Watching the World
Soviet’s Synthetic Blood
◆ During the past few years, a synthetic blood substitute has been developed by scientists in several countries and has been used on a small number of patients in Japan and the United States. Recently, Sputnik magazine, published in the Soviet Union, reported as follows: “Haematologists have come to the conclusion that the best blood substitutes are carbon tetrafluorides. These organic compounds have unique properties: on the one hand, they are biologically inert, hence, harmless; on the other, they dissolve gases, including oxygen, very well. By mixing carbon tetrafluorides with low-molecular chemical compounds one can obtain an emulsion with particles which are smaller than one-tenth of a micron. These particles can be viewed as a ‘model’ of the erythrocytes—the red blood corpuscles. . . . Moscow haematologists have obtained a new preparation which they have dubbed perfluorbutylamine. Tests on animals have confirmed its effectiveness. According to the scientists, this new blood substitute may even stimulate protective and restorative reactions of the body.”
Rock Group and Spiritism
◆ According to The Weekend Australian newspaper, Kevin Jacobsen, the Australian promoter for America’s rock group Kiss, once declared: “I have known them for two years and I am still scared of them.” For a flight from the U.S. to Perth, he said that he booked the entire first-class compartment of a jetliner because he “was afraid their Ouija board and seances would frighten the other passengers.”
“Subtle Property of Human Milk”
◆ For the past 15 years considerable research has been done disclosing the nutritional superiority of breast milk over artificial formulas. But the nutritional benefits are not the only ones. For example, Britain’s New Scientist magazine reports: “There is a subtle property of human milk which no formula could emulate. It is that breast milk produced when a baby begins a feed is quite different in composition from that at the end. In human milk the fat content increases five times and the protein nearly doubles during the course of a 15 minute feed. Barbara Hall, working with nursing mothers at the Nuffield Institute of Comparative Medicine in London, proposes that these changes form part of a system to control the appetite. As the milk becomes more concentrated towards the end of a feed from one breast, the baby’s hunger is satisfied and he stops sucking. . . . Such a cue for appetite control . . . cannot occur with the uniform composition of manufactured milk.”
Smokeless Tobacco Dangers
◆ Prodded by a relentless advertising campaign implying that smokeless tobacco is somehow “safer,” there has been an increase in the use of chewing tobacco in the United States, particularly among young men. The Journal of the American Dental Association comments: “Advertising implies that the smokeless tobacco products are ‘safe.’ They are not.” In addition to nicotine dependence, the article notes the following possible dangers: “Smokeless tobacco products have shown the potential for causing cancer of the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, and esophagus. A review of the medical and dental literature has shown 646 cases of cancer associated directly with smokeless tobacco. Smokeless tobacco can produce significant effects on the soft and hard tissues of the mouth, including bad breath, discolored teeth and restorations, excessive wear (abrasion) of the incisal and occlusal surfaces of the teeth, decreased ability to taste and smell, gingival recession, advanced periodontal destruction of the soft and hard tissues, erythema of the soft tissues, leukoplakia, and cancer.”
Strict Law
◆ In the Federal Republic of Germany, a strict law strips a driver of his license for at least three months if he is found to have more than 0.8 milliliters of alcohol in his bloodstream. If the amount of alcohol is higher than 1.3 milliliters, the judge suspends the license for from six months to a year and levies a fine. If a drunken driver is involved in an accident, he could be sent to prison. In the past two years, police have cracked down on drunken driving, halting drivers at random check points on key highways and at intersections and autobahn exits. Said Inspector Hartmut Baumgart, chief of the Bonn Traffic Police: “The goal is to get drunkards off the road. If we scare a few other drivers along the way and keep one drinker off the road, it doesn’t hurt.” One driver who had a few drinks and then took a taxi home said that “it’s a pain, but it’s worth it,” noting: “I lost my license once, and I’ll never let it happen again.”
Thwarting Therapy
◆ A study has been made of 112 persons who received treatment for lung cancer. Of that number, 20 stopped smoking before they learned they had lung cancer, 35 stopped at the time of diagnosis, but 57 patients continued smoking while they received treatment. Those who quit smoking before diagnosis had the best survival rate, followed by those who quit smoking at the time of diagnosis. But those who continued smoking seemed to thwart the therapy, as it were, for none survived disease-free for more than 96 weeks. But six of those who quit smoking are disease-free 103 to 220 weeks after therapy began. “On the basis of this analysis,” said the Journal of the American Medical Association, ‘we conclude that continued smoking during treatment is associated with a poor prognosis in patients with small cell lung cancer.”—Vol. 244, No. 19, pp. 2175, 2179.
Church “Going Nowhere”
◆ At a rally at Inverness, Church of Scotland cleric Jim Salmond said, as reported in The Scotsman: “The Church has become an inflated Tower of Babel, blown up and puffed up by a minority group of ministers who speak neither for God nor man, and whose unfaithfulness to the word of God is increasingly bringing the Church down into the theological gutter.” Members, he added, want a Kirk (Church) that knows where it stands and where it is going. “But because of unbiblical preaching and belief, the Kirk now seems to stand for nothing much, which is why it’s going nowhere.”
Robbers with White Collars
◆ According to an FBI report, far more money is stolen from banks in the U.S. by white-collar criminals than by holdup men. The report showed that during the first six months of 1980 there were 3,459 bank robberies, burglaries and larcenies, resulting in a loss to banks of $22,100,000. But during the same period there were 5,174 bank fraud and embezzlement cases, resulting in a loss to banks of $103,300,000. Bank fraud and embezzlement almost topped the list of white-collar crimes—exceeded only by corruption of state and local officials.
Arthritis Relief?
◆ Much has been said about health benefits that can come from cutting down on the amount of red meat in one’s diet and increasing the intake of foods that provide fiber and bulk. Another possible benefit has been noted by New York physician Joseph Rechtschaffen. Some of his patients who reduced beef consumption and increased their intake of fiber and bulk reported that their arthritis was disappearing. The doctor explained: “The American diet is very high in phosphorus because of the beef and cola drinks. Calcium content drops when phosphorus [intake] rises.” He feels that “eliminating cola drinks and almost eliminating beef consumption may be responsible” for the arthritis relief.
Zambia’s Crime Wave
◆ Skyrocketing crime is not confined to the major cities of the Western world. From Africa, the Times of Zambia reports: “Violent urban crime in Zambia is becoming outrageous. Every day seems to be bringing in its own horrendous crime. . . . staying at home locked up behind high walls isn’t that safe any more. Driving at night is even worse. Night hold-ups are too numerous to mention. . . . It is no exaggeration therefore to say that people on the Copperbelt and Lusaka in particular are literally living in fear.” The Times asks: “What has gone wrong? Where is it going to end? Is banditry, gangsterism, and organised crime going to be allowed to go on unchecked until anarchy reigns?” Noting that neighbors now do not usually come to the aid of a crime victim, the newspaper said that the idea of “everyone for himself” was “robbing Zambians of their basic humanity.”
Uneasy Food Balance
◆ “Feeding the world next year will be like walking a tightrope without a net,” said The Wall Street Journal late in 1980. It stated: “A single misstep, such as another summer’s bad weather in the U.S., experts say, would be enough to unbalance the act, plunging the whole world into a grain shortage and some poor nations to the brink of starvation.” The basic problem is that, although food production has risen the past few years, food consumption has increased even faster. Washington agriculturalist John A. Schnittker observed: “In the three seasons that have given us the biggest harvests the world has ever had, we will have a net stock reduction of 56 million tons.” And world grain stocks are expected to reach a five-year low during 1981 as consumption again exceeds production.
Third-World Death Rates
◆ Are death rates in the Third World continuing to decline? No, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) sixth report on the state of the world’s health. Some lands are even showing an increase in mortality rates. It is difficult to account for this, says WHO, “except in terms of flagging determination on the part of the governments concerned and special circumstances (for example, acute poverty) that make further improvement in health especially difficult.”
“Greatest Wave of Refugees”
◆ “The greatest wave of refugees and displaced persons in modern times—far beyond that created by the dislocations of World War II—will grow this year by at least two million people,” reports the New York Times Magazine. That brings the total to 17 million persons. The causes of all this uprooting of people? “Sometimes, as in parts of East Africa today, it is famine that sends the ghost armies [refugees] on their way,” says the report. “More often, though, it is another of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: war. The history of recent decades demonstrates that war makes refugees.” The report added: “During the last 10 years, 90 percent of small wars have been fought in the third world. A decade ago, those parts of the world averaged a total of less than one new conflict a year . . . Now the rate is 1.6 a year. . . . Thus the third world becomes ever more unstable, generating ever more refugees.”—November 23, 1980, pp. 136, 138.
Scenic but Not Safe
◆ The famed Champs Élysées, in Paris, has long been a favorite place for tourists to stroll. Broad and a little more than a mile (1.6 km) long, it extends from the Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe and is a center for cafés and restaurants. However, tourists who have regarded this avenue as “the most picturesque boulevard in the world” are having second thoughts as to its safety. Police reports show that, on the average, there is now one theft, burglary or armed robbery on this boulevard every two hours. Tourists, frequently the Japanese, are often the victims of the Parisian thieves. In any big city today, it pays to remain alert, no matter how picturesque the area.