credit for more than 500 rainstorms, whether or not meteorologists agreed. 

While hucksters, crackpots, and snake oil salesmen continue to offer their services to the gullible and the desperate, Charles Mallory Hatfield was definitely in a class by himself.   Was he a wholehearted confidence man or did he genuinely believw in his rain-making abilities?  You be the judge.

 

Remembering Minamata (Part 1)

It was a tragedy that never should have happened in the peaceful city of Minamata in Japan's Kumamoto prefecture.  

Beginning in 1950, seabirds and household pets were struck with a strange epidemic in which the animal seemingly went "mad" with convulsions followed by a rapid death.  The first case involving a human victim was identified on April 21, 1956.  The victim, a five-year old girl, was presenting a range of symptoms including convulsions as well as difficulty walking and talking.  When her younger sister developed similar symptoms, she was also hospitalized and authorities became alarmed to discover that eight additional cases were found nearby.  By May 1,  local public health officials announced an "epidemic of an unknown disease of the central nervous system" which would be later termed Minamata disease.   

When the city doctors and local authorities formed the Strange Disease Countermeasures Commitee, they were baffled over what was causing the new mystery illness.   Out of fear that it was contagious, Minamata cases were isolated from the local community and their homes thoroughly sterilized.  Although these measures eventually proved to be unnecessary, they contributed to the stigma that victims were forced to endure.   As university researchers began investigating the disease more thoroughly, the first Minamata cases began dying.  By October 1956, forty patients had been discovered and fourteen had died (a fatality rate of 36.7%).   Researchers eventually traced the disease outbreak in humans and animals to the high concentrations of mercury found in the shellfish that represented one of the main food staples in the coastal city. 

Once mercury poisoning was identified, suspicion immediately fell on a nearby chemical factory run by the Chisso Corporation.  First opened in 1908, the factory produced a variety of chemical products (including fertiliser, acetic acid, vinyl chloride, and octanol) and waste products were directly released into Minamata bay.  Despite previous compensation paid to local fisheries over reduced catches, no cases of human exposure to the pollution had been identified.    That all began to change as researchers found high concentrations of heavy metals such as manganese and thallium in the organs of the deceased.    In 1948,  visiting neurologist, Donald McAlpine, suggested that organic mercury exposure was the likely culprit in Minamata disease given the nature of the symptoms which had also been observed in other cases of mercury poisoning.    Testing for mercury, researchers were shocked at the high concentrations  they found in the local sea life and even in samplings taken from the bay's sludge.    The highest concentrations were found immediately adjacent to the factory's wastewater canal (Chisso would later set up an operation reclaiming the mercury from the sludge to sell for a profit).

In subsequent research, it was determined that Chisso had been using metallic mercury as an industrial catalyst which was then discharged into the wastewater.  The process did not end there though.   Once the mercury entered the environment, it came into contact with the methylating bacteria that lurk at the bottom of ponds, rivers, and oceans.  Ordinarily converting sulfate into sulfide, the bacteria combined the released mercury with carbon to produce methylmercury, a fetal toxicant.   Since persistent poisons become concentrated as they move up the food chain (through a process known as biomagnification),  the concentration of methylmercury in the sea life hauled into the fishing boats was as much as a million times greater than in the surrounding water.

By 1959, the Ministry of Health and Welfare was able to make a public announcement linking Minamata Disease to mercury exposure.   The Chisso Corporation, already knowing that they were under suspicion in the Minimata deaths, changed the course of the wastewater discharged from the plant directly into Minamata River.  This reduced the amount of discharge into the harbour (which was being investigated by researchers) but spread the contamination over a much wider area.  Further Minamata Disease cases occurred in fishing villages up and down the coast of the Shiranui Sea.   As well, the corporation continued to stonewall investigators seeking information about the plant and its industrial operations.   When Chisso's hospital director, Hajme Hokosawa, launched research which confirmed that the factory waste was causing the disease, he was ordered to stop and all information about the research was suppressed.  Chisso and other industrial interests also funded research looking into alternative causes of the disease.

Following a partial ban on fishing by the Kumamato prefecture (as opposed to the total ban which would have forced higher compensation), fishing cooperatives were able to win some grudging settlements but the human victims were not so fortunate.   The stigma surrounding Minamata Disease ensured that sufferers faced continuing ostracism and discrimination from the community at large.  Even the formation of the Minamata Mutual Aid Society did little to improve matters.  Only a sit-in at factory gates in November 1959 forced local governments to include victim compensation as one of the conditions of the compensation package being negotiated for the fisheries.  Chisso eventually agreed to pay "sympathy money"  for those victims duly certified as suffering from Minamata Disease.  The compensation package was not large with adults receiving 100,000 yen per year (equivalent to U.S. $ 278.oo) while children received substantially less (families of deceased Minamata Disease victims received a lump sum equivant to 889 U.S. dollars).  

Despite assurances by Chisso that factory wastewater would be chemically treated to prevent further mercury poisoning, nothing was really done and "ten years of silence" followed from 1959 to 1969 during which mercury pollution spread across the Shiranui Sea.   Despite surveys by the Kumamato and Kugashima prefecturates showing that mercury levels were still dangerously unsafe, the results were never made public and deaths were listed as being due to "unknown causes".    During the early 1960s, medical professionals found that children in the Minamata were developing cerebral palsy at an abnormally high rate.   The disease was eventually proven to be congenital with mothers being symptom-free while their children developed many of the same symptoms found in adult Minamata Disease sufferers.   

Not only were many of the children blind and deaf, but some had unusually small heads and deformed teeth.   Following autopsies on two children and identification of a congenital form of the disease, doctors pressured Chisso into paying "sympathy money" to the families of the children under the 1959 agreement.  Since not all affected children demonstrated the full range of symptoms that characterized Minamata Disease, the full extent to which the children in the contaminated areas were affected may never be known.   At least one study suggested that as many as 29 per cent of all exposed children born  between 1955 and 1959 showed signs of mental deficiencies.

Continue to Part 2.

The Juggalo Factor

Traditionally, since 1994, Juggalos has been used as a term describing fans of the band, The Insane Clown Posse. While individual Juggalos or Juggalettes might have been involved in criminal activities (drug possession, assaults, vandalisms) the group as a whole was not viewed as a criminal group or a criminal enterprise. This seems be changing. Four states (Arizona, California, Pennsylvania and Utah) now classify Juggalos as a gang that is involved in criminal activity. The National Gang Intelligence Center's National Gang Threat Assessment for 2011 lists Juggalos as a type of hybrid gang. A new study published in the Journal of Gang Research attempts to look into the Juggalo movement and determine if law enforcement, nationwide, perceives this group as a gang, rock hooligans, or just extreme fans. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstact

Insanity Defense Unlikely in Bizarre Kansas Murder

A Wichita, KS resident charged with first degree murder following a bizarre April 9 homicide insists that God was responsible for her actions.   According to Wichita Police, Hilyard contacted 63-year-old Micki Davis and told her to come pick up property belonging to Davis' son with whom she had been in a previous relationship.  When Davis came to the house accompanied by her 9-year-old grandson, Hilyard attacked her with a knife in her garage.  Though the boy managed to escape unharmed and contacted 911, police arrived on the scene to find that Micki Davis had been decapitated.  Her head was later found in Hilyard's kitchen sink.

In a subsequent interview with local media, Hilyard stated simply that "I feel horrible about this"  but refused to answer most questions relating to the killing or her motive aside from placing the blame on God.   She also insisted that she had arranged for an exorcism to be conducted on her home just days before the killing, allegedly due to "evil spirits" she believed to be invading her home.    Pastor Terry Fox of Wichita's Summit Church confirmed that Hilyard had contacted him prior to the killing for a possible exorcism.  

Fox, whose church website also describes his church's service of paranormal investigation to“investigate and research” occurrences without scientific explanation, stated that he had only started working with Hilyard for a few days prior to her arrest.  "If we would have had an opportunity to get to her, I believe we could [have helped]", he told local media.  "I think if we would have had more time, perhaps we could have made a difference. It broke our hearts.”   He went on to say that he didn't have the opportunity to determine if Hilyard was "mental or demonic."

Hilyard had reportedly become convinced that her house had been possessed by evil spirits.   To support her claim, she posted a picture on Instagram showing smoke under a ceiling fan in her house which reportedly resembled the Grim Reaper.   She also  wrote a series of bizarre posts placed on Facebook just days before the killing.   One of these posts read, "Well my Psychopathic Serial Killers for beginners in training class is over for the day …. ‘whew’ now for homework time or what kids?”   Another posted that same day said, "“Please dont let them cut my head off … anymore."   Eight days before the decapitation, she wrote "Well this is how it feels to be insane. & i must say that i don’t like it.”

She was also reporting financial problems since her disability pension was cut off last September due to a clerical issue.   The disability stems from a  2003 automobile accident that left her with a traumatic brain injury and visible scarring though she denied that her medical history had anything to do with her actions.   She also has a history of petty offenses including drug and traffic violations.   Hilyard is currently being held on a $226,000 bond.

For more information

 

The Rainmaker (Part One)

Well into the 20th century, farmers across the United States depended on favourable weather to ensure good crops and a proper harvest.   Considering how common floods and droughts are even today, it's hardly surprising that farmers would have a natural obsession with the weather, including what could be done to turn the odds in their favour.  And thus, the dubious profession of rain-making was born.

While most of these self-professed rainmakers were basically flim-flam artists, there were a few who seemed genuinely convinced about the nature of their powers.  The first rainmakers were essentially religious figures who relied on prayers asking God for rain in any community struck by drought.  Of course, rainmakers could be found in cultures around the world and many Native American tribes had their own version boasting powers that came to them from the Great Spirit.   Even as newspapers published stories denouncing these native beliefs as rank superstition,  rainmakers continued to offer their services to agricultural communities across the country, often without any comment at all from these same newspapers.  It likely helped that they had mostly abandoned supernatural explanations in favour of  various pseudoscientific "theories" that sounded much more plausible to the average farmer.   Some rainmakers even gave lectures describing their methods which were mainly intended to attract potential customers.   Though never as popular or common as "dowsers" who promised to find underground water as needed, rainmakers still had their supporters.

All of which brings us to Charles Mallory Hatfield, the king of rainmakers, or, as he preferred to be called, a "cloud coaxer."   Born in Fort Scott, Kansas  in 1875 to a farming family, he spent his formative years in southern California.  Though he never had much of a formal education after quitting school in the ninth grade to become a salesman for a sewing machine company, that didn't stop him from carrying out his own experiments in rainmaking.  It's hard to say what motivated him to become a rainmaker except for his farm background which gave him a firsthand look at the devastating impact that droughts could have.  Whatever his motivation, he reportedly perfected his rainmaking process by 1902 and was ready to offer his services to the world.   

To this day, nobody knows exactly what  his secret rainmaking formula actually was.   According to one newspaper story from 1905, Hatfield used a mobile cabinet about twelve feat square at the base which contained "104 shallow evaporating pans filled with chemicals.  Through evaporations of these liquids, he claims to affect the atmospheric conditions,"   Aside from admitting that his "secret mixture" contained around twenty-three chemicals in all (hydrogen and zinc are only two of the known ingredients), Hatfield was emphatic about protecting his trade secrets.

The first real demonstration of his rainmaking prowess came in 1904 when he promised the people of Los Angeles that he would bring them eighteen inches of rainfall over the following six months.   Climbing a wooden tower over twenty feet tall, he released his mystery mixture into the air over the town of La Crescenta in California.   And, sure enough, the rain started almost immediately.  While the National Weather Service pointed out that the rain Hatfield was taking credit for was part of a larger storm system already underway, that hardly stopped the local farmers from turning Hatfield into a folk hero and to hire him again when drought struck the area once more.    While he didn't quit hit the eighteen inches of rainfall he had promised, the rain that did come down earned him a $1000 fee and allowed him to join the lecture circuit as "Professor" Charles Hatfield.  

But it wasn't just farmers who requested Hatfield's services.   In 1906, Gold miners in Alaska decided to call in Hatfield to solve a problem they were facing that had nothing to do with growing crops.   The miners knew that the best gold was found in alluvial placer deposits formed in river and stream sediments.   This is what made panning for gold so profitable, but only if there was enough running water in the rivers and streams to separate gold particles from the other, worthless, dross.    Which was why the miners needed America's foremost rainmaker to keep the rivers flowing at a high enough level.

After coming to Alaska and hearing their pitch, Hatfield struck a deal with the miners:   they would appoint a panel to decide how much rain was needed.   If Hatfield met this goal, he would get $10,000.   If he failed however, he would only get enough money to cover his basic expenses.   The miners agreed and Hatfield went to work.    He mixed up his chemicals and arranged for the tall towers he needed to be assembled.   Finally, he sent his chemical mixture skyward and sat back to wait. Sure enough, it worked.  Sort of.  There seem to be differing accounts of what actually happened though one newspaper story states that, out of the forty-four days that his system was in operation, rain fell on thirty-six days.   Hatfield collected his fee though skeptics continued to argue over whether he was causing the rainfall or taking credit for favourable weather that might have occurred anyway.  

"I am anxious to demonstrate the system I employ, "  he said in one interview.   "and to do a work of lasting benefit to my country and more particularly to those dry and arid placed throughout the Southwestern States.  I stand ready at any time to produce rain for the Government, State, or nation and I hold myself in readiness to prove to the Federal officials the truth of my statements and the value of my system."   

Which still left the pesky issue of what he actually did to cause his rain magic.  All that he would say was that "by powerful electrical apparatus in combination with patent chemical changes, my system produces rainfall over wide areas;  it is simply an artificial application of nature's method which brings out the necessary condition for rain precipitation. "   Since electricity still had an almost mystical reputation courtesy of the work of scientists such as Oliver Lodge and inventors like Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, the idea that Hatfield had somehow found a new use for electricity didn't seem all that far-fetched to willing customers.

But the "cloud coaxer" would have other challenges ahead of him that weren't so easy to deal with....

To be continued. 

 

https://www.newspapers.com/image/286975406/?terms=%22charles%2Bmallory%2Bhatfield%22

The Great Coca Cola Trial (Part 1)

Harvey Washington Wiley was a man with a mission.

As Chief Chemist of the United States Department of Agriculture Division of Chemistry and one of the founders of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists, Wiley led a crusade against the use of chemical additives in food and drugs. Using a specially selected "poison squad" (the twelve volunteers that he used to test food safety), Wiley's campaign for purer food and drink products became the stuff of legend.  Although the Division of Chemistry had no regulatory powers at first, Wiley and his chemists published their findings on food adulterants in a ten-part series in 1902.  He then recruited various medical and special interest groups to lobby for reform.  Given that Wiley`s crusade happened at the same time as the publication of Upton Sinclair`s well-known book, The Jungle, the push for stringent safeguards in commercial food preparation became a major political issue. The crusade led to the passage of the Pure Food and Drugs Act in 1906 and Wiley`s book, Foods and Their Adulteration, became a standard in the field when it was first published in 1907. 

With the passage of the bill and the increased mandate for the Division of Chemistry (which was a forerunner for the modern Food and Drug Administration), Wiley`s crusade was met with opposition from food companies over the continuing use of chemical preservatives in food (which was not actually addressed by the new law).  His puritanical attacks on many popular food and drink products offended potential supporters although his ultimate downfall came with his crusade against caffeinated soft drinks. 

Although caffeine had been around since ancient times and was a prime ingredient in coffee and tea, it wasn't chemically isolated until 1819 when Friedrich Ferdinand Runge first extracted the purified form of caffeine from coffee (hence the name).  By the end of the 19th century, chemists learned to synthesize caffeine and it became a common ingredient in many food and drink products.  Despite caffeine's popularity (and its largely undeserved reputation for curing drunkenness), medical authorities expressed concern over possible harmful effects on the human body. Ever since coffee and tea were first introduced to the West, medical tracts condemning coffee, tea, and chocolate were common enough and the Netherlands was probably the only European nation that didn't have its own anti-caffeine temperance movement at some point.

As coffeehouses sprang up all over Europe (the first American coffeehouse opened in New York in 1696), they acquired a sinister reputation as hotbeds of sedition and unrest. In 1833, John Cole wrote a paper published in the medical journal Lancet outlining the dangers of excessive coffee and tea drinking.  Cole presented nine case studies describing the various symptoms of coffee/tea intoxication and suggested that "May not the greater prevalence of cardiac disease of late years have been considerably influenced by the increased consumption of coffee and tea?" Cole's paper would be highly influential in shaping later prejudices towards caffeinated products when they were later introduced. 

Which brings us to Coca Cola...

Beginning as a patent medicine sold as a tonic syrup in pharmacies in the late 19th century, Coca Cola took its name from two of its main ingredients: coca leaves and kola nuts.  Originally billed as a cure for numerous ailments (including morphine addiction and impotence), Coca Cola became a popular soft drink by the turn to the 20th century. As its popularity grew, changes to the original formula were deemed necessary.  By 1904, the pure coca leaf extract (containing an estimated nine milligrams of cocaine per glass) was replaced by "spent" leaves with the cocaine content removed.  Any remaining stimulant value came from the caffeine which was provided by the kola nuts and the 46 milligrams of caffeine per twelve fluid ounces of Coca Cola.  Unfortunately, that's where the company got in trouble with Harvey Washington Wiley.

Although Coca Cola was extremely popular in prohibitionist circles as a non-alcoholic beverage, Wiley was not pleased by its caffeine content and, given his considerable power at the time, decided to do something about it.  As he pointed out, there was quite a difference between coffee and tea and Coca Cola and its imitators.  While adults were free to drink caffeine products as they pleased, children needed special protection from the negative effects of caffeine.  Since children were the greatest consumers of Coca Cola, the potential harm was far greater (especially since Coca Cola's advertising campaigns downplayed the caffeine content).  Although  Asa Candler (then CEO of Coca Cola) protested Wiley's accusations and insisted that the product was safe, that wasn't enough for Wiley.  Using his authority, Wiley had the US government seize a shipment of Coca Cola being transported from its main plant in Atlanta, Georgia to the principal bottling plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee on October 9, 1909.  Under the Pure Food and Drug Act, the shipment wast declared contraband beginning one of the most memorable early cases involving food products (still known as the U.S. vs. Forty Barrels and Twenty Kegs of Coca Cola case). 

It was quite a trial.  On one side was Wiley with the full backing of the United States government while on the other side was the Coca Cola company, already one of the largest companies in the country.  Wiley's case against Coca Cola focused on the product as being "adulterated and misbranded".  The adulteration came in the form of  the caffeine content which "might render the product injurious to health".  Chemical analysis also showed that, despite the product name, there were almost no traces of coca and "little if any cola".  The actual ingredients, according to the trial transcript, included sugar, water, caffeine, glycerin, lime juice, "and other flavoring matters" (so much for the secret formula). 

The company responded to Wiley's complaint by insisting that Coca Cola was a registered brand name and that the formula had been followed for more than twenty years without problems.  As for the adulteration charge, that was harder to dispute since caffeine had never been proven to be harmful.  When the trial opened on March 13, 1911, there was an array of witnesses giving testimony on both sides.  Religious fundamentalists testified that drinking Coca Cola led to wild parties, sexual indiscretions by coeds and "induced boys to masturbatory wakefulness".   Most of the remaining testimony was scientific in nature although the research methodology involved was often flawed. 

Better research was needed.

Continue to Part 2

What Causes Airplane Headaches?

Airplane Headache (AH) occurs during flights and often appears as an intense, short lasting headache during take-off or landing. Reports are limited on pathological mechanisms underlying the occurrence of this headache. Proper diagnosis and treatments would benefit from identification of potential pathways involved in AH pathogenesis.  A study published recently in the Journal of Headache and Pain aimed at providing a simulated airplane headache condition as a proxy towards identification of its underlying mechanisms. Fourteen participants including 7 volunteers suffering from AH and 7 healthy matched controls were recruited after meeting the diagnostic and safety criteria based on an approved study protocol.  Simulation of AH was achieved by entering a pressure chamber with similar characteristics of an airplane flight. Selected potential biomarkers including salivary prostaglandin E₂ (PGE₂), cortisol, facial thermo-images, blood pressure, pulse, and saturation pulse oxygen (SPO) were defined and values were collected before, during and after flight simulation in the pressure chamber. Salivary samples were analyzed with ELISA techniques, while data analysis and statistical tests were handled with SPSS version 22.0. Results: All participants in the AH-group experienced a headache attack similar to AH experience during flight. The non-AH-group did not experience any headaches. Data showed that the values for PGE₂, cortisol and SPO were significantly different in the AH-group in comparison with the non-AH-group during the flight simulation in the pressure chamber. The pressure chamber proved useful not only to provoke AH-like attack but also to study potential biomarkers for AH in this study. PGE₂, and cortisol levels together with SPO presented dysregulation during the simulated AH-attack in affected individuals compared with healthy controls. Based on these findings the researchers propose to use pressure chamber as a model to induce AH, and thus assess new potential biomarkers for AH in future studies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

Why Are So Many Veterans Homeless?

For decades, homelessness has been a major health problem that defies easy solutions.  

Defined by U.S. federal legislation as people who "lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence,"  determining how many homeless people there really are remains a perennial problem.  Part of the difficulty in understanding how common homelessness really is s deals with the relative invisibility of homeless people who, for their own safety, often prefer to stay hidden to avoid criminal victimization or possible arrest.   Since many jurisdictions make vagrancy a criminal offense, homeless people are often driven even further underground and the living conditions they endure are typically appalling.   

And there are any number of reasons why someone could end up on the street.   Along with the enormous number of people who were forced into homelessness when mental hospitals were closed across the United States during the 1970s, whole families have been reduced to homelessness following the recent economic reversals of the past ten years.   According to some estimates, approximately one out of every thirty children (2.5 million in all) are living in substandard housing or no housing at all with California and Florida having the greatest proportion of homeless people under the age of 18.   

Returning veterans who become homeless due to mental health problems or economic hardship are also becoming more common in homeless populations.   Despite numerous media stories about homeless veterans and the problems they face, actual studies exploring the incidence and causes of veteran homelessness remain scarce.  According to one estimate, the number of veterans without stable accommodation was placed at nearly 58,000 (twelve percent of the known homeless across the U.S.) as of 2013.  

To read more, check out my new Psychology Today blog post.