Nexus - 0406 - New Times Magazine-pages

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... GLOBAL NEWS ... NEWS vial at one time, and after hatching they are fed sterilised meat. The larvae are then placed in special bandages which hold them in place after they are applied to a human wound. "The dressing keeps them in place," Dr Sherman says. "But if some drop out, I just scoop them up." A cycle of maggot therapy lasts for up to three days, during which time the larvae fatten up on dead tissue. "When they're close to maturing, they start to leave the wound and I take the dressings off," the doctor said. The 40-year-old medical researcher has just been awarded a grant from the US National Institutes of Health to study the biochemistry of maggot therapy. (Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, 26 July 1997) US-made or assembled by enemy troops highly carcinogenic and remains an using American components. extreme health hazard for tens of thousands This information was made public in _ of years if released into the environment. Washington recently in a report, titled "In Plutonium is effectively 'man-made' and Its Own Words", by two groups, Human _ has been produced primarily for use in Rights Watch and the Vietnam Veterans of nuclear weapons. America Foundation, campaigning for a The new revelations about pollution ban on landmines. from Sellafield come in the midst of grow- The report quotes a former Marine Corps ing concern in France about the La Hague commandant, General Alfred Gray, as say- plutonium factory which annually pumps ing: "We kill more Americans with our some 230 million litres of nuclear waste own mines than we do anyone else." into the Atlantic. (Sources: The Sydney Morning Herald, 31 (Source: Sent via the Internet from July 1997; The Guardian Weekly, London, ay903@lafn.org, 2 August 1997) w/e 10 August 1997) 8 "CAVING IT! DEACLIEG NEW MEDTHC “FAKING IT' REACHES NEW DEPTHS Or of Germany's leading cancer researchers faked data for almost a decade, according to an official investiga- tion commission. Friedhelm Herrmann, now at the University of Ulm, has nearly 400 scientif- ic publications to his credit, but the com- mission concluded that at least 37 of them appear to contain fabricated results. The alleged fraud went unnoticed until earlier this year when a former researcher complained to university officials. Herrmann, who has served on many gov- ernment committees responsible for distrib- uting research funds, denies the charges. (Source: New Scientist, 16 August 1997) J “o> National Institutes of Health to study the © PLUTONIUM FOUND IN TEETH OF biochemistry of maggot therapy. BRITISH TEENAGERS (Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, 26 Atty funded by the UK Department July 1997) of Health has found plutonium in the teeth of adolescents throughout England, MINED OVER MATTER Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. lhe US Government's reluctance to back The study's authors concluded that the the Canadian campaign for a global _ source of the contamination was radioac- moratorium on the manufacture and use of _ tive discharges from the Sellafield plutoni- landmines has been on the basis that mines um reprocessing plant, operated by the are necessary to protect American service- government-controlled British Nuclear men. Fuels Ltd (BNFL). But now it has been officially acknowl- The study, entitled "Variations in the edged that American servicemen have been Concentration of Plutonium, Strontium-90 the primary victims of US-made landmines and Total Alpha-emitters in Human Teeth during both the Korean and Vietnam wars. Collected within the British Isles", has been An estimated 64,000 US servicemen were published in the Science of the Total killed or wounded by mines during Environment Journal. It involved the eval- Vietnam alone, and a recent report shows _ uation of over 3,300 teeth extracted from that 90 per cent of the landmines and adolescent children in the UK. explosive booby-traps involved were either Plutonium, which is an alpha-emitter, is men. But now it has been officially acknowl- edged that American servicemen have been the primary victims of US-made landmines during both the Korean and Vietnam wars. An estimated 64,000 US servicemen were killed or wounded by mines during Vietnam alone, and a recent report shows that 90 per cent of the landmines and explosive booby-traps involved were either LAWSUITS RUN AMOK I North Carolina, 14 students hired a awyer and sued Johnston County after they failed a grade-school proficiency test. The students say, through their lawyer, the test discriminated against them because they weren't smart enough to pass it. A trial date has yet to be set. (Source: The Spotlight, 1 September 1997) ANTI-NOISE INVENTION British inventor has come up with a device which may be the world's first ‘anti-noise' invention that can block out most outside sounds over a large area. The Electronic Controlled Acoustic Shadow System (ECASS) was originally invented to combat industrial noise, but is expected to be adapted for domestic use. Professor Selwyn Wright has been work- ing on the ECASS project for three years at the University of Huddersfield. His R&D was funded by Yorkshire Electricity who wanted to silence low-frequency humming from its residential substations. ECASS is made up of a computer and a Soe 8 = NEXUS OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 1997