MUMBAI: Even as Japan faces a nuclear crisis, mobile phones in Mumbai have started beeping with bogus SMSes warning of radioactive rain. This is not the first time that fear-mongering text messages have done the rounds of the city. When the AIDS epidemic was at its height, chain mails warned of deadly syringes filled with infected blood that were being kept on dimly lit seats at cinema theatres. They spread panic among citizens. Do these messages have a noble aim or is unrest their only agenda? While sociologists and doctors say that urban legends usually have a social message, it is often exaggerated and not medically true. Consider the Japan-centric SMS which reads: "There was a nuclear blast at 4.30 pm on Sunday in Fukushima, Japan. If it rains today or in the next few days, do not go under the rain (sic)." The reason? "Radioactive particles which cause burns, alopecia or even cancer may be in the rains."
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