A ROW is sure to flare up in The Hague this month. The Argentinian delegation
to the Special Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting wants Britain to lift its
鈥渦nofficial reservation鈥� on the proposal that the secretariat for the Antarctic
Treaty should be based in Buenos Aires. I understand that the British government
is resolutely opposed to it. However, according to John Battle, the Foreign
Office minister, the only matter on the agenda for discussion by the
consultative meeting is the report of the Committee for Environmental
Protection. No discussion of the secretariat has been tabled, he says.
It is little wonder that South Americans get so angry at Britain. As chairman
of the all-party Latin-America Group, I fear that our attitude is still a
hangover from the Falklands War in 1982. It is time a British Prime Minister or
Foreign Secretary visited South America to see that anger.
AKIMICHI MORITA and his colleagues at Nagoya City University Medical School
recently showed that cigarettes do your looks no good
(快猫短视频, 15 April, p 18).
They say tobacco smoke can injure your skin, and Rona MacKie, a
leading British dermatologist, tells me she thoroughly agrees.
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For many years, says MacKie, a number of people, including the respected
American dermatologist Al Kligman, have produced elegant studies showing that
smokers look older for their years than non-smokers. The Japanese research in
the Archives of Dermatological Research confirms this, says MacKie. 鈥淲e
are thus right to warn young people that both smoking and sun exposure will age
them rapidly. Sadly, there are not many things left which we can do and enjoy
without looking old before our time,鈥� she says.
I ATTENDED the annual general meeting of the Association of Public Analysts
in London at the end of July. I was much struck by the importance of the job
they do, and how seldom they get the recognition they deserve.
I鈥檇 better explain. Local authority officers, such as trading standards and
environmental health officers, are usually responsible for enforcing the many
laws that control the safety and quality of our food, consumer goods, drinking
water and pollution in our environment. If this involves scientific analysis and
testing of what are called 鈥渙fficial samples鈥�, then that鈥檚 the public analysts鈥�
job.
A typical case might be that of residents on a housing estate becoming
alarmed at their dogs becoming very sick and dying. The tenants鈥� association
submits meat found both on the estate and in the stomach contents of the dead
animals to the public analyst, who identifies an insecticide known to attack the
central nervous system producing symptoms like the dogs had. The tenants call in
the police who can then bring action against the person responsible for bringing
the meat onto the estate.
What became clear to me from the meeting is that the quality of the service
offered by public analysts varies markedly from one local authority to the next.
Many are strapped for cash and limited in what they can do. Surely this is a
matter of urgent concern for all ministers as food problems, such as BSE and
Escherichia coli, assume an ever higher public profile?
