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Notes of the Quarter
Britain has the world's highest ratio of unmarried teenage mothers, a survey reveals. Official statistics show that 87% of girls who give birth in their teens are unmarried, three times as many as in Third World countries such as Rwanda and Colombia.
Britain also has the worst record for young girls having sex outside marriage, with 96% of teenagers having intercourse by the age of 19.
- Daily Mail
Mercury, which is known to damage the nervous system and disrupt mental development, can also cause infertility in men at levels well below those the WHO says are safe.
Biologists at the University of Hong Kong InVitro Fertilisation Centre measured mercury levels in men with fertility problems. At any given age, men with 3.7 parts per million or more of mercury in their hair were twice as likely to be subfertile as men with 2 ppm or less. The WHO's safety limit is 10 ppm.
The men got their mercury from seafood. Volcanoes and coal-fired power stations release the metal into the environment. It is converted to methyl mercury by marine bacteria and taken up by fish.
Last year the US Environmental Protection Agency estimated that at least 170,000 people in the US receive higher doses than the WHO recommends.
- New Scientist
The number of Irish women coming to Britain for abortions has reached record levels. Last year the total was more than 5,000 for the first time.
Abortion is banned under the terms of the Irish Republic's written constitution, although changes in the law three years ago clarified women's right to travel abroad for terminations.
The figures showed that 5,325 women - nearly 9% more than in the previous year - went to Britain for abortions in 1997.
- Daily Telegraph
Professor Shapiro, a mild and studious man, is president of Princeton, the American ivy-league university. As he was giving his sonorous and worthy opening address to the students, a black undergraduate yelled: "Your grandfather raped my grandmother!" Perplexed and confused, the professor looked up and with a rising inflection replied: "What, in Minsk?"
- Sunday Times
(The Editor welcomes items for inclusion in this column, which should be posted to the General Secretary)