A good introduction to the political economy of scares is the article in Forbes on the subject of enviroporn. Environmental activists undertake media-friendly acts that appear to approximate science and are then taken up and publicised by sympathetic media. Essential is the public appearance of scientific activity that confers authority.
How else to explain a book in which the authors, two longtime Canadian environmentalists, expose themselves to products containing chemicals such as phthalates and then have their blood analyzed to show how dangerous putting on cologne is?
The activity is meaningless, but resembles the action of a political cargo cult. Replicating the skin of a science without undertaking the epistemic core (because it is too hard and they are too ignorant!), and stealing the authority to join pseudoscience with political agitation. This is even more dangerous than enviroporn.E