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Watching the World

Mortality Rates up in Women Smokers

A recent study published in The Canadian Journal of Public Health finds that smoking-related deaths among Canadian women increased from 9,009 in 1985 to 13,541 in 1991. The study projects that more women than men will die as a result of smoking by the year 2010 if current trends continue. In 1991, there were an estimated 41,408 deaths attributed to smoking (27,867 males and 13,541 females), according to The Toronto Star. In the United States, lung-cancer deaths among women smokers have increased sixfold between the ’60’s and the ’80’s, says Dr. Michael Thun of the American Cancer Society. Researchers conclude that “cigarette smoking remains by far the largest single preventable cause of premature mortality in the United States,” reports The Globe and Mail of Toronto, Canada.

Drugs in German Schools

A study among more than 3,000 students in northern Germany reveals the widespread use of addictive substances in schools. According to the weekly newsmagazine Focus, almost half the students of 17 years of age have personally used illegal drugs, and more than a third are current users. Professor Peter Struck explained that “at many high schools in Hamburg, you find school students of 16 or 17 years of age who constantly alternate between taking stimulants and tranquilizers.” But why is the use of drugs so extensive? Professor Klaus Hurrelmann gave three reasons for drug consumption among youths: boredom with life, the feeling of receiving too little recognition for personal achievement, and peer pressure.

Remarkable Travelers

A wandering albatross flew 16,000 miles [26,000 km] in 72 days, and a gray seal swam 3,000 miles [5,000 km] in three months. Conservation scientists discovered these amazing feats of endurance after fitting tiny radio transmitters to selected albatross and seals to track their movements by satellite. At one stage the albatross flew almost 2,000 miles [3,000 km] in four days over the South Pacific Ocean. The seal swam up to 60 miles [100 km] a day between Scotland and the Faeroe Islands and demonstrated an amazing ability to navigate accurately across open sea, notes The Times of London. What prompted both these marathon journeys? A search for food, says the report.

“A World Body Without Much Soul”

“For three days last week, leaders from every continent got together at the 50th birthday party of the United Nations to make grand speeches about the state of the world,” reported The New York Times last October. Apparently, however, one important ingredient was missing from a number of the “grand speeches”—honesty. “Like politicians everywhere,” said the Times, “they made promises they won’t keep and criticized somebody else for their shortcomings.” After quoting eight national leaders whose words conflicted with their countries’ deeds, the newspaper concluded their overriding message to be: “Forget what I do, world; listen to what I say.” Little wonder that U.S.News & World Report called the United Nations “a world body without much soul.”

High-Temperature Honeybees

Japanese honeybees defend themselves against attack from the giant hornet by killing it with their body heat, reports Science News. After detecting the presence of a hornet, the honeybees lure the enemy inside the nest, where hundreds of workers tackle it and form a ball around it. Then, “the bees vibrate and raise the temperature of the ball to a killer 47° C [116° F.] for about 20 minutes,” notes the magazine. Since Japanese honeybees can endure temperatures up to about 122 degrees Fahrenheit [50° C.], this maneuver does not harm them. Not all hornets, however, fall victim to the snare of the honeybee. Since “20 to 30 hornets can kill a colony of 30,000 bees in 3 hours,” giant hornets can overpower the honeybees by conducting a mass attack. “In these cases,” says the News, “they take over the nest and collect the bees’ larvae and pupae.”

The Cross —Symbol of Violence?

Some theologians are questioning the propriety of the cross as a symbol of Christianity because of its violent associations, reports The Dallas Morning News. The theologians are encouraging the use of symbols reflecting Jesus’ life rather than his death. The cross “feeds a death worship,” said theologian Catherine Keller of Drew University Theological School in Madison, New Jersey, U.S.A. “Nobody would want an electric chair or noose as a key symbol of faith, but that’s what we would be using if Jesus were put to death by the state today.”

Water Fleas to the Rescue

The humble water flea may provide the solution to the problem of polluted inland waterways, reports London’s Independent newspaper. This is indicated by a recovery project now under way. First, biologists removed 9.5 tons of fish that feed on water fleas from Ormesby Broad in Norfolk, England. This allowed the fleas to thrive and gobble up the algae that was polluting the lake. Other plants then germinated underwater from dormant seeds, and birds, such as coots and swans, returned. Eventually, fish will be reintroduced, and it is estimated that the whole ecosystem will be back to normal in five years. Conservationists in Europe are watching the outcome of the project with interest.

Sidestepping Sin

“What ever happened to sin?” asks Newsweek magazine. “The urgent sense of personal sin has all but disappeared in the current upbeat style in American religion.” Parishioners “do not want to hear sermons that might rattle their self-esteem,” and among Catholics “regular confession to a priest has become a rite of the past.” Competing clergy are afraid to alienate their flocks. Many “routinely condemn such ‘systemic’ social evils as racism [and] sexism,” the article states. “But their voices are strangely muffled on subjects close to home—like divorce, pride, greed and overweening personal ambition.”

Gem “Fingerprints”

British women own 39 million pieces of diamond jewelry worth approximately $17.5 billion, and every year items worth $450 million are stolen. Most jewelry lost in this way is untraceable. The metal in which the diamonds are set is soon melted down. Then the gemstones are reset. Now, however, working through a central computer, jewelers will be able to enter into digital memory the unique flaws of every stone. These “fingerprints” are detected by a low-density laser beam that reads the imperfections of each stone—no two stones are alike. The only way thieves could get around the system of security would be to recut stones, an expensive practice, which also reduces their value, reports The Sunday Times of London.

Fireworks Alert

Officials report that “approximately 12,000 persons are treated each year in U.S. emergency departments because of fireworks-related injuries,” states Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). The report, compiled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission for the years 1990-1994, estimates that 20 percent of all injuries from fireworks were eye injuries. These, says MMWR, are “often severe and can cause permanently reduced visual acuity or blindness.” It is noteworthy, too, that apparently more bystanders sustained eye injuries than fireworks operators.

“A Potential Timebomb”

About 45 percent of the world’s population presently lives in cities, reports Focus magazine, and by the year 2000, it is estimated that half the population will be city dwellers. Much of northern Europe, Italy, and the eastern United States have a fairly high population density, and parts of China, Egypt, India, and South Africa have some densely populated cities in otherwise rural countryside. Satellite imaging, however, now reveals that only 3 to 4 percent of the earth is urbanized. But with 61 million people moving into cities yearly, mostly in the developing world, the population density in these urban areas increases because “the cities cannot grow as fast as their populations,” notes Focus, adding: “The situation is a potential timebomb.”