Watching the World
Medical Help by Satellite
◆ An artificial satellite in stationary orbit 22,300 miles above the Pacific Ocean is being used to relay medical advice and information to twenty-six rural Alaskan villages. Storms and atmospheric phenomena often make regular radio communication impossible. Communicating by satellite eliminates this problem. Specialized medical institutions in Fairbanks and Anchorage can always be contacted by means of this satellite.
Cancer-causing Preservative
◆ A preservative put in many wines, draft beer and noncarbonated fruit drinks has been found by Swedish researchers to produce a cancer-causing side product. Although the preservative disappears within twenty-four hours after being put in the food, it can, by reacting with ammonia in these drinks, produce urethane. This chemical is well known for causing cancer, and furthermore it does not disappear as does the preservative. Since other food chemicals have also proved to be cancer causing, how wise is it to lace man’s foods with a great variety of chemicals?
Population Growth
◆ In the past twenty years the human population of the earth has increased by more than one thousand million, bringing the total to 3.632 thousand million. One third of this multitude lives in cities. That more people are moving into cities is evident from the fact that ten years ago there were 29 cities with a population of one million, but now there are 133 such cities. During the five years between 1965 and 1970 man’s birth rate was two and one half times as great as his death rate.
Tattoo Remover
◆ A simple method for removing an unwanted tattoo has been developed by Dr. F. W. Crittenden, Jr., a U.S. Navy dermatologist. He rubs the tattoo with salt. Using sterile gauze pads that are moistened and dipped in salt, he rubs the tattoo until the skin bleeds. The surface skin is thus removed, and the oozing fluids carry away the pigments in the tattoo. The wound is dressed and a scab forms over the wound. When the scab falls off, a picture of the tattoo can be seen in the scab.
British Baptists Declining
◆ Membership in Baptist churches in Britain has declined 14 percent during the past ten years. Over the past 30 years the decline has been 30 percent. On the basis of these figures, The Christian Century of December 22, 1971, raised the question, “Is there a future for the Baptist denomination in Britain?”
Aging Smokers
◆ According to a study made by Dr. Harry W. Daniell, of Redding, California, smoking actually ages a person faster than normal. After studying 1,100 persons, he found that facial wrinkles, especially those around the eyes, were deeper among persons who smoke than among nonsmokers. He observed: “In every age group, the subjects with progressively higher wrinkle scores included progressively larger percentages of smokers. And the most heavily wrinkled class in each age group was composed entirely of smokers.” Those smokers in their forties had facial wrinkling equivalent to that of nonsmokers twenty years older.
Catholic Schools with Non-Catholic Students
◆ Due to the exodus of white people from American cities to the suburbs and the influx of black people to the cities a change is occurring in many Catholic schools. They are becoming predominantly black and non-Catholic. Two hundred Catholic parochial schools in large cities have experienced this change. There are thirty-three parochial elementary schools in Chicago with student bodies ranging from 20 to 75 percent non-Catholic. A parochial school in Pittsburgh is 90 percent non-Catholic and has a non-Catholic principal.
Making Roads from Garbage
◆ A section of highway was paved with material that contained composted household refuse along with the usual asphalt, sand and stone mixture. The experiment proved the mixture to be durable. Cracks and potholes in the ordinary highway material ended abruptly where the new composition began. In another experiment two industrial waste products—calcium sulfate and fly ash—were mixed with reclaimed rubber, reclaimed bottles, garbage, lime and water to make a surfacing material that was used to surface one hundred acres of roads and parking lots at Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C.
Danger of Factory Noises
◆ According to the Times of London, the Production Engineering Research Association warned that the majority of factories are too noisy and therefore a health hazard. It stated that one’s hearing is temporarily impaired after working for only one day in a noisy factory. “Next day,” it said, “if full hearing has not returned, the machines seem to be quieter. For the time being the effect is temporary. Eventually the day comes when hearing loss starts to become permanent.”
Brain Damage
◆ A team of British doctors reported that they found irreversible shrinking of brain tissue in ten men who had smoked marijuana for from three to eleven years. Such atrophying of brain tissue produces such symptoms as memory loss for recent events, changes in personality, changes in temperament, decreased desire to work and diminished clarity of thought.
Saving Teeth
◆ A person can easily loose his teeth by failing to keep them clean. Such neglect results in periodontal disease, which causes the gums and bone that support the teeth to give way, allowing the teeth to fall out. It is reported that because of this disease half of the Americans who reach the age of fifty-five have lost all their teeth. The best prevention is thorough and daily brushing of one’s teeth so as to remove the bacteria. Eating raw carrots, apples and celery also helps.
Questionable Deodorants
◆ Advertisers have created a demand for a product that, in the view of some doctors, is not needed. The product is genital deodorants for women. After treating thirty women for bad side effects from using such deodorants, a Canadian physician observed: “Surely in this gadget-conscious, product-oriented civilization, we must resist those instances where a demand is being artificially created for a product of questionable value. This is especially true where even the minimal advantage can be more than outweighed by significant complications.” It is especially dangerous to apply these deodorants to the delicate mucous membranes of the vagina. The magazine Consumer Reports remarked that “there is always a risk involved in spraying chemicals on the body, especially on such sensitive areas as the genitals.” It recommends using just plain soap and water.
Is Your Can Opener Poisoning You?
◆ The handy device hanging on the walls of kitchens in restaurants and in homes that quickly cuts off the tops of cans may be a source of food poisoning. It is easy to forget that this device needs to be cleaned just as much as pots and pans. Food from canned food accumulates on the cutting wheel and becomes a fine culture for bacteria. When an Illinois doctor obtained residue samples from the cutting wheel of can openers in thirty-eight restaurants, he found every blade to be infested with undesirable bacteria.
Boring by Heat
◆ Atomic scientists at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory have developed a device for boring holes in granite by means of heat. When tested, this device penetrated twelve feet into solid rock. It can melt its way through rock at the rate of thirty inches an hour. The hot nose of the boring device is pressed into the granite by a weight of several tons. The molten rock is forced into pores and cracks in the granite, and some of it flows back between the device and the wall of the hole. It then hardens and leaves the hole walled with an impermeable obsidian-like glass. This glass sheath has such great strength that no concrete lining is needed. It is hoped that a model large enough for boring vehicular tunnels can be developed.
Stopping Hiccups
◆ Once started, hiccups are sometimes difficult to stop. Three American doctors who were confronted with twenty patients who had tried unsuccessfully all the old standby remedies for hiccups decided to try sugar. When the patients swallowed dry one teaspoon of ordinary granulated sugar, the hiccups stopped. Eight of the patients had been suffering from hiccups from twenty-four hours to six weeks.
Evolution Is Illogical
◆ In a paper delivered at a meeting of the American Association of Science, Professor John N. Moore of Michigan State University charged that Darwin’s theory of evolution is “more illogical than biological.” He argued that there is no scientific backing for the theory. He called it an “incredible religion,” not a science. He believes evolution should be taught as a theory and not as fact.
Insect-killing Garlic
◆ Two chemicals have been extracted from garlic that have been 100 percent effective in killing the larvae of the Culex mosquito in a laboratory. It is hoped by the two researchers in India who discovered the chemicals that they will be a harmless substitute for DDT. The chemicals were effective in concentrations as low as five parts per million.
Antiseptic Skin
◆ In a report to the Society for Investigative Dermatology, Dr. Raza Aly and his associates revealed the results of an experiment that indicates the human skin to have a natural antimicrobial substance. Staph microorganisms applied to unwashed forearms decreased considerably in numbers in five hours, whereas similar microorganisms placed on other forearms that had been first washed with acetone had increased from two to 510 times. The California doctor questioned the wisdom of using powerful antibacterial cleansers and deodorant soaps, as they might be washing away the natural protective agent on the skin.
Canadian Crime on Rise
◆ Canada is seeing an escalating of crime. In the past five years the rate of murder has gone up 53 percent, and there have been twice as many attempts at murder. Assaults were up 52 percent, robberies soared 83 percent and rape climbed 48 percent. Commenting about this, The Toronto Star of November 16, 1971, urged Canadians to begin coping with this situation before their cities become “like many American cities, [where] it is unsafe to walk alone at night and where the citizens, knowing themselves to be without real protection from violence by their constituted authorities, will take the law into their own hands in the form of guns.”
Drug-sniffing Dogs
◆ The U.S. Bureau of Customs has been using dogs with good success in locating illegal drugs. They were first introduced on a wide scale in 1970, and in the course of one year their sensitive noses located more than 13,000 pounds of marijuana, 650 pounds of hashish, 4,000 marijuana cigarettes, 35 pounds of opium and 300 grams of heroin. A trained dog can quickly sniff his way down a conveyor belt filled with packages and spot a package containing illegal drugs. It is said to be almost impossible to get marijuana and hashish past him.