9 Everyday Inventions That Caused Widespread Panic

8. Television Won't Make Your Eyes Square, But It Will Give You Cancer

Many of us were told as kids not to sit too close to the telly, because it will make your eyes go square (or, for those with with less vividly imaginative mothers, that it would damage our vision) and, whilst this is categorically not true, the myth that sitting too close to your television is bad for your health has some basis in fact.

Back in the 1960s, General Electric produced a batch of dodgy colour TVs that, it transpired, were emitting as much as 100,000 times the acceptable levels of X-ray radiation in 90,000 homes. This was due to a factory error, and was fixed by placing leaded glass around the tubes.

As a result, officials warned against sitting too close to the television and, although the x-rays are gone, the paranoia lives on.