Watching the World

UN 40 Years Old

● This year marks the 40th anniversary of the United Nations. Anniversary speeches will pay tribute to the UN’s role in “the maintenance of peace and security,” reports the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. “The United Nations may not have saved succeeding generations from the scourge of all small wars, but it has so far helped avoid a third and possibly last World War,” says the Bulletin, “ . . . by providing a place for diplomats to meet informally and share ideas . . . despite the hostility manifested by government representatives across the Security Council table.” An accurate appraisal of the UN, the magazine says, is “to see it as the place where the international political scene is made tangible by diplomats who, wearing their countries’ colors, charge into battle to defend their government’s interests and perhaps, while doing so, occasionally defend the interests of the world.” Diplomats are predicting that the organization “will probably be around for another 40 years​—provided the world is.”

Drug Crops Increase

● “The [U.S.] State Department’s annual report on worldwide narcotics production shows that in most of the major drug-producing countries, marijuana, coca and opium-poppy crops were larger in 1984 than the year before,” states The New York Times. Coca production, for example, increased by more than a third in the countries of Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia, while Ecuador emerged as a fourth major coca-producing nation. “The trend is clearly up on cocaine and at best we are holding our own on marijuana,” said Dante B. Fascell, chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. “The bottom line is that, despite some encouraging developments, . . . the war is being lost.” So much illicit coca leaf, opium, and cannabis is being grown, says the report, that worldwide production is “many times the amount currently consumed” by drug users.

Pesticide Problems

● In Third World countries, some 500,000 people are poisoned each year by pesticides, reports South magazine, and 10,000 of them die because of it. The risk is also spreading to consumers through pesticide residues in foods and animal fodder. According to Dr. Jan Huismans, director of IRPTC (International Register of Potentially Toxic Chemicals), half the countries of the world lack effective controls over pesticide use and do not have the facilities to assess potential hazards of the products used. The problem is compounded when pesticide manufacturers, protecting their product from competitors, withhold important information​—particularly on new chemicals. In addition to the insufficient information listed by the IRPTC, there are other problems. “We come up almost every day with examples of old pesticides that are only now causing concern, either because we know more about them or because some effects only surface after 10 or 20 years of use,” Huismans said. Although some chemicals, such as DDT, have been banned in Europe and the United States, they are still being used to fight pests in Third World countries.

Repelling Mosquitoes

● Warmer weather signals not only the end of winter but also the advent of mosquitoes. While no foolproof method of keeping them from biting exists, states The New York Times, authorities suggest the following: Bathe often to prevent the buildup of lactic acid on the skin, as it attracts mosquitoes. Eat foods containing garlic, which acts as a repellent. If chemical repellents are used, spray some on your clothing as well as on your skin. Avoid heavy use of suntan products, which not only diminish the repellent’s effectiveness but can also increase your chances of being bitten. Many hair sprays, perfumes, shaving lotions, and deodorants also attract mosquitoes and are best avoided. And if bitten, applying a cold compress or an ice cube, or using calamine lotion or rubbing alcohol, may relieve itching.

Airline Safety

● Australia has the safest airline system in the world, both on international and on domestic flights, according to a recent ten-year study of airline accident records published in Flight International. The fatal-accident rate, based on statistics of 25 leading aircraft nations between 1973 and 1984, was 1.8 for every million landings, whereas the figure for Australia was only 0.06. “Scandinavia, Japan, the US, France, Britain and West Germany followed Australia on the air safety table,” reports The Sydney Morning Herald. “The least safe were Colombia, Turkey, Egypt, Indonesia and the Soviet Union.” A leading airline safety specialist Mike Ramsden cited “discipline with individualism and respect for authority without fear” as the main reasons for Australia’s being “indisputably the world’s safest major airline country for more than 20 years.”

Worthless Potions

● Those hair restorers​—mostly creams, lotions, and oils—​advertised in newspapers and in the back of men’s magazines just do not work, warns the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration). “These products do not prevent hair loss or grow hair,” said Edward R. Nida, speaking for the agency. “How you lose or keep your hair depends on how wisely you choose your parents. For the most part, it is hereditary.”

The FDA also warns that nonprescription aphrodisiacs (products to stimulate or intensify sexual desire) have not proved to be safe or effective and that some ingredients in them may even pose serious health risks. “There is no conclusive scientific evidence demonstrating the effectiveness or safety of any plant materials that have been used historically for aphrodisiac purposes,” said Mr. Nida. The agency is moving to ban all such items.

Preservative Danger

● A preservative commonly found in wine, beer, tomato catsup, artificial orange beverages, and other foods “can cause a life-threatening reaction in people sensitive to it, particularly asthmatics,” reports The Globe and Mail of Canada. Speaking to the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, Dr. William H. Yang, an allergy specialist, said that metabisulfite and other forms of sulfite thus used can cause severe reactions within half an hour after ingestion​—sometimes within seconds or minutes. Care must also be exercised away from home, as restaurants use it on salads to keep them looking fresh. People who get headaches after drinking wine or eating in restaurants may actually be reacting to the sulfite preservatives, said Dr. Yang, rather than to the food or the wine.

Spaniards​—Smoking Champions

● According to statistics, an average of 2,647 cigarettes were smoked per person in Spain in 1980. This placed them at the top of the list of tobacco users in Europe. While Spain’s population has grown 22 percent during the past 20 years, tobacco use has increased 146 percent. According to the newspaper El País, this will result in one sixth of all deaths during 1985 being tobacco related​—constituting “the single most important cause of sickness and early death in Spain today.” Moreover, the habit is much more common among Spanish doctors than among members of other professions, such as lawyers, engineers, or business managers. Polls show that 80 percent of Spain’s tobacco users say they would quit smoking if their doctor recommended it, but only 10 percent have ever received such medical advice.

Hole-in-One Insurance

● A hole in one in Japan can cost the golfer anything from ¥300,000 to ¥500,000 ($1,200 to $2,000, U.S.) in celebration costs. Besides buying a round of drinks when the game is over, he is expected, among other things, to wine and dine his friends, buy gifts for all of them, and tip his caddie. Many golfers, therefore, carry hole-in-one insurance, because the ¥3,000 ($12, U.S.) premium “is well worth it,” states the Asahi Evening News. “Golf is mainly for business entertainment,” one lawyer said. “This is one reason for the hole-in-one gift-giving custom. It provides a superb chance to give an important banker or government official a generous gift.”

Unreported Crimes

● “Almost a million crimes a year, some of them violent sexual assaults and robberies, are not reported by Canadians,” says The Globe and Mail, “and one of the main reasons is that the victims distrust the ability of the police to solve them.” A federal study of seven Canadian cities showed victims to be more willing to absorb crime than to report it. Poor people were more reluctant than the rich to report household thefts and burglaries. Reports of stolen cars and home burglaries​—most likely for insurance purposes—​outstripped reports of assaults, thefts, or muggings. “The large proportion of unreported sexual assaults and other serious incidents which never find their way into police statistics raises important questions for police managers and law enforcement policy makers,” the study said.

Plastic Money

● Plastic banknotes are already in use in Haiti and on the Isle of Man. The more durable banknotes were introduced in Haiti because of the local custom of carrying money inside shoes. Now the United States is considering using plastic currency in their drive to thwart forgers. The reason, reports New Scientist, is that holograms (three-dimensional pictures) will be appearing on the banknotes, and use of plastic material will extend the life of the bills threefold. The easily noticeable holograms cannot be reproduced by ordinary printing equipment. American currency, says one expert, is “probably the easiest in the world to forge.”

“Foolproof Identification”

● How to make sure “a person is who he or she claims to be is big business and a matter of growing concern,” says U.S.News & World Report. The traditional devices​—identification cards, badges, passwords—​can be found by accident, stolen, or falsified. Being pursued now are systems using biometrics (the statistical study of the body) that will make possible “foolproof identification.” Already in use are devices that “read” the shape and pressure of the hand and its fingers, the blood vessels within the eye, or a person’s voice. Other unique physical characteristics are also being explored as means of positive identification. One method seeks to detect forging of a signature by measuring how one writes​—the pressure, speed, and direction.

Caffeine Cure

● It is well known that the caffeine found in beverages such as coffee and tea acts as a stimulant to those who drink them, but what function does it have in the plants from which it comes? “Recent research suggests that they [caffeine and theophylline] may defend plants against insect predation,” says New Scientist. When fed to insect larvae, “the levels of caffeine found naturally in undried tea leaves or coffee beans were sufficient to kill most of the larvae,” the magazine reports.