OUR favourite report is out again鈥攖he Department of Trade and
Industry鈥檚 Home Accident Surveillance System (based on 1998 data). It
gives figures for the causes of domestic accidents reported in admissions to a
selected group of British hospitals, and then gives extrapolated estimates for
the country as a whole.
If you remember our item on the report of the 1996 data (15 May 1999), you
will be relieved to know that according to the new report the toll of accidents
caused by tea cosies is thankfully down, with just 20 accidents estimated for
the nation as a whole in 1998, compared with 40 in 1996.
On the other hand, concern about the menace of sponges and loofahs has at
last received due recognition, with no fewer than 51 accidents reported in the
hospitals surveyed, giving an estimate of 996 sponge or loofah tragedies across
the country as a whole.
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The number of accidents involving tree trunks鈥�1777 nationally鈥攊s
also alarming, while the ever-present danger of armchairs is dramatically
illustrated by the 957 accidents reported, leading to a national estimate of
18 690 armchair injuries in 1998. Note that this is way above the 12 363 injuries
inflicted by vegetables, previously considered a major cause for concern.
Worrying, too, is the number of trouser accidents, which has risen from a
nationwide figure of 4440 to 5137. This, however, pales beside the 9843 people
hospitalised after coming off second best in encounters with socks and
tights.
The danger from printed magazines like New 杏吧原创鈥攊nvolved
in 3242 accidents nationally鈥攏ow runs at two-and-a-half times the figure
for chainsaws, 1289.
You have been warned.
E-MAIL can be a wonderful medium for clandestine liaisons. Two people sitting
innocently apart from each other in your office could be constantly exchanging
messages of hot passion and you would never know.
But all that could be about to change. When a journalist friend tried to send
an article to a magazine last week, the magazine鈥檚 e-mail virus scanner pounced
on it and blocked it鈥攂ecause the text was about viruses and mentioned 鈥淚
Love You鈥� by name. Our friend had to send the article again, calling it the 鈥淚
L*** Y**鈥� virus.
Is the writing on the wall for secret office romances?
TO IMPROVE levels of scientific literacy in England and Wales, the government
runs a series of national tests to ensure that schools keep their teaching up to
standard. We were intrigued to come across the following question, set as part
of the National Curriculum tests (SATs) for 14-year-olds last month: 鈥淭he words
鈥榗ontains added iron鈥� were printed on Colin鈥檚 box of Kellogg鈥檚 Special K.
鈥�(a) Colin decided to test the Special K to see if it contained tiny pieces
of powdered iron metal. First he crushed 500 g of Special K into a fine powder
and mixed it with water. He put a clean, white, plastic-coated magnet in the
mixture. Then he stirred it. If the Special K contains tiny pieces of iron
metal, what should Colin expect to see?
鈥�(b) Colin finds that the Special K does contain pieces of powdered iron.
Give two differences between iron metal and compounds containing iron.
鈥�(c) Colin eats some Special K. The tiny pieces of iron metal in the Special
K react with the hydrochloric acid in his stomach. Complete the word equation to
show the reaction of iron with hydrochloric acid. Iron ^plus; hydrochloric acid 鈫� . . .
鈥�(d) The body needs iron to make red blood cells. The red blood cells
transport oxygen to all the cells of the body. People who do not have enough red
blood cells may feel that they do not have much energy. Explain why.鈥�
Two questions occur to Feedback on reading this. First: is scientific
literacy greatly promoted by encouraging children to believe that a) cereal
manufacturers are in the habit of adding iron filings to their products, and b)
that ingesting these would counter anaemia?
Second: has Kellogg sued the people who composed this exam question yet?
CONGRATULATIONS to researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical
Sciences, Little Rock, for their paper 鈥淓ffects of ethanol on working memory and
attention in pigeons鈥�, which appears in The Journal of Pharmacology and
Experimental Therapeutics.
The paper describes an experiment in which pigeons were given various doses
of alcohol and then tested to see if their memory and their ability to pay
attention were impaired. They were鈥攂ut memory fared worse and was affected
by lower doses.
A fine piece of research.
FIRE alarms are expensive to install鈥攖oo expensive, apparently, for the
hotel where reader Caroline Blowers was staying in Athens. When she dutifully
read the hotel鈥檚 fire instructions, she was concerned to find that point 5 was:
鈥淪hout `Fire, fire, fire鈥� continuously.鈥�
奥贰鈥橰贰 told it鈥檚 legal, but you could have fooled us. The label on a bottle of
Kedem Grape Juice, on sale in the US, says: 鈥�100 per cent juice. Ingredients:
Concord Grape Juice, Potassium Metabisulfite added to enhance freshness.鈥�