Aircraft will fall from the sky and total strangers will have sex in the street, writes Reg Little.

Public transport will grind to a halt, cash machines will spew tenners on to the pavement and - assuming the world does not end - your toaster may stop working.

Are you suffering from Millennium warning-fatigue already?

Well, a team of Oxford researchers has now found that the effect of all the safety warnings is extremely worrying.

Kate Fox, director of Oxford's Social Issues Research Centre, is anticipating widespread Riskfactor-phobia, with many people becoming anxious and totally neurotic as the big countdown begins. The disturbing psychological side-effects of the high doses of health and safety campaigns are examined in the centre's Millennium report.

It finds that people will fall into three groups: worriers, people who have just switched off, and those determined to party whatever the cost.

Kate said: "We have identified three typical responses to the warning campaigns and they are all potentially problematic."

So to which category do you belong? *Forbidden-fruit eaters: Determined to indulge in excess and high-risk pleasure. Set on deliberately defying the "be good over the Millennium" preachers.

*Sufferers of warning fatigue: The biggest category of people, who simply turn off when the Millennium is mentioned and already totally de-sensitised to safety warnings. The trouble is that in dismissing all Millennium advice, they may not take in important information.

*Riskfactorphobics: Certain to suffer unnecessary stress, fear and anxiety. Probably began worrying about the Millennium bug two years ago. Obsessed by every leaflet and health warning whether it's about food poisoning or contraception. As an author of books about pubs and horse racing, 37-year-old Ms Fox is well placed to offer top tips about celebrating.

Now she wants to see some self-control, not from Millennium revellers, but the Government and health agencies behind unnecessary campai- gns.

She said: "I think a lot of people will end up cowering at home.

"People will miss out on having fun."

But she welcomed efforts to offer practical help, such as the national advisory service Brook's plans to make emergency contraceptives available over the holiday.

The report of the SIRC, based in St Clement's, Oxford, follows on from earlier research involving GPs about the impact on patients of food and safety warnings.

Story date: Saturday 20 November

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