Watching the World
Faithful Disobedience
According to a survey conducted by the National Catholic Reporter, many Catholics believe that it is not necessary to adhere to the official teachings of the church in order to be a good Catholic. For example, 70 percent of those surveyed believed they could be good Catholics without going to church on Sunday. And 66 percent felt that being a good Catholic did not obligate them to obey the church’s teaching on birth control, while 57 percent felt that obedience on the matter of divorce and remarriage was not required. Although 55 percent claimed that they would never leave the church, only 13 percent said that it was the most important part of their life.
Sea of Concern
Soviet scientists have reported that the Aral sea, once the world’s fourth-largest lake, is shrinking at an alarming pace because of the diversion of water from its tributaries for irrigation. According to current data, the lake has fallen 43 feet [13 m] within the last 28 years. Nearly half of the 27,200-square-mile [70,400 sq km] watery expanse has disappeared. As a result, it is now ranked sixth among the world’s lakes. According to National Geographic, “twenty species of fish . . . have been killed off” because of the sharply increased salinity of the water, destroying a fishing industry that formerly employed up to 60,000 people. Though ways are being considered to reverse the sea’s decline, the situation is expected to worsen into the next century.
Musician’s Syndrome
A study of eight large orchestras on three continents has revealed that over 50 percent of musicians suffer from what has been called musician’s syndrome. The ailment consists of severe pain in the muscles and joints of the arms of stringed-instrument players and in the soft palate or the throat muscles of those who play wind instruments. The major symptom is pain that can be so intense as to wake the musician at night. Other symptoms include heaviness, stiffness, weakness or pinpricks in the arms. The syndrome causes a substantial loss of agility, speed, and precision, leading to a degree of mental depression. According to the Italian medical journal Doctor, the cure lies in reducing the effort required to use the instrument by means of a well-coordinated playing technique.
Sleep for Health
Is it true that getting plenty of rest helps the body to fight disease? Scientists say yes! They have discovered a definite link between the body’s immune response and deep sleep. According to American Health, they have found that tiny proteins known as muramyl peptides induce the most restful type of deep, dream-free sleep and “trigger the production of interleukin 1, a key component of the body’s defensive system.” Researcher Dr. James M. Krueger believes that “sleep may play a role in the recuperative process, whether it’s recovery from a day’s activity or a disease.”
In-Flight Deaths
Although figures are often given for plane-crash victims, very little is said about deaths occurring during flight. However, a report published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) indicates that during an eight-year period, 42 international airline companies registered 577 passengers who died while in flight. This is approximately 72 per year, an average of one death for every three million passengers. The most frequent cause appears to be heart attacks. Of the deaths registered, 66 percent were men. In most cases (77 percent), those who died during a flight reported no health problems prior to traveling. “In view of the hundreds of millions of passengers who fly each year, the average of 72 deaths per year,” notes JAMA, “is minuscule.”
Deadly Occupation
In recent years, farming has surpassed construction and mining as the deadliest occupation in the United States, reports The New York Times. Information provided by the National Safety Council shows that about 1,600 adults were killed in 1987 when they were caught in the gears of farm machinery, crushed by tractor rollovers, or involved in other related accidents. The council said that similar accidents have left as many as 160,000 farm people disabled. However, according to the Times, those figures do not reflect “the 300 children under the age of 16 who died in farm-related mishaps or the 23,000 who were injured using or playing near farm equipment.”
Lost at Sea
During 1988 the bodies of as many as 7,000 diseased seals washed up on the shores of the North Sea. The cause of death was a virus producing pneumonialike symptoms. Is man responsible? That question has been raised by some scientists who observe that man pours millions of tons of industrial waste, pesticides, oil, and sewage sludge into the North Sea each year. As a result, “industrial chemicals trapped in the seals’ abundant fat may weaken their immune systems, leaving them helpless against a marauding virus,” reports The Economist. PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), though banned for more than a decade, have been found in the water and in the seals’ blubber. Until scientists can pinpoint a direct link between the seal deaths and the thousands of chemicals polluting the sea, however, the truth remains “lost at sea,” notes The Economist.
Costly Calls
Touted as a way to “bring people together as a cure for loneliness or as a come-on for blind dates,” the telephone party line is hooking customers, and the talk is not cheap. Every day thousands of people throughout the United States are dialing special phone numbers that connect them with other people who simply want to talk. Is it worth it? “One man ran up a $95,000 phone bill,” reports the Daily News. Topping that, however, an 18-year-old Brooklyn youth racked up a phone bill totaling $152,000! Persons using the party line have reportedly spent over 23 hours per sitting, talking to other party-line marathoners.
Effect of Loud Music
While parents have often worried about their children listening to loud music, youths are now hearing warnings from another source—the musicians themselves. The reason? “More and more performers are discovering that their hearing is permanently damaged,” reports Time magazine. The problem begins when the sound-carrying hairs located in the inner ear are regularly exposed to noise above 100 decibels—rock concerts often are about 120. Thus, “repeated assaults by high-decibel rock,” explains Time, cause these hairs to flatten and “lose their resilience permanently.” One audiologist said that hours of music blasting through stereo earphones was as if “the nozzle of a fire hose [had] been stuck down the ear canal.”
Canada Apologizes
A shameful page in Canadian history was acknowledged by the Canadian government. During the heat of World War II, 21,000 Japanese Canadians were falsely accused of being traitors and imprisoned in work camps, unable to return home for six or seven years. An editorial in The Toronto Star notes that they had their “homes, farms, furniture, fishing boats, cars and other property confiscated and sold for a fraction of their worth, with proceeds used to pay for their imprisonment.” After World War II, the injustices continued. In 1946 about 2,000 Canadians were deported simply because they were of Japanese ancestry. Prime Minister Mulroney declared that to “put things right,” the Canadian Parliament publicly apologized for these injustices and would pay each surviving citizen $21,000 as compensation.