While on the one hand this induces opportunities, it makes people ill on the other. Parents whose children suffer attacks of pseudo-croup bang their heads against the wall of scientific denials of the existence of modernization risks. All those who have seen the way their child hacks and coughs at night, lying in bed, eyes wide with terror and fighting for air, can only speak of infinite fear. Now that they have learned that pollutants in the air threaten not just trees, soil and water, but also infants and young children, they no longer accept the coughing fits as acts of fate. They have joined together across Germany in more than 100 citizens’ initiative groups. Their demand is, ‘Reduce sulfur dioxide instead of just gassing about it!’ (Konig, Der Stern, April 1985).