Watching the World

Drug Use Part of College Life

· A team of Harvard Medical School researchers, reporting on surveys they have made in different years about drug use among college students, now say: “It appears that drug use has merged even further with ‘normal’ college life in the last nine years.” The study, reported in The Archives of General Psychiatry, revealed an “astonishing” increase in the use of cocaine among the students. Drug users were found to be more sexually active than nonusers and were also more likely to have consulted with a psychiatrist while in college.

Drugs in the Elementary Schools

· “The latest survey,” according to a report in Italy’s Domenica del Corriere, “shows that the age of youths who use drugs and sell them among their friends continues to get dangerously lower all the time.” “Some drugs,” the magazine continues, “are already in elementary schools” and “the age of sellers . . . up until now is twelve.”

“Golden” Smiles

· German dentists used 28 tons of gold in 1979, up from only eight tons 10 years before. According to the German magazine Medikament und Meinung, about a third of the entire amount of dental gold used in the world is to be found behind German smiles. The world increase in dental gold consumption, from 60 tons in 1969 to 86.5 tons in 1980, has been almost exclusively due to the increased use by German dentists.

‘Save Tadpoles or Unborn Kids’?

· The U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Richard Schweiker recently was asked whether the Reagan Administration’s promise to “get Government off the backs of the people” contradicted its belief that abortion should be prohibited. Appearing on the NBC news program “Meet the Press,” he replied: “I think where actually I see the contradiction is that we have a proposal that in essence says we are going to save the baby seals, we are going to save the baby whales, we are even going to save the snail darters and stop a dam, but we won’t save the unborn child. I have trouble understanding why we can get all wrought up about tadpoles and not unborn kids.”

“Great Readers” in Russia

· Writing in the quarterly The Media Reporter of Derby, England, Philip Radcliffe tells of Russians’ being “great readers.” He adds: “There are more than 8,000 national and republic newspapers, printed in 56 languages, and nearly 5,000 magazines. . . . Pravda, with the biggest circulation in the world, has a daily print run of 11 million copies and an estimated readership of 50 million. . . . Even the second daily paper, Izvestia, published by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (as distinct from the Party), has a staggering 9 million circulation.”

Near-Death from Selenium Lack

· A two-year-old girl living on Long Island, New York, almost died because her diet rarely varied. She reportedly ate grits, sausage and beans in the morning, hot dogs and beans for the noon meal and pork and beans and rice for the evening meal. When the girl developed an enlarged heart and water on the lungs, her guardian took her to the hospital. Doctors thought that a virus was causing her illness, but she failed to respond to therapy. Then one doctor remembered a three-year study made by Chinese researchers who found that a lack of the mineral selenium in a person’s diet results in such symptoms and could cause death. Tests were run on the girl, and these disclosed that she had the lowest levels of selenium ever found in a child. She was given selenium tablets and within a month regained her health. Selenium is found naturally in foods the girl was not eating, such as eggs, tuna fish, wheat germ, bran, broccoli, cabbage, tomatoes and onions.

Duck Grounded for an Operation

· A wild duck living on a golf course in Nevada (U.S.) was found to have a three-foot arrow piercing its breast. Despite this handicap, the mallard was able to swim and fly. But the Humane Society decided that the duck, called Donna, had to be grounded so she could have an operation to remove the arrow. Members of the Humane Society tried for a month to capture Donna, but the duck flew away from its well-meaning pursuers. Finally, they put out bread laced with a tranquilizer and thus captured the duck. Then she was transported by helicopter to a veterinary clinic in Las Vegas for the operation. After convalescence the bird was returned to her golf-course home, where she can swim and fly again to her heart’s content.

Italy “Through Polish Glasses”?

· The Roman Catholic Church recently backed a proposal for repeal of Italy’s liberal abortion law, Pope John Paul II taking personal charge and speaking out forcefully against the abortion law. But when the votes were counted, Italians, by a margin of more than two to one, rejected the proposal for repeal. The Socialist Party leader, Bettino Craxi, was one of the politicians who spoke out openly against the pope, accusing him of seeing Italy “through Polish glasses.” The politician declared that “the hold that the church has on the Polish people simply does not exist in Italy.”

Effects of Nuclear Bomb Tests

· After World War II the U.S. moved the people of Enewetak atoll and Bikini atoll off the islands so that they could be used for nuclear bomb tests. Almost all the 700 Enewetak people have gone back to the atoll in the Marshall Islands. The leaders of the Enewetak atoll have appealed to the U.N. to continue their trusteeship arrangement with the U.S. after the rest of Micronesia is granted self-rule. The reason? They cited “special problems and special needs” as a result of the bomb tests. They say that until new coconut, breadfruit and pandanus trees attain maturity, the islanders are virtually dependent on food provided by the U.S. Though the U.S. has spent $100 million to restore 30 of the 40 islands for living and agriculture, one of them, Runit, is still so contaminated with radioactivity that it may remain off limits indefinitely.

Petitioning the U.N. also were the people of Bikini atoll. They are asking the Trusteeship Council to help persuade the U.S. to conduct a new survey of radiation dangers on the islands. “The Bikinians,” said the New York Times, “have been told that the main island will be off-limits for 30 to 60 years because of residual radioactivity and that Eneu will be off-limits for 20 to 25 years.”

Superabundance on a Supertanker

· Quail meat has long been appreciated as a delicacy. But it has long been known that under certain circumstances eating the meat can be dangerous, even fatal. The Swiss newspaper Die Weltwoche describes an experience that the crew of a supertanker had when a number of migratory quails sought shelter from a storm on their ship. The birds pushed their way through the windows and hatches into the engine rooms and cabins. With such an abundance, the crew naturally ate some of the birds. Within 12 hours most crew members had difficulties breathing and speaking, and their limbs became paralyzed. Three seamen died. The ship’s doctor diagnosed “poisoning,” although the meat had been eaten when still fresh.

How had it become toxic? Professor Louis E. Grivette of the University of California offered this explanation: “Whenever quails on their way from Central Africa to Europe are suddenly faced with severe danger, fear creates a stress in their bodies that in turn produces body toxins. Thus the stress does not kill the frightened animal, but does kill those who take advantage of their victim’s stressful situation by slaughtering it and then consuming its flesh.”

The Priesthood in Austria

· “For years the Church has been struggling with the problem of recruiting new priests,” states the Vienna newspaper Kurier. Because of the shortage of priests, Christmas Mass could not be celebrated last year in a number of Austrian churches. Twenty years ago, 170 young Austrians were annually ordained as priests. Last year only 59 deacons proceeded with their ordination ceremonies. Asked by a Kurier reporter for the reasons behind this shortage, Bishop Kuntner admitted that “the Church has made mistakes, too.” He said: “Oftentimes the examples that would stimulate young people to the priesthood have been missing.” The newspaper article concludes by saying: “Besides the lack of newcomers there is the problem of advanced age. Every third priest in Austria is over 60.”

Tight Jeans Cripple Youth

· A Danish medical magazine recently told about an 18-year-old youth who was thrown into a bathtub during a party. Afterward, he went to sleep in his wet, tight blue jeans. When he woke up after 11 hours, he found that blood strangulation caused by the shrunken jeans had damaged his right leg muscles, crippling him for life. The doctor writing the article cautioned youths against buying jeans that are too tight and especially warned against shrinking them to be skintight by wearing them wet.

China Harnesses the Yangtze

· The building of the Gezhou Dam, at Yichang in the People’s Republic of China, is the first attempt to harness the energy of the Yangtze, one of the world’s greatest rivers. Started in late 1970, the dam is one and a half miles (2.4 km) across and has seven water-driven generators installed, ready to produce electricity. When the dam is completed about four years from now, it will have 21 generators, with a generating capacity of 2.7 million kilowatts. The $2.2-billion project not only will provide needed electricity but also will aid in flood control.

International Bargain Hunters

· American motorists seeking to buy gasoline in Canada at a saving of about 40c (U.S.) a gallon have contributed to a doubling of traffic across the Peace Bridge at Buffalo, New York. Revenues for the bridge rose from $2.3 million in 1970 to almost $5.6 million last year, with about 8.6 million vehicles crossing the bridge.

Bread Among Rubbish

· According to the president of the Breadmakers Union, an estimated 14,000 quintals (3 million pounds) of bread are thrown into the rubbish can every day in Italy—equivalent to about 510 thousand million lire ($440,000,000, U.S.) per year. In an interview published in La Stampa, he said that he based his figure on investigations made in two cities, Milan and Bari, where every day 450 and 200 quintals (100,000 and 44,000 pounds) of bread, respectively, are found in the rubbish. Some believe that low prices are probably one cause of waste by so many consumers.

‘Battle Against Blindness’

· In a report on a meeting held in Italy, the Gazzetta del Sud said that there are 200 blind persons for every 100,000 inhabitants in that country. In the U.S. and northern European countries, the number of blind persons ranges from 50 to 80 for 100,000 inhabitants. But the number rises to 1,000 in Pakistan, 2,500 in Nigeria and 3,000 in Ghana. Despite modern methods for treating eye diseases, the battle against blindness was defined by the daily as a “hard fight.”

Deadly Environment

· A British scientific study has added its voice to those who report that lung cancer can strike nonsmokers who must live in the environment of heavy smokers. The report showed that out of 346 women who died with lung cancer, 174 were nonsmokers, but they lived with habitual smokers or they were regularly in the environment of such smokers. The death rate among women with lung cancer doubled among those married to men who smoked 20 or more cigarettes daily.