Watching the World
Worldwide Drug Abuse
WHO (World Health Organization) estimates that there are as many as 48 million people worldwide who abuse and misuse drugs. Of that figure, approximately 1.7 million are addicted to opium, 30 million smoke cannabis, and 700,000 use heroin. It is estimated that those who are hooked on cocaine, which is now viewed as the most addictive drug obtainable, amount to several million. According to WHO officials, these figures represent only the tip of the iceberg, since available information from many countries is limited.
AIDS as a Weapon?
Criminal courts in the United States are now being hit by AIDS-related cases. Prosecutors are filing assault charges against “defendants thought to have the disease who spit on or bite police officers,” reports The National Law Journal. In three separate cases, prosecutors justified such felony charges because of the risk of spreading the fatal disease. They believe that “AIDS can be transmitted by saliva if it gets into an open cut, the eyes or the bloodstream.” One prosecuting attorney stated: “We’re not out looking for people to prosecute. But when someone is using an illness as an offensive weapon, we’re not going to tolerate it.”
Middle Eastern Mouse Crisis
A population problem exists along the Israeli-Syrian cease-fire line. Not among humans—the area is sparsely inhabited—but among field mice. An estimated 250 million mice live there. The mice have been killing themselves en masse by jumping into streams and over cliffs on the Golan Heights. According to the scientists who have observed them, the rodents are behaving instinctively to solve their overpopulation problem.
Volcano Creates New Island
On Monday, January 20, an island was born 750 miles (1,200 km) south of Tokyo. An undersea volcano erupted in the Western Pacific and formed a new crescent-shaped island. By Friday the island had “grown” to be about 2,300 feet (700 m) long from east to west and 650 feet (200 m) across at its widest part, and it was still “growing,” Japan’s Maritime Safety Agency told Awake! The newborn island may disappear though. “New islands appeared following volcanic eruptions in the same area in 1907-1908 and in 1914, but they soon vanished,” says the Mainichi Daily News.
High-Tech Smuggling
Greed is the prime catalyst behind Americans’ smuggling high-technology equipment out of the United States, The New York Times reports. Some of it is for use in testing nuclear weapons. Foreign governments do not have to use their own secret service workers to obtain prized U.S. technology illegally, said Richard Roberts, a U.S. Customs Service agent. They just let it be known that their country wants a certain product and that they are willing to pay top dollar for it. “And they get it,” he said, because “greed steps in.” Who do the smuggling? “Mostly legitimate businessmen who have jumped at a chance to make a great deal of money,” said an assistant U.S. attorney, and he added that they are “well-mannered people who go to church.”
Nicotine Dependency
Recent scientific evidence suggests that habitual use of tobacco leads to actual physical dependence, said a report given at a symposium on tobacco smoking held at the University of Kentucky, U.S.A. Nicotine, a drug found in tobacco, meets the technical criterion of an addictive substance, said a spokesman from a National Institute of Drug Abuse research center. “You can say nicotine is in the category of heroin and the stimulants,” he said. This may help explain why the U.S. surgeon general found that more than 80 percent of those who try to stop smoking fail within one year.
◻ The U.S. congress passed legislation that requires manufacturers and importers of smokeless tobacco products to have warning labels on their packages. The warning is to consist of three rotating messages that state: Snuff and chewing tobacco (1) “may cause mouth cancer,” (2) “may cause gum disease and tooth loss,” (3) are “not a safe alternative to cigarettes.”
Baby Formula Alert
Babies with poorly functioning kidneys should not be fed infant formula containing aluminum, research shows. While investigating the deaths of two babies who suffered from kidney dysfunction, Miami University doctors discovered that the brains of the babies contained massive amounts of aluminum as a result of the inability of their kidneys to cope with the toxic metal. New Scientist reports that the infant formula powdered milk drunk by the children “contained 50 times the amount of aluminium found in breast milk.”
Fooling “Mother Nature”
The seven to ten days that bees spend in making wax can now be saved, claims the inventor of a product called Perma-comb. Nine years were spent in developing the high-density polyethylene combs, and during that time no hives were ever abandoned. Another advantage is that the honey can be extracted from the combs in about one minute using a high-speed centrifuge. Current methods take about half an hour. The plastic combs do not melt or break and are impervious to the damaging wax moth. Pesticides against the moth do not then need to be used, resulting in purer honey. If need be, the artificial combs can be sterilized. The California inventor feels that the new combs will allow beekeeping to become more automated.
‘No Lottery. No Losers’
When the state of California, U.S.A., recently began its lottery, the chance of winning $2 million captured the fancy of many people. To help promote the lottery, many stores gave tickets away to their customers according to the amount of their purchases. But one chain of stores refused to participate. “No Lottery. No Lines. No Losers,” read signs in their store windows. Why? “We don’t feel the lottery is a good deal for the customer,” the chain’s merchandising chief explained. “The odds are not that good. And, as for education, it teaches children that they can get something for nothing, which is absolutely wrong.” Did sales dip? “The first week after the lottery began we were hurting,” he explained. “But now business is stronger than ever.”
Deadly Combination
The combination of contraceptive pills and tobacco smoking increases the risk of heart attack by at least ten times, warns cardiologist Professor Peter Sleight of Oxford, England. Professor Sleight says in the Sun newspaper of Sydney, Australia, that smoking is increasing among young women. With what result? Heart attacks in this age group are now becoming commonplace. He believes that the cause is smoking, especially in women who are on the Pill.
Where Are the Animals?
Tourists visiting African game parks are sometimes disappointed at not seeing enough wildlife. “An area not teeming with a variety of animals,” states the South African magazine Fauna & Flora, “may be an indication of a healthy balance between the game and the veld [grassland].” Overstocking of animals destroys the grass cover and causes soil erosion. At one time, game animals had total freedom of movement, which was a protection to the game and to the veld. Now, because of restricted movement, conservationists find it necessary to cull herds so that game animals do not die a painful death from starvation and thirst.
Ancient Tree
Europe’s oldest tree stands in the Bulgarian village Granit near the town Stara Zagora. The oak is 1,640 years old, is over 75 feet (23 m) high, and has a girth of 25 feet (7.5 m), according to the Bulgarian news agency. This would mean that the old tree started to grow about ten years after the death of Roman emperor Constantine, who fused pagan religion with Christianity. He died in 337 C.E. But this old oak is a mere youngster compared with the sequoias of California, some of which are twice as old.
High-Priced Bones
A recent ban on the export of human skeletons from India has seriously affected their supply in Europe, the United States, and Japan, reports India Today. Such limited supplies of human skeletons have resulted in higher costs to medical students, who now must pay as much as $140 for a partial skeleton that previously cost less than $100. Although India has been the world supplier of human bones for more than 50 years, the ban was imposed because of claims of “body snatching” and other grisly practices committed by those who seek to profit from the dead.
Allergy Test Credibility
A $350 blood test offered by Bio Health Centers promised to diagnose an individual’s sensitivity to over 187 different substances. Omni magazine reports that Frank Golden, an FDA investigator skeptical about the success of such an offer, sent a sample of cow’s blood to the center for analysis. Interestingly, the company not only failed to identify the blood as nonhuman but notified the investigator that the donor was allergic to cottage cheese, yogurt, and cow’s milk!