Letters: Risk factor
Jeremy Webb reports on the discovery of a genetic variant of Factor
VII that leads to reduced blood clotting in some 20 per cent of men, and
may therefore lead to methods of reducing coronary heart disease (New 杏吧原创,
Science, 29 June). It seems to me, however, that evolution has probably
provided us with very effective Factor VII to minimise the risk of bleeding
to death. It is reasonable to suppose that deaths due to bleeding, at least
in some parts of the world, are not insignificant.
Perhaps, therefore, before genetically engineering some universal reduction
in Factor VII efficiency, it would be prudent to assess as accurately as
possible any increased risks that might also accrue.
D. L. J. Quicke School of Biological Sciences University of Sheffield
Letters: More about Harry
Perhaps I can supply some additional information relating to the letter
from L. R. Newsome, ‘Harry was there’ (Letters, 13 July). The shop in Soho
to which he refers was at 19 Lisle Street and sold wireless components.
It was owned by Will Day who in the summer of 1924 had purchased a one-third
share in Baird’s enterprise.
In a well-researched article by Waddell, Smith and Sanderson in Wireless
World (January 1976) reference is made to A. S. Goodchild and R. Best, both
members of Day’s staff, who had constructed television equipment for Baird
to designs supplied by him and subsequently demonstrated at Selfridges store
in April 1925. It seems probable that Harry Crisp assisted as well.
Ray Herbert Sanderstead, Surrey
Letters: The Chapman case
I act for Hoechst UK Limited whose Agriculture Division has drawn my
attention to the article ‘Quiet sufferers of the silent spring’ (18 May).
There are a number of inaccurate statements in the article regarding
the incident involving Mrs Enfys Chapman. We should like to set the record
straight.
Hoechst takes exception to the reporting of the following:
1. The incident
It is correct that a field (of peas) adjacent to Mrs Chapman’s land
was being sprayed by helicopter with triazophos, although there is no record
in Hoechst’s files of dimethoate also being used. The operation was being
correctly monitored by two fully protected markers in the field. A change
in wind direction caused some of the chemical to drift onto adjacent fields.
The manager of the spraying company was also at the field at the time
and on being approached by Mrs Chapman, he immediately stopped spraying
the area adjacent to her land.
Hoechst UK Limited does not know of any independent evidence that either
Mrs Chapman, her sons or employees, house or garden were drenched or in
any way contaminated by the spray drift.
2. Mrs Chapman’s condition
A specialist in organo-phosphorous poisoning called in by the doctor
who treated Mrs Chapman at Addenbrooke’s Hospital could find no explanation
for the persistent symptoms which were being attributed to organophosphorous
poisoning. Analysis of a blood sample failed to show any decrease in cholinesterase
activity, which is the normal sign of such poisoning having occurred. Therefore,
there is no medical evidence to link her condition to the incident.
3. The condition of the cattle
During investigation of the incident, it transpired that Mrs Chapman
had been treating her cattle for warble fly using an organophosphorous spray.
The condition described of ‘pain-crazed’ cows is likely to be the typical
restlessness caused by this pest.
4. Hoechst’s involvement
Hoechst’s action throughout the investigation of this incident was both
prompt and thorough, a point the article fails to mention. It involved both
the company’s Agriculture and Animal Health Divisions. Details of treatment
were given and the company also arranged for milk from the cows to be analysed
by a specialist independent laboratory and provided an analytical sample
of the chemical for this purpose.
5. The settlement
No out of court settlement was paid by Hoechst; in fact, Hoechst was
never involved in any legal action brought by Mrs Chapman. However, we understand
that whilst accepting no liability, a payment was made by the spraying company.
W. R. Davies Hoechst UK Hounslow, Middlesex
* * *
Editor’s comments
Investigations made by or on Mrs Chapman’s behalf identified dimethoate
as being used. Clearly, Hoechst is taking a somewhat legal attitude when
claiming not to know of any evidence of contamination, in view of the second
paragraph of their letter.
Mrs Chapman accepts that she was not ‘drenched’; indeed the word was
chosen by the author of the article and is entirely the responsibility of
New 杏吧原创.
Mrs Chapman informs us that long-term medical tests have confirmed that
she was in fact exposed to organophosphates.
Both sides appear to have arranged for, and Mrs Chapman to have paid
for, milk sampling tests. Mrs Chapman’s lawyer confirms that Hoechst were
not the defendants to the action she brought, which resulted in the out
of court settlement to which Mr Davies refers. We also accept Hoechst’s
statement that it did not contribute to the settlement.
Letters: The Chapman case
The boxed article ‘What are organophosphate pesticides?’ (‘Quiet sufferers
of the silent spring’) irrelevantly refers to the herbicide glyphosate.
This, though an organic phosphonate-containing molecule, has none of the
characteristics of the organophosphate insecticides.
Further, glyphosate, which binds tightly to soil particles, naturally
degrades within weeks – not years – into materials naturally abundant in
soils. Roundup herbicide, which contains the active ingredient glyphosate,
is the world’s most carefully studied herbicide. Several specific studies
confirm that glyphosate has extremely low toxicity to fish, birds, earthworms
and bees, refuting what your writer erroneously claimed. In fact glyphosate
is the product of choice for wildlife habitat restorationists around the
world – specifically because of its favourable environmental profile.
W. G. Seddon-Brown Monsanto Brussels, Belgium
Letters: Fooling the brain
I was interested to see, from ‘Viewers keeps one eye open for 3-D’ (Technology,
13 July), that Coca-Cola took the trouble to make 40 million pairs of spectacles
when all that is really needed are two fingers placed correctly over one
eye.
In a book of mine, How to Fool Your Brain (published 1975), I explained
how to get this 3-D effect by half closing or partially covering one eye.
This way objects moving across the screen will appear in 3-D relative to
their background (or foreground depending on which eye is being partially
covered).
Those with home videos can experiment with this effect. A good simple
subject is one of someone walking in front of, or just behind, a fence.
Jon Miller Helston, Cornwall
Letters: Taming the waves
It was interesting to read of the ‘soft engineering’ techniques being
developed to control coastal erosion (This Week, 13 July).
One possible alternative to using salt-marsh plants to absorb the power
of the waves, would be to place strings of wave energy converters off-shore.
Wave-generated electricity would be a useful spin-off from flood prevention
measures, providing some return on the capital cost of such works.
C. Mather Sheffield
Letters: Sensitive drilling
The article by Alexander Smith entitled ‘British Gas ‘under siege’ in
Ecuador’ (This Week, 6 July) misses a number of important points.
The article is illustrated by a photograph of a lorry and piles of timber.
This is not a picture of a British Gas operation. Indeed, there were, as
a matter of policy, no access roads to the Ecuador drilling sites; material
was brought in by helicopter.
British Gas has fully investigated the allegations by Friends of the
Earth and others regarding its operations in Ecuador and is satisfied that
the drilling operations were carried out in a responsible manner and that
every step was taken to minimise the impact. Following drilling, a programme
of site revegetation is currently under way to speed up recovery of the
forest and to ensure diversity of species.
The meeting in June with environmental groups was in fact one of a series
of meetings which have been held with environmentalists over the past six
months. In releasing the environmental assessments, British Gas has asked
those attending to write to the company with their views on the assessments;
a further follow-up session to discuss the feedback is planned. The company
will give serious consideration to any constructive proposals put forward.
We have clearly explained to FoE that, when British Gas acquired the
assets in Ecuador in December 1988, the exploration activity was already
well advanced with the drilling programme under way. British Gas took the
initiative to commission an independent environmental assessment as soon
as it took over the operation. Where British Gas is involved from the outset,
it is company policy to undertake environmental assessments in all its exploration
and production operations in line with the oil company guidelines which
were published in May of this year.
Ivan J. Whitting British Gas London
Letters: Bottom up is best
Josef Vavrousek’s Talking Point (6 July) concentrates on the need to
create new pan-European institutions, charged with correcting past mistakes
by co-ordinating new environmental policies and institutions for our continent.
He leaves to the final two paragraphs his advocacy for fostering those new
human values which encourage sustainable development.
I think he has got the balance wrong.
International environmental law and cooperation across sovereign boundaries
clearly are important. But surely we ought to know by now that a bottom-up
approach is more likely to produce genuine and successful changes than an
institutional one imposed from the top.
The majority of people in Western, as well as Eastern, Europe, live
their lives as the beneficiaries of the best of science, but remain largely
ignorant of the scientific method and the potential capacity of science
to produce benefits of scale to society. This is especially true of field
science challenged by a rapidly degrading natural resource base.
I find it strange that in Earthwatch we are one of the very few environmental
agencies which combine rigorous field science with competent lay participation.
Our European programme, including major research into soil, air, water and
forest degradation in northeast Czechoslovakia, offers field scientists
and enthusiastic lay volunteers the chance of combining their skills and
talents in rigorous field work. This, in turn, provides decision makers
with reliable data and information essential to the evolution of policies
which ensure sustainable development.
The model we have evolved over two decades engages people in the life
of an archetypal non-governmental organisation, in which science, pluralism
and democracy are powerfully at work.
Brian W. Walker Earthwatch Europe Oxford
Letters: Triggers and pins
In his reply (Letters, 13 July) to Graham Chamber’s original query on
the absence of locking petrol delivery hoses in England, D. A. Seymour (and
the accompanying cartoon) both come fairly close to the truth with their
visions of flooded forecourts.
Like Chambers, I too was frustrated by the absence of the small pin
on which the locking device depends – and which seems to be universal abroad.
Rather predictably my cash desk enquiries were a waste of breath but when
I saw a mechanic servicing a pump a few months ago, I pounced and got the
low-down on the whole business. Evidently the pins are fitted by the manufacturer
but then have to be removed from all self-service petrol (but not diesel)
pumps to follow a Health and Safety Executive edict that their use is potentially
dangerous. The reason – flooded forecourts! The automatic device to stop
petrol flow when the tank is nearly full is apparently not infallible.
My mechanic’s reply when I asked if the edict was really justified cannot
be printed in a family magazine but the general tenor was that it was completely
stupid.
John Evans Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Letters: Triggers and pins
With regard to petrol pump triggers, few people realise this was the
real reason for the introduction of the 拢1 coin – just pop it under
the trigger.
R. J. Ellis Perth, Western Australia
Letters: Flummoxed
I would be grateful if any readers could shed light on a much debated
question in our office and so stall the flood of very silly suggested answers.
Why do flamingos stand on one leg?
Kathy Marthan, Derby
Letters: Correction / Olympic Dam
The statement ‘ . . . the average annual dose at Olympic Dam is about
19 millisieverts’ in the box in ‘How to close a uranium mine’ (22 June)
was wrong. Average doses are in fact below 10 millisieverts.
Letters: Defence machinations
May I congratulate you and your contributor Robert Matthews for so bravely
(in the circumstances) giving us ‘The chip with a sting in its tale’ (13
July) the story of how a small company, Charter Technologies, went into
liquidation after it tried to sue the Ministry of Defence over a supposedly
‘perfect’ chip the MoD had contracted Charter to develop software for).
Early in 1990 I was commissioned by Charter Technologies to study and
report back on their Viper press file and certain proof reports curiously
inconsistent with official descriptions of the device – descriptions Charter,
as its licensed commercial promoters, were required to disseminate.
Charter’s dilemma, which they saw as much moral as scientific, had led
them to seek my layman’s view as an aid to arriving at an unbiased assessment
of their totally unexpected predicament.
Social psychology has asserted the autonomous nature of organisations.
It is said that they think: that they exert their independent wills and
dominate the individuals composing them. In difficulties, they can bring
into operation various defence mechanisms including suppression and even
extermination – a seemingly bizarre notion that the machinations of an amazing
ministry have made for me quite credible.
John Malins Malvern Worcestershire
Letters: TM for tension
Susan Blackmore’s article on meditation (6 July) displays some remarkably
slippery and unscientific logic when she notes that because it has the reputation
of reducing tension transcendental meditation is often used to treat ailments
such as hypertension, asthma, alcoholism and insomnia. Having then drawn
attention to experiments which show that among TM teachers both meditation
and ordinary rest are effective to the same degree in reducing physiological
arousal, she rhetorically asks who would recommend resting twice a day as
a cure for asthma or drug abuse.
Firstly, the experiment is of dubious validity, since regular meditation
may well produce the aftereffect of enabling one to rest more efficiently.
Why not compare the response of non-meditators to rest, then teach them
TM and compare the results with their response to meditation? Secondly,
cure and treatment are not the same thing. In cases where physiological
calm is beneficial as a treatment what is wrong with recommending rest?
But in the case of insomnia, which manifests itself at its most frustrating
precisely during rest, and in the treatment of addiction, meditation looks
like a better bet because it may help to ease the mental turmoil which is
a significant part of the problem.
Michael Woods King’s College London