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Astronomy device may help fight cancer
By Bryan Christie Health Correspondent
A SCANNING system developed by astronomers for classifying stars is exciting the medical world with its potential to detect breast cancer at an early stage.
The development, first reported in The Scotsman three years ago, opens up the possibility of being able to treat the first signs of breast cancer when the chances of success are highest.
The Royal Observatory of Edinburgh has applied for funding to develop the system for use with patients.
These negotiations are at a delicate stage and senior staff at the observatory preferred to make no official comment when contacted yesterday.
The computerised system they are working on, known as Super Cosmos, was developed to spot new stars among thousands of specks on photographic plates exposed through giant telescopes.
It soon became clear that the same system could be used to ' read ' breast X-rays and uncover the earliest signs of disease.
Dr Harvey McGillivray, head of the Observatory's COSMOS unit told The Scotsman in 1990 that it could take a trained observer up to 20 minutes to scan an X-ray plate by eye, with no certainty of spotting abnormalities.
The Super Cosmos system is capable of scanning an X-ray plate in minutes and will eliminate inconsistency in diagnosis.
Software being produced by scientists at Manchester University will allow the Super-Cosmos equipment to spot particular features on X-rays every time.
Any suspicious images can then be double-checked by a radiologist before any decision is taken to treat the patient.
Scientists at the observatory are also investigating other uses for the system.
In 1990 it was being used to measure the presence of minute underwater bubbles which can detect the presence of submarines, and it has also been applied to study polymer fibre patterns in research on materials for plastic moulds.
Technology dogs strays' footsteps
By Tom Morton
TRACKING down the stray dogs of Inverness may soon be easier thanks to the ubiquitous micro-chip.
The dogs would have chips coded with their owners' names and addresses implanted below the fur.
Any pooch found straying could be matched to its owners by the Highland capital's two dog wardens using scanners.
On Friday, Inverness District Council's control of dogs sub-committee will meet to discuss the details of a one-month pilot scheme.
Tom McClenaghan, the council's director of administration, reveals in a report that owners will be charged an initial 12 for the security of knowing that their furry friends can no longer go as they please.
Compulsory chipping is outwith council powers.
A council vehicle would patrol housing schemes' with local vets offering their services free of charge and supplying an animal nurse in an advisory capacity free of charge '.
What species of animal nurse is not made clear.
Any chipped dogs found straying should be returned to their owners free only twice, Mr McClenaghan suggests, with subsequent escapes incurring fines of up to 40.
A a council administrative assistant said the scheme had been approved by the council following increased concern with dog-straying and dog-fouling.
Richard Fry, managing director of Pettrac, said schemes at Inverness and Glasgow would be linked to the Scottish Pet Register, a computer operated from the Glasgow Dog and Cat Home.
The Data Protection Act did apply to the doggy database, he added, and all details would kept confidential.
Hormones take the heat off Thousands of women suffer menopausal symptoms which could be relieved by a course of Hormone Replacement Therapy.
Jane Fowler asks why only 9 per cent of women who can benefit are taking the option There are still too many doctors who will say ' I 'm afraid it's just your age, my dear ' or ' You 'll just have to live with it'
FROM my childhood, I remember clearly my aunt suffering daily from the most common problem of the menopause, the hot flush.
The term ' flush ' does not translate the intensity of heat and discomfort experienced.
Each evening, as she prepared the evening meal, the heat would start at her waist, spread up the chest, her face would suffuse to crimson and her cheeks puff up.
After throwing the plates on the table, she would rush out into the garden in an attempt to cool down.
There she would stay for up an hour in shirt-sleeves in the pitch-dark, sometimes in the snow, while the bewildered family shivered inside.
Bewildering and distressing is a fitting description of the many symptoms which can accompany the menopause.
About 20 per cent of women encounter no problems but the vast majority do not escape.
For decades, the ' change of life ' was something to be suffered in silence, something to do with ' female hormones', always a bother at the best of times, and something gynaecological.
On all counts  a taboo subject.
But since the 1950s, hormone replacement therapy, or HRT, has been available and some famous names pay tribute to its effects: Theresa Gorman, Miriam Stoppard, Jill Gascoigne, Kate O'Mara  even, it is rumoured, Margaret Thatcher.
Only this month, the novelist Fay Weldon added her own paean of praise.
' It's like a carpet underlay through life.
It gives you an expectation, an anticipation, you don't know what will happen next. '
A recent survey of Scottish gynaecologists revealed that 99 per cent of them would recommend HRT, given the right medical circumstances.
Yet only 9 per cent of women who could benefit are taking up the option.
Why the discrepancy?
The survey, carried out by Dr Helen McEwan and Dr Mary Campbell-Brown of Glasgow Royal Infirmary, reported that many women fear not enough is known about the long-term consequences.
Others think it tampers with nature although unlike the contraceptive pill which tops up hormones, HRT simply restores them to their previous and natural level.
Those involved in research into the drug and with the women taking it are mainly enthusiastic.
The trouble is, as Rosemary Nicol points out in her book Hormone Replacement Therapy: Your Guide to Making An Informed Choice, HRT is not simply a matter of going to your GP and getting a prescription.
' There are over 20 combinations of HRT and it has to be tailored to the individual.
While a first attempt may work wonders for some, for others the dosage may need to be changed, the type of HRT altered or the frequency lowered.
Many give up at the first hurdle before discovering the eventual and significant rewards. '
Nicol believes each woman must balance the severity of her symptoms and the long-term benefits of HRT with the possible risks attached.
The only way to reach an informed decision is to understand what the menopause entails and exactly how HRT works.
The many and various symptoms of the menopause have but one cause: a fall in the level of the female hormone, oestrogen.
While oestrogen levels are high, the blood vessels remain in good condition, the walls of the vagina are thick and elastic, bones remain strong and skin blooms.
As the menopause approaches, there is a gradual decline in the amount of oestrogen produced each month.
The first symptoms which may be felt are hot flushes, night sweats, general anxiety and irritability, loss of self-esteem, insomnia, mood changes, poor memory, loss of confidence, loss of interest in sex and even formication (the feeling of insects crawling just underneath or on top of the skin, probably caused by changes in the nerve endings).
In fact, 75 per cent of menopausal women suffer from flushes and they constitute the commonest reason for women turning to HRT.
Since the problem is that of the blood vessels dilating and constricting due to lack of oestrogen, topping up the levels of oestrogen (the essence of HRT) causes the flushes to lessen within days, before disappearing.
HRT is similarly successful with night sweats.
Some GPs prescribe tranquillisers and anti-depressants for the related insomnia and irritability.
' This, ' comments Nicol, ' is difficult to justify as the problem is due to falling oestrogen and nothing else. '
Part of the brain contains many oestrogen receptors and when oestrogen levels fall, mood changes may occur.
' There are still too many doctors who will say ' I 'm afraid it's just your age, my dear ' or ' You 'll just have to live with it ', ' says Nicol.
Yet once the oestrogen is replaced by HRT, most women find their confidence and self-esteem restored and problems with mood-swings, forgetfulness and anxiety considerably alleviated.
HRT is also of benefit for the intermediate symptoms of the menopause, those that do not appear until some time after periods have stopped but which tend to get more noticeable and troublesome as the years go by.
These include bladder problems, such as stress incontinence, recurrent bacterial infections, vaginal dryness, pain during sexual intercourse and thinning skin and hair.
As many as 50 per cent of women complain of vagina or bladder problems in the years after the menopause.
Marie Brown thought she was one of the fortunate ones to sail through unaffected.
Then, two or three years after her periods stopped, she encountered vaginal dryness.
A female GP recommended KY jelly.
It was not the most enticing of substances, and Marie returned to the surgery, this time to see a male GP.
He suggested HRT, adding, ' my mother recommends it '.
Apart from the shock that her GP saw her in the same light as his aged mother, Marie has never looked back.
She has been on HRT for four years, has never suffered dryness again and attributes to it her general energy and enjoyment of life.
The long-term effects of the menopause are possibly the most important: an increased risk of arterial disease and osteoporosis, where bones become fragile and brittle.
Until the age of 40 or 50, men are far more at risk of heart disease than women.
This is thought to be the protective effect of oestrogen, which lowers the level of the ' bad ' cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein) and raises the level of the ' good ' (high-density lipoprotein).
But after the menopause, a woman's risk of having a heart attack or stroke increases.
According to Rosemary Roe of the National Osteoporosis Society, oestrogen therapy can also reduce the risk of coronary heart disease by as much as a third.
There is a further plus point: at an age when the major arteries of the body are narrowing, HRT is thought to widen them and so allow blood to flow more freely.
Even women of 70 can benefit from this protective effect of HRT.
There are several causes of osteoporosis but the most common is lack of oestrogen.
Bone contains two main types of cells called, confusingly, osteoclasts and osteoblasts.
All through our lives, the osteoclasts wear away microscopic craters in the bone, and the osteoblasts fill these craters with newly formed bone.
Oestrogen is thought to reduce the rate at which bone is dissolved and to increase the rebuilding process.
Once oestrogen levels fall, the bone becomes less dense and strong and more liable to fracture.
Hip fractures are potentially life threatening (they result in 40 premature deaths a day), while crushed spinal vertebrae may lead to back pain, loss of height and mobility, and eventually curvature of the spine.
Sometimes a vertebra will fracture with excruciating pain; on other occasions, it will break painlessly.
Recent research shows that only one in ten spinal fractures is being seen by a doctor.
The stoop known as Dowager's Hump is caused by osteoporosis.
There is considerable evidence that starting oestrogen therapy within two years of the menopause, and staying on it for at least five years, can reduce your risk of fracture by 50 to 60 per cent.
If you menopause early, either naturally or through hysterectomy, your risk of osteoporosis is far greater and the National Osteoporosis Society recommends you stay on it longer.
But if HRT can achieve such a range of benefits, why aren't women queuing up in droves?
The cloud in this particular silver lining is progestogen, a synthetic form of the hormone progesterone.
Progesterone is produced in the ovaries after the ovulation phase of the menstrual cycle and among its functions, prepares the womb for a fertilised egg by thickening the lining of the womb.
During a cycle which doesn't result in pregnancy, it is the production of progesterone which contributes to pre-menstrual bloating, breast tenderness and general irritability.
Progesterone is thus a mixed blessing and its presence in HRT is the single most important reason why women abandon it.
In the 1950s and 1960s, oestrogen therapy was used by women in America so  the phrase went  they could be ' feminine forever '.
But by the 1970s, a link was discovered with an increase in cancer of the endometrium (the lining of the womb).
It emerged that when oestrogen was taken on its own, the lining of the womb would build up each month and remain there instead of being shed as a period.
Eventually, the lining would become abnormally thickened and in some women it became cancerous.
The solution was to add a form of the hormone progesterone so that the lining was shed not as a period but as an artificial withdrawal bleed.
This is still the norm for women who have not had a hysterectomy: by taking progestogen with oestrogen for ten to 12 days each month, cancer of the endometrium is no longer an increased risk.
In fact, it is less of a risk for women taking combined HRT than those on none.
For most women, the number one advantage of the menopause is no more periods, yet here they are again, albeit in lighter form.
And with them PMT  weight gain, irritability, acne, greasy skin, low interest in sex.
Small wonder many women call a halt.
Nicol's message is don't be put off, particularly now when research is moving fast.
Some symptoms such as weight gain vanish of their own accord.
If problems do remain after two or three months, ask your doctor about changing to a different type of progestogen.
' There are different types available, and various dosages within each type, so there is a good chance you will eventually find a combination of oestrogen and progesterone that suits you.
' The good news is that research is being done into new and better progestogens.
Until recently, this hormone could only be taken in the form of tablets by mouth.
As much of the oestrogen gets lost as it passes through the digestive system, quite a large dose has to be taken initially and this large dose causes most side-effects.
Progestogen is now available in a combined progestogen and oestrogen patch.
In this form, the two hormones are absorbed by the skin and since the digestive system is avoided, a much lower dose can be given to achieve the desired effect, thereby reducing the side-effects. '
There remains one other fly in the ointment, and a significant one at that  a greater chance of developing breast cancer.
It appears the risk increases with the length of time HRT is taken and the higher the dose of oestrogen.
There appears to be no significant risk to women who take it for less than five years but the risk does increase slightly between five and ten years, and taking it for more than 15 years gives a higher risk still.
' One day, ' says Nicol, ' medicine will come with a treatment that is 100 per cent effective, 100 per cent safe and totally without side-effects in anybody.
But don't hold your breath. '
Marie Brown is happy to stay with HRT to avoid vaginal dryness, a symptom that rarely goes away with time.
She is also determined to prevent osteoporosis, having seen a friend confined to a wheelchair with the disease until she started HRT.
She is aware of the risk of breast cancer but attends regular breast screening and is content to rest the scales there.
HRT, says Rosemary Nicol, will not achieve miracles.
' If your husband is glancing sideways at younger women, your elderly parents are driving you mad and your daughter looks now how you would like to look, HRT will not magically put your world to rights.
But it will make you feel better able to cope with what the world is throwing at you and it will give you a better feeling about yourself. '
Ultimately, it comes down to a trade-off between symptoms and risks, side-effects and benefits.
But Nicol suggests the side-effects are getting rarer and the benefits more pronounced.
If it doesn't work for you, she argues, discuss it with your GP and if he or she is not sympathetic, ask to see a gynaecologist or attend a menopause clinic.
' Don't be afraid of being thought a member of the awkward squad: it's your body, and oestrogen replacement could make all the difference to your present well-being and future health. '
The eminent gynaecologist John Studd is no less enthusiastic.
He describes HRT as' probably the most important advance in preventive medicine in the western world for half a century '.
The National Osteoporosis Society concludes that, as a result of the lower incidence of heart disease and hip fractures, women on HRT live, on average, three years longer.
' There is no doubt that the risks of taking HRT are relatively much fewer in comparison to the benefits it provides. '
As one who takes HRT, Marie Brown says she would recommend it to anyone.
At 56, she works full-time, runs a home, enjoys hill walking  and to my eyes, looks terrific.
HRT and the Menopause, by the National Osteoporosis Society, 1 plus sae for 34p.
Hormone Replacement Therapy, Your Guide to Making an Informed Choice, by Rosemary Nicol, published by Vermilion, 6.99.
Lifestyle invites readers to submit their own views and experiences of HRT.
Global warming
The scientific community is not ' pretty well agreed that adding carbon dioxide... to the air strengthens the natural processes which beat the Earth ' (William Halkett, Points of View, 3 March).
Last December, Dick Lindzen, professor of meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told the Royal Meteorological Society in London that the greenhouse effect will have little impact on climates and that changing carbon dioxide levels will not be a factor.
His conclusion coincides with a tide of concern among mainstream researchers about possible failings in their predictions of a warmer world.
It would be fair to say that the influence of anthropogenic carbon dioxide on the world's climate is not known.
Consequently, it would be foolish to make drastic changes in energy policy until it is clear that there is danger.
However, it does not follow, as Eric Stockton (also Points of View, 3 March), claims, that nuclear power is not needed.
Nor is it true that the nuclear industry claims that the reduction in carbon dioxide is its raison d'^etre.
Nuclear power is needed to obviate the need to cover the land with wind-generators and the sea with wave-generators, to fill the valleys with hydro-electric schemes, to fit expensive desulphurisation and denitrification plants to coal-fired power stations to dash for gas.
Nuclear power is also needed to keep the cost of electricity down.
A sickness which stems from healthy practice
Hundreds of sheep farmers have been struck by the side effects of organophosphorus, a chemical used in animal dip.
Auslan Cramb reports on claims that it causes severe illness
WARWICK Wilson is a 36-year-old Alness farmer who has suffered a loss of sensation in his hands and feet.
He experiences excessive tiredness, physically and mentally, his memory is bad and he finds it difficult to concentrate.
He has all but given up hard physical work on his farm.
And he blames sheep dip for his condition.
More than anything, Wilson misses the fun and games that he should be able to enjoy with his three young children, and that he did enjoy, before the symptoms began.
He is one of hundreds of sheep farmers who are convinced their illness  often accompanied by nausea, headaches, blurred vision and muscle spasms  is caused by organophosphorus (OP) compounds in sheep dip.
And he complains bitterly that exhaustive health tests were not done years ago.
Recently, Wilson was part of a clinical study which adds considerable weight to repeated claims that the liquids used on 95,000 British farms, to treat 40 million sheep, could be the cause of permanent damage to the nervous system.
The results of the survey, carried out by Dr Goran Jamal at Glasgow's Southern General Hospital, will be revealed tonight on a Channel 4 Close to Home documentary, produced by the Edinburgh independent company, Barony Film and Television Productions.
' What this study showed, ' said Dr Jamal ' is undisputed evidence of peripheral nerve damage.
Organophosphate should remain in the dock until it is proven innocent. '
He carried out 24 tests on 16 randomly selected farmers who had complained of debilitating illness following dipping.
In all 16 cases he found nerve damage.
The results, on virtually every test, differed markedly from a control group of healthy adults.
For many of the farmers involved, the news is devastating.
But it is what they had feared.
A large number are incapable of heavy work, and have given up their farms.
The findings were entirely consistent with organophosphorus poisoning.
The damage may be permanent, and treatment is non-existent.
The programme does not apportion blame, or claim a conclusive link, but it points up the lack of long-term monitoring on people working with the chemicals, and suggests warning labels on the products do not always make clear what type of protective clothing is suitable.
The issue of clothing is crucial to the debate, although critics question whether such dangerous chemicals should be used under any conditions.
Today the Government is still advising farmers that the products  if used properly  are safe.
The labelling on the concentrated dip does include safety instructions.
However, on the brand checked by The Scotsman, the use of a face shield was only advised while mixing the concentrate, and not while dipping.
Warning instructions do not suggest the use of respirators.
In reality, few farmers wear complete protection at the tank, and the operation is so messy that liquid is bound to get on the smallest area of exposed skin.
And there is a body of opinion which suggests damage can be caused by inhalation, as well as through direct contact with the skin or mouth.
For years farmers have complained of temporary ' dipping flu ', after treating their sheep.
With legal action now a possibility, the Government and its agencies, confronted with dozens of testimonies like Wilson 's, has agreed to investigate.
The Veterinary Products Committee, which advises the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, will report this summer on a review of the evidence on OP dips.
It is taking submissions from the manufacturers, and from the National Poisons Unit at Guy's Hospital.
However, new research is confined to three studies, two of which are considering the question of protective clothing.
The third, by the Health and Safety Executive, is being carried out at Birmingham University and will consider the neuro-physiological effects of OP poisoning.
It will not report before 1995.
In the meantime, opposition to the dips is gathering pace.
MPs have urged the agriculture minister, John Gummer, to introduce a moratorium on the chemicals in advance of this year's summer dipping season.
The VPC may make an announcement on the proposal when it meets next Thursday.
Tomorrow, in a motion before the Commons, a cross-party group of MPs will ask the Government to comment on the evidence revealed by Channel 4.
And earlier this week, a group of lawyers representing sufferers in Scotland, England and Wales, met to consider court action.
There have been successful cases over OP poisoning in the UK, but none so far involving sheep dip.
If action is forthcoming, it is likely to be directed initially at the Government rather than the chemical companies which have complied with the necessary tests and procedures required to have the chemicals licenced.
The manufacturers' own organisation, the National Office of Animal Health, has reaffirmed its commitment to the dips.
NOAH said they continued to provide ' the widest protection against sheep parasites', and repeated the claim that many of those who complained of illness had not followed safety instructions.
But at least one farming area has already made its mind up, ahead of the latest investigations.
The owners of Shetland's 500,000 sheep are being urged to switch to more expensive, more environmentally-friendly products.
Shetland Islands Council is paying a ' green ' supplement of 35 a litre to encourage the change.
Carly starts pioneering gene therapy Treatment of an eight-month-old baby could be a major step forward in treating many inherited disorders, writes Gillian Harris
AN EIGHT-MONTH-OLD girl from Lennoxtown, Stirlingshire, made British medical history yesterday when she became the first person to start gene therapy to combat a potentially fatal deficiency.
Carly Todd received the first stage of the treatment at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.
Doctors removed bone marrow from her pelvis into which will be injected specially altered genes which are responsible for making the cells of the immune system.
Carly suffers from an immune system deficiency which killed her 14-month-old brother Greig four days before she was born.
Her body does not make an enzyme called Adenosine Deaminase (ADA) which is needed for a fully developed immune system.
Without it she is vulnerable to infection which her body can not fight.
Most sufferers die in childhood.
However, with a gene transplant, doctors at Great Ormond Street  who have been working with scientists from the University of Leiden in Holland  hope to reprogramme Carly's genes to enable her to protect herself against infection.
Gareth Morgan, a senior lecturer in immunology, said: ' The proposed treatment is a novel strategy for the management of genetic defects and results of this particular case will be closely observed as it may open the way forward for the treatment of many more inherited disorders. '
For the next few days the bone marrow which was taken from Carly will be incubated with the reprogrammed cells in a laboratory in Leiden.
It will be returned to Great Ormond Street on Monday and given to Carly, probably through a drip.
A spokeswoman for the hospital said: ' It will be a couple of months before we can tell if the treatment has been successful.
In the meantime we will monitor her progress very closely. '
After a fortnight Carly will undergo blood tests so that doctors can check for any chemical alterations.
Previous experiments with gene therapy, involving one Italian and two American children, have so far only altered blood cells rather than bone marrow cells and have had to be repeated monthly because of the cells' limited life span.
If successful, gene therapy could eventually offer effective treatment for as many as 4,000 hereditary illnesses, including cystic fibrosis.
Permission to manipulate human genes was given to Dr Morgan and his team by the Clothier committee, the Government's advisory body on the ethics of gene therapy.
Link found between oil workers and leukaemia
By Bryan Christie, Health Correspondent
AN EXCESS of leukaemia cases has been found among children in rural parts of Scotland linked to the growth of the North Sea oil industry.
A report today suggests that oil workers may have been responsible for the situation by bringing in an infectious agent such as a virus against which local children had no protection.
The report offers further evidence that some cases of childhood leukaemia may be caused by infection and not, as has been previously been suggested, by exposure to such things as nuclear radiation.
Leukaemia cases in children under four were almost double the expected number in rural areas which had the highest concentrations of oil-related workers.
Sixteen cases were expected during 1979-83 but 31 actually occurred.
Dr Leo Kinlen, the director of the Cancer Research Campaign's epidemiology unit in Oxford, who carried out the research, has produced a series of studies pointing to an infectious agent being involved in leukaemia.
His theory is that leukaemia is a rare response to a much more common but, as yet, unidentified infection which is transmitted when large numbers of people from different backgrounds come together.
Dr Kinlen, who previously worked at Edinburgh University, has already found an excess of childhood leukaemia cases around military camps and new towns, which both feature large population movements.
He decided to test the theory further by examining the background of more than 17,000 Scottish-based oil workers.
The crowded conditions they lived in were ideal for passing on an infectious agent.
He drew up a map of Scotland based on where the men lived and found the excess of cases in children from rural areas who had been exposed to those men.
Although more oil workers live in urban areas such as Glasgow and Aberdeen, no excess of cases was found there.
Dr Kinlen says children in densely populated urban areas are likely to have been exposed to the infectious agent and built up an immunity to it.
It is only in remote areas which have never been exposed to the infection that the problem occurs.
He has also examined the well-publicised cluster of leukaemia cases around the Dounreay nuclear plant and concludes it is likely to have been caused by exposure to incoming oil workers rather than radiation from the plant.
In his report, published today in the British Medical Journal, Dr Kinlen writes: ' The findings support the infection hypothesis that population mixing can increase the incidence of childhood leukaemia in rural areas.
They also suggest that the recent excess in the Dounreay-Thurso area is due to population mixing linked to the oil industry. '
The theory remains a controversial one but Dr Kinlen told The Scotsman that it is becoming harder to dismiss the findings as no more than chance.
' The more studies that are done that come up with this same finding, the more difficult it is to dismiss them. '
He is now investigating if leukaemia cases rose in Orkney and Shetland due to wartime incomers and is also looking at the effects of large construction projects in Britain in the post-war period.
Sonar attempt to free sperm whales
CONSERVATIONISTS striving to free six sperm whales trapped in Orkney waters have been offered underwater sonar equipment in an attempt to lure the stricken mammals to safety.
They face a race against time as fears grow over the health of the whales and the possibility of their becoming beached.
The sperm whales have been stranded in Scapa Flow for several weeks.
Rescuers have tried unsuccessfully to drive them out into the open sea using a line of boats with their engines running.
Earlier this week Dr John Goold of Bangor University arrived on Orkney with a recording of female sperm whales from the Azores.
It has been decided to play the tape in an attempt to entice them out of the enclosed channel.
There was concern that the hydrophonic amplification equipment needed for such a rescue operation was not available.
Yesterday however, David Goodson of Loughborough University offered the team of biologists, naturalists and conservationists a set of underwater transducers which he said should be able to produce the right effect.
Mr Goodson, of the university's electronic engineering department, says he has offered the equipment free of charge.
He said the gear, similar to that used for sub-surface profiling while looking for echoes during North Sea exploration, is sitting unused in a laboratory.
It is high-powered and the tape should be audible to the whales from a distance of up to two miles.
Mr Goodson said it would be necessary for the transducer to be coupled to a public address amplifier, ideally with a 100-line output transformer.
' Basically what we are offering is an underwater loudspeaker.
It can be hung over the side of a boat and the tape can then be played to the whales. '
He acknowledged there was a problem transporting the heavy, bulky equipment from Loughborough to Orkney and recognised that time was of the essence if the whales are to be saved.
Andrew Dorin, Scottish Natural Heritage's Orkney officer, said yesterday the transducers were similar in size to oil drums but that they were hoping to find someone prepared to fly them up.
Time for a total ban on drift-nets
Chapman Pincher (' Reeling over a savage blow ', 13 March) has directed timely attention to those obscene and gravely damaging practices still endorsed by the Agriculture and Fisheries Minister, John Gummer, and Whitehall, and which take place in the coastal waters from East Anglia to Northumberland, the north-east drift-nets.
Clearly, they must go.
Their five years' grace is up (in fact, seven years from demands endorsed during the 1986 Salmon Bill proceedings).
Mr Pincher is right.
Much depends on organised pressure by local concerned interests and individuals resident in the ' salmon constituencies' of Scotland.
I have referred to this elsewhere as the ' demonstration effect '.
Area MPs have still to be convinced that it is the sporting fishery which butters their electoral bread.
To this point, it is the tiny netting minority which continues to do its Houdini act and manages to retain ' residential respectability ' and political support.
People in the south, in the European, North American and international salmon community continue to push hard.
The current ' Ban the drift-nets' petition is doing well.
Recently, delegates of the European Angling Alliance, representing over five million anglers, added their signatures and enthusiastic support.
All this is being done ' abroad '.
It is the skirl of up-stream pipes and the roll of battle drums which will cause things to happen.
Animal research
The report (12 March) that researchers in Cambridge have produced genetically altered pigs with ' human hearts' shows yet again that science is allowed to operate without any proper controls.
How much money has been spent and how many animals have suffered during the last eight years?
How much more suffering and waste will there be before they move on to the human victims of their research?
Time and again in the US we have seen people suffer long-drawn-out deaths plumbed into artificial heart machines or given the hearts of other species of primates in transplant operations.
A great deal of medical opinion now recognises that preventive measures and wider availability of human organs for transplant are far more useful than animal experiments.
One would think that the present money-motivated Government would realise that encouraging people to carry donor cards and promoting a healthier lifestyle would give better results.
There is one other aspect to genetically engineering animals to create human compatible tissue and organs which gives cause for concern.
If the tissue and organs can be altered to make them acceptable for transplant, who can guarantee that animal diseases will not also adapt and cross the genetic barrier?
Fresh Glasgow plea for extra health aid Eric McKenzie examines a report which lends weight to renewed requests to make the city a special case for action
SENIOR public health officials in Glasgow are adding weight to a renewed call by the district council for urgent Government action on health problems.
The link among bad health and poverty, deprivation and unemployment was highlighted in a report by Glasgow's director of public health, Dr George Forwell, who, along with Dr Phil Hanlon, health promotions officer with Greater Glasgow Health Board, will discuss the report with members of the city's environment and health committee tomorrow.
Jim McCarron, the committee chairman, said yesterday that Dr Forwell's report underlined what politicians had been saying about Glasgow's health record for a long time.
' Our comments have gone unheeded by central government but surely they must pay attention now that they have been reiterated by a person of his standing. '
Glasgow was a unique case and a powerful argument now existed to make it a special case.
' Castlemilk was made a special initiative area by the Government and major improvements to housing and the environment have taken place.
But Castlemilk only mirrors the problems in other parts of the city which must also be tackled. '
In the report Dr Forwell pointed out that half the population of Greater Glasgow lived in extremely disadvantaged conditions, with the health of adult men deteriorating markedly compared with the rest of Scotland.
An analysis of local government districts within the GGHB area showed that districts such as Bearsden and Milngavie, and Eastwood, had socio-economic and health indices as good as the best areas within Europe.
However, Glasgow and Clydebank had levels of health comparable with many cities in what was once Eastern Europe.
His report added that unless there were a major and unexpected change in current trends, inequalities in health with Greater Glasgow and between Greater Glasgow and the rest of Scotland were likely to increase.
Dr Forwell said that marked differences among districts within the health board area suggested that there must be other determiners of health than just health services.
He said he was not talking about more money for health services but about more money to enable the council to deal with problems such as condensation and proper insulation of housing in the city.
' More money should be spent, but where they [ Glasgow District Council ] get it from is a political matter. '
He added: ' The natural environment, ie the weather, is the same in Bearsden and Milngavie as in Glasgow...
I 'm saying to Glasgow city council that I think the reason for the poor health of its people is due to factors outwith health services and more to do with social and economic factors such as unemployment and bad housing. '
East Kilbride opened a Health Yourself information service in the town's central library.
The service includes health-related books, leaflets, videos, and cassettes as part of a local health awareness campaign to promote a healthy life-style.
Oilseed rape
Some of your readers may have been confused by a report of our work in Aberdeen University on oilseed rape allergies, and subsequent letters from a farmer and an anti-allergy campaigner.
Our research is not complete, and your report appears to have been based on a brief article in a farming journal.
We have found no greater frequency of complaints of seasonal allergic-type symptoms in oilseed rape than in non-oilseed rape rural areas.
Just under 20 per cent of the population, however, in both areas complain of spring/summer symptoms and in the oilseed rape area a proportion attributed their symptoms to this crop.
It seems likely that, in many cases, they are correct, but that these symptoms are not due to what doctors would normally regard as allergy.
The word allergy means different things to different people, from almost any unusual symptom to a specific and measurable form of immunological response.
We hope that our continuing work will shed light on these different concepts, and in due course we shall publish our results in medical journals.
For the moment, it seems unlikely that oilseed rape causes more frequent or more dangerous symptoms to those living nearby than do many other crops.
This is not to say that it does not cause symptoms; we think that it does in some people.
There's a lot of it about A late-season flu bug has bitten Scotland, writes Ian Mullen
THE Scottish Football League programme has been badly affected over the last couple of weeks, not only by the injuries which might reasonably be expected at this stage in a crowded season, but, unusually, by a flu virus which has caused havoc in the playing staffs of some of the Premier Division teams.
Eleven Aberdeen players were laid low by the virus, and Rangers lost their international goalkeeper Andy Goram to the bug.
Worst hit of all were Motherwell, who had 22 of their 32 registered players either injured or coughing and spluttering, and who had their league game with Celtic postponed as a result of the infection.
This high incidence of viral infection is perhaps all the more surprising since there has not been a great deal of flu around this winter so far, and many sufferers no doubt believed that they were going to escape altogether.
Influenza is, of course, a completely different viral infection from the common cold, and its effects are much more severe.
Whereas a cold may take a day or two to develop and produce a cough, sore throat and streaming nose, flu arrives much more suddenly, and also causes a high temperature and sore and aching joints and muscles.
Most sufferers will have to spend a day or two in bed, and the feeling of malaise and depression with which the footballers are left will not necessarily be due to their team's position in the league, but is an almost inevitable element of a severe bout of flu.
The incubation period of the virus is 24 to 48 hours and the infection is probably spread by droplets from the coughs and sneezes of those who are already suffering.
Although they are extremely unlikely to suffer any lasting effects of the infection, it does appear to be the case that young, highly-trained athletes, such as footballers, are often susceptible to viral diseases.
The only group at any real risk from a flu epidemic are the elderly, of which there are an increasing number these days, and the danger comes primarily from the development of secondary infections which can easily follow a dose of flu.
The only really effective means of reducing the incidence of secondary infections in the elderly is by vaccination, usually done in autumn.
Only around 30 per cent of those who have been vaccinated go on to contract a mild dose of flu, and even then the risk of secondary infections is considerably reduced.
Fortunately, full-blown flu epidemics are relatively rare.
The last major epidemic in the UK was in December 1989, when 290 people per 100,000 were infected.
This compares with the 1975-76 epidemic which peaked at 350 cases per 100,000 and the 1968 flu epidemic which reached an incredible 918 cases per 100,000 of the population at its worst.
At the moment, the number of people suffering from flu in Scotland is nowhere near those levels, but one or two football managers may well be feeling ' as sick as a parrot ' because they did not think to have their highly-priced investments vaccinated before the winter began.
