Nexus - 0904 - New Times Magazine-pages

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... GLBBAL NEWS. ... NEWS WATER QUALITY AND FERTILITY THREATENED BY CHEMICALS But instead of crime being reduced by these cameras, it is soaring across the coun- try. In London, a city of eight million peo- ple, murder is going on at a record pace. Incidence of street robbery—the very crime that CCTV is supposed to be best at deter- ring—will reach the 50,000 mark this year. A three-year study commissioned by the British government and conducted by the Scottish Centre for Criminology suggested that "spy" cameras had little or no effect on crime. It concluded that "reductions were noted in certain categories, but there was no evidence to suggest that the cameras had reduced crime overall". "The cameras appeared to have little effect on clear-up rates for crimes and offences," the report said. Jason Dittion, a criminologist and the study's main author, said the findings "have taken the stardust out of our eyes about this new technology”. However, experts are convinced that more advanced technology will make CCTV an even more valuable tool. The British government is convinced that TV surveillance will remain a major anti- crime weapon, and recently announced that it is financing the installation of more than 200 additional closed-circuit monitoring systems in London as well as provincial cities and towns. (Source: United Press International, March 8, 2002, http://www.upi.com) Measured concentrations of OWCs rarely exceeded drinking-water health advi- sories or aquatic-life criteria—but many compounds do not have established guide- lines, and wastewater treatment plants are not designed to remove OWCs from sewage. These findings are also disturbing in view of new studies showing that average sperm counts in men from industrialised countries have dropped over the past 50 years from about 160 million per millilitre of semen to 66 million. In the UK, the Medical Research Council reports that the fertility of Scottish men orn since 1970 is 25 per cent less than those born in the 1950s, with sperm counts continuing to drop by two per cent a year. Hormone-disrupting chemicals— including contraceptive residues, esticides, PCBs and phthalates—are increasingly being seen as the culprits in impairing fertility and even in causing male ish in UK rivers to become feminised. One-third of Britain's drinking water comes rom rivers, and most of it is taken from low sewerage works. (Sources: USGS, http://toxics.usgs.gov/; Environmental Science & Technology, March 13, 2002, http://pubs.acs.org; Independent, London, March 17, 2002) rompted by studies in Europe, the US Geological Survey (USGS) conducted its own study in 1999-2000 on the prevalence of pharmaceutical drugs, hormones and other organic wastewater contaminants (OWCs) in water resources, and has recently published its results. Using new analytical methods able to detect a total of 95 OWCs, the USGS took samples from a network of 139 streams across 30 states. It focused its attention on watercourses susceptible to contamination, e.g., downstream of intensive livestock production, industry and urbanisation. In 80 per cent of streams sampled, the USGS found OWCs from agricultural, industrial and residential origins and uses, with 82 of the 95 testable OWCs being detected. There was a median of seven and as many as 38 OWCs in a given water sample. The most frequently detected compounds were coprostanol (faecal steroid), choles- terol (plant and animal steroid), N,N- diethyltoluamid (insect repellant), caffeine (stimulant), triclosan (antimicrobial disin- fectant), tri-(2-chlorethyl)-phosphate (fire retardant) and 4-nonylphenol (nonionic detergent metabolite). In 48 per cent of the streams there were antiobiotic residues— 14 out of the 22 detectable human and vet- erinary antibiotics. Other compounds found included analgesics, antiasthmatics, antidepressants, codeine, cotinine (a nico- tine by-product), dichlorobenzene, insecti- cides such as carbaryl, chlorpyrifos and dieldren, several phthalate plasticisers and a host of hormonal drugs and hormone- mimicking compounds. UK CRIME RATE RISES DESPITE CCTV SURVEILLANCE WwW 1.5 million closed-circuit televi- sion systems watching its streets, office buildings, schools, shopping centres and roads, Britain is one of the most close- ly monitored nations on the planet, and the government is again spending the equiva- lent of US$115 million on more. CAN THE COMMON COLD VIRUS CURE CANCER? F“: years ago, Gary White had a 14- pound tumour in his gut and was given eight months to live. Now he's 49 and sail- ing and spending time with his kids— thanks, doctors say, to regular injections of a mild flu virus. Dozens of dying men and women are now being deliberately infected with viruses as doctors determine if these microscopic bugs can kill the cancers without killing the patients. People desper- ate to beat their disease have volunteered to catch the flu, a cold or even a modified version of herpes. THAT THING RULES YouR LIFE. Let's GET SOME SLEEP. 8 ¢ NEXUS JUNE - JULY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com