Fast Trains May Be Unhealthy for Riders

A Harvard professor yesterday told a conference on high speed ground transportation at Carnegie-Mellon University that proposed 300-mile-per-hour trains may create problems of health and comfort for passengers.

Ross A. McFarland, Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Professor of Aerospace Health and Safety at the School of Public Health, said that dizziness, nausea, pain in the ears, and loss of consciousness are possible side effects from riding such trains.

McFarland warned that:

* Reaction of eyesight to passing the landscape at high speeds might cause dizziness, nausea, and in some cases convulsions and loss of consciousness.

* Air pressure changes encountered while passing through tunnels can cause discomforting pain in the sinus and the ears.