SEBASTIAN ABBOT
Associated Press
December 3, 2008 at 11:57 AM EST
MUSCAT — Passengers on a luxury cruise liner attacked by pirates in the dangerous waters between Yemen and Somalia said Wednesday they were surprised by the assailants' boldness and described hearing the “Pop! Pop! Pop!” of the pirates' rifles firing at the ship.
Sunday's attack on the nearly 600-foot long American-operated M/S Nautica in the Gulf of Aden was the latest evidence that pirates have grown more aggressive, viewing almost any ship on the water as a potential target. But the attack lasted only five minutes and the ship with about 650 passengers and 400 crew members on board sped away quickly and was not seized.
“We didn't think they would be cheeky enough to attack a cruise ship,” Wendy Armitage, of Wellington, New Zealand, told The Associated Press shortly after disembarking the ship for a daylong port stop in the Omani capital of Muscat.
“It was very minor really,” she said of the attack. “But it was a surprise that they attacked us, and they did fire shots.”
No one on the ship was injured, and the vessel was able to speed away from the pirates. The attack happened on Sunday.
In about 100 attacks on ships off the Somali coast this year, 40 vessels have been hijacked. Thirteen ships remain in the hands of pirates along with more than 250 crew members including a Saudi supertanker filled with $100 million worth of crude and a Ukrainian ship loaded with 33 battle tanks.
International warships patrol the area and have created a security corridor in the region under a U.S.-led initiative, but attacks on shipping have not abated.
The cruise liner was travelling from Rome to Singapore, a route that most directly must pass through the dangerous strait between Somalia and Yemen.
During the assault, pirates fired eight rifle shots at the ship, according to its operator, Oceania Cruises, Inc. But the captain ordered passengers inside and accelerated quickly, leaving the pirates far behind in their 20- to 30-foot speedboats.
“I couldn't see them shooting, but I heard them hitting the ship, ‘Pop! Pop! Pop!”' said Clyde Thornberg, on vacation from his home in Bend, Ore. “It wasn't really scary because the captain announced for the safety of everybody to get inside and get down, and by that time he was pouring on the coals to the ship and was outrunning them.”
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
Injured boy doesn't know attacks in India killed relatives
- Story Highlights
- Boy's parents, uncle, three cousins killed at attack on train station in Mumbai, India
- Boy, 13, is recovering from shrapnel wounds
- Brother has not told him about the deaths, is worried how it would impact recovery
- Brother says he will explain to boy, show him burial place when he leaves hospital
MUMBAI, India (CNN) -- As the boy, 13, looks up from his Mumbai hospital bed, his adult brother rests his hand on the boy's forehead, almost shielding him from the pain he does not yet know -- much of his family was killed in Wednesday's terrorist attacks.
Gunmen entered the Victoria Terminus train station Wednesday and opened fire.
Wednesday's well-planned but indiscriminate attacks targeted two luxury hotels, a Jewish center and the Victoria Terminus train station, where the boy's parents, uncle and three cousins waited to board.
The terrorists burst in, firing automatic weapons and hurling grenades, leaving the boy's six family members among the 179 killed across the city.
The names of the boy and his brother are being withheld to protect their identities. 
The 13-year-old is not alone in tragedy. A 2-year-old boy became an orphan on his birthday Saturday, after his mother and father, who was a rabbi at the Jewish center, were gunned down.
The 2-year-old was taken to Israel on Monday and will live with the nanny who carried him to safety at the Taj Hotel last week. And he is probably too young to remember the horror of November 26, 2008.
But at the JJ Hospital in Mumbai, the 13-year-old has questions for his brother and his doctors -- where is the rest of his family? Why haven't his parents visited?
His brother won't tell him yet.
"I feel that if we tell him, he is so young he will be terribly affected by it. He is badly injured now and there might be problems," the brother told CNN. "That's why we thought it's best not to tell him. He's just a kid."
Dr. BM Subnis, dean of the hospital, said the boy will have to learn the truth soon.
"We have told him that we are locating your parents and they shall soon come back and meet you," Subnis said. "But the way I see him over the days now, the child is very smart and intelligent and has understood that his parents are no more. Everybody is hiding from him that they are no more."
Subnis said they feared telling the boy would send him into shock and impact his recovery from shrapnel wounds.
"That's what we earlier thought," Subnis said. "But now, this hiding is affecting his recovery."
So when the time is right, the brother will share the devastating news.
"Once he's out of the hospital, I'll take him to the place where our parents are buried and tell him this is your mother and this is your father and this is the rest of your family and whatever has happened has happened," the brother said.Sunday, November 30, 2008
Explosions Wound Dozens As Political Deadlock Continues In Thailand
Attackers set off explosions at anti-government protest sites Sunday, wounding 51 peopl and raising fears of widening confrontations in Thailand's worst political crisis in decades, which has strangled its economy and shut down its main airports.
Thousands of government supporters gathered, meanwhile, in the heart of Bangkok for a rally denouncing the protesters, further inflaming tensions.
The rally was designed to show support for Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, who has appeared helpless in ending the crisis that has stranded up to 100,000 travellers, including dozens of Canadians, brought the key tourism industry to a virtual standstill and affected plane schedules worldwide.
Somchai has been forced to run the government out of the northern city of Chiang Mai because of fears he could be arrested by the military, whose allegiances are unclear.
Sunday's explosions hit the prime minister's compound, which protesters have held since August, an anti-government television station, and a road near the main entrance to Bangkok's domestic airport, which the protesters are also occupying. At least 51 people were hurt, including four seriously, officials said.
No one claimed responsibility, but Suriyasai Katasila, a spokesman for the protest group, blamed the government.
The protesters, who call themselves the People's Alliance for Democracy, overran Suvarnabhumi airport, the country's main international gateway, last Tuesday. They seized the domestic airport a day later, severing the capital from all commercial air traffic and virtually paralyzing the government.
The alliance says it will not give up until Somchai resigns, accusing him of being a puppet of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the alliance's original target. Thaksin, who is Somchai's brother-in-law, was deposed in a 2006 military coup and has fled the country to escape corruption charges.
Thousands of government supporters wearing red shirts, headbands and bandanas joined Sunday's rally against the protest alliance. Some danced and clapped to music blaring from loudspeakers.
"This is a movement against anarchical force and the people behind it," said government spokesman Nattawut Sai-Kua, who was to address the crowd.
"They want anarchy so that the army is forced to intervene and stage a coup," he told The Associated Press.
Somchai has appeared at a loss over how to end the crisis and has done little except to issue appeals and make offers of negotiations that have been rebuffed by the protesters.
Police have had their hands tied because of Somchai's reluctance to use force, and the military has refused to get involved, creating the worst political deadlock in the country's recent history.
In the wake of the Sunday explosions, senior protest leader Chamlong Srimuang met with Bangkok police chief Lt.-Gen. Suchart Maunkaew. The two agreed to have police and protesters jointly patrol protest sites at the prime minister's office and Don Muang domestic airport. So far, six people have been killed in bomb attacks, clashes with police and street battles between government opponents and supports.
Suvarnabhumi airport director Serirat Prasutanont said his officials are also trying to negotiate with protesters to let various airlines retrieve 88 planes that have remained parked since Tuesday.
"We are begging them to let the empty planes take off" but without success, he said.
Some airlines were using an airport at the U-Tapao naval base, about 140 kilometres southeast of Bangkok. But authorities there were overwhelmed with hundreds of screaming passengers cramming into the small facility, trying to get their bags scanned through a single X-ray machine.
"It was terrible! There was pushing and shouting and we couldn't get in the front door," said Veena Banerjee from India, trying for the second day to get on a plane.
Muslim pilgrims, who became stranded at the besieged international airport while on their way to the hajj, were bused Sunday to U-Tapao. An Iran Air flight will take them to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
"We are going to Mecca. There is only Allah," said Mohammad Rosi, one of the 459 pilgrims who arrived Tuesday in Bangkok from Thailand's Muslim-majority southern provinces.
Many Muslims save up for years to go on the pilgrimage, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for most.
The Federation of Thai Industries has estimated the takeover of the airports is costing the country $57 million to $85 million US a day. Some of its members have suggested they might not pay taxes to protest the standoff.
Thousands of government supporters gathered, meanwhile, in the heart of Bangkok for a rally denouncing the protesters, further inflaming tensions.
The rally was designed to show support for Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, who has appeared helpless in ending the crisis that has stranded up to 100,000 travellers, including dozens of Canadians, brought the key tourism industry to a virtual standstill and affected plane schedules worldwide.
Somchai has been forced to run the government out of the northern city of Chiang Mai because of fears he could be arrested by the military, whose allegiances are unclear.
Sunday's explosions hit the prime minister's compound, which protesters have held since August, an anti-government television station, and a road near the main entrance to Bangkok's domestic airport, which the protesters are also occupying. At least 51 people were hurt, including four seriously, officials said.
No one claimed responsibility, but Suriyasai Katasila, a spokesman for the protest group, blamed the government.
The protesters, who call themselves the People's Alliance for Democracy, overran Suvarnabhumi airport, the country's main international gateway, last Tuesday. They seized the domestic airport a day later, severing the capital from all commercial air traffic and virtually paralyzing the government.
The alliance says it will not give up until Somchai resigns, accusing him of being a puppet of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the alliance's original target. Thaksin, who is Somchai's brother-in-law, was deposed in a 2006 military coup and has fled the country to escape corruption charges.
Thousands of government supporters wearing red shirts, headbands and bandanas joined Sunday's rally against the protest alliance. Some danced and clapped to music blaring from loudspeakers.
"This is a movement against anarchical force and the people behind it," said government spokesman Nattawut Sai-Kua, who was to address the crowd.
"They want anarchy so that the army is forced to intervene and stage a coup," he told The Associated Press.
Somchai has appeared at a loss over how to end the crisis and has done little except to issue appeals and make offers of negotiations that have been rebuffed by the protesters.
Police have had their hands tied because of Somchai's reluctance to use force, and the military has refused to get involved, creating the worst political deadlock in the country's recent history.
In the wake of the Sunday explosions, senior protest leader Chamlong Srimuang met with Bangkok police chief Lt.-Gen. Suchart Maunkaew. The two agreed to have police and protesters jointly patrol protest sites at the prime minister's office and Don Muang domestic airport. So far, six people have been killed in bomb attacks, clashes with police and street battles between government opponents and supports.
Suvarnabhumi airport director Serirat Prasutanont said his officials are also trying to negotiate with protesters to let various airlines retrieve 88 planes that have remained parked since Tuesday.
"We are begging them to let the empty planes take off" but without success, he said.
Some airlines were using an airport at the U-Tapao naval base, about 140 kilometres southeast of Bangkok. But authorities there were overwhelmed with hundreds of screaming passengers cramming into the small facility, trying to get their bags scanned through a single X-ray machine.
"It was terrible! There was pushing and shouting and we couldn't get in the front door," said Veena Banerjee from India, trying for the second day to get on a plane.
Muslim pilgrims, who became stranded at the besieged international airport while on their way to the hajj, were bused Sunday to U-Tapao. An Iran Air flight will take them to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
"We are going to Mecca. There is only Allah," said Mohammad Rosi, one of the 459 pilgrims who arrived Tuesday in Bangkok from Thailand's Muslim-majority southern provinces.
Many Muslims save up for years to go on the pilgrimage, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for most.
The Federation of Thai Industries has estimated the takeover of the airports is costing the country $57 million to $85 million US a day. Some of its members have suggested they might not pay taxes to protest the standoff.
Explosions Wound Dozens As Political Deadlock Continues In Thailand
Attackers set off explosions at anti-government protest sites Sunday, wounding 51 peopl and raising fears of widening confrontations in Thailand's worst political crisis in decades, which has strangled its economy and shut down its main airports.
Thousands of government supporters gathered, meanwhile, in the heart of Bangkok for a rally denouncing the protesters, further inflaming tensions.
The rally was designed to show support for Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, who has appeared helpless in ending the crisis that has stranded up to 100,000 travellers, including dozens of Canadians, brought the key tourism industry to a virtual standstill and affected plane schedules worldwide.
Somchai has been forced to run the government out of the northern city of Chiang Mai because of fears he could be arrested by the military, whose allegiances are unclear.
Sunday's explosions hit the prime minister's compound, which protesters have held since August, an anti-government television station, and a road near the main entrance to Bangkok's domestic airport, which the protesters are also occupying. At least 51 people were hurt, including four seriously, officials said.
No one claimed responsibility, but Suriyasai Katasila, a spokesman for the protest group, blamed the government.
The protesters, who call themselves the People's Alliance for Democracy, overran Suvarnabhumi airport, the country's main international gateway, last Tuesday. They seized the domestic airport a day later, severing the capital from all commercial air traffic and virtually paralyzing the government.
The alliance says it will not give up until Somchai resigns, accusing him of being a puppet of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the alliance's original target. Thaksin, who is Somchai's brother-in-law, was deposed in a 2006 military coup and has fled the country to escape corruption charges.
Thousands of government supporters wearing red shirts, headbands and bandanas joined Sunday's rally against the protest alliance. Some danced and clapped to music blaring from loudspeakers.
"This is a movement against anarchical force and the people behind it," said government spokesman Nattawut Sai-Kua, who was to address the crowd.
"They want anarchy so that the army is forced to intervene and stage a coup," he told The Associated Press.
Somchai has appeared at a loss over how to end the crisis and has done little except to issue appeals and make offers of negotiations that have been rebuffed by the protesters.
Police have had their hands tied because of Somchai's reluctance to use force, and the military has refused to get involved, creating the worst political deadlock in the country's recent history.
In the wake of the Sunday explosions, senior protest leader Chamlong Srimuang met with Bangkok police chief Lt.-Gen. Suchart Maunkaew. The two agreed to have police and protesters jointly patrol protest sites at the prime minister's office and Don Muang domestic airport. So far, six people have been killed in bomb attacks, clashes with police and street battles between government opponents and supports.
Suvarnabhumi airport director Serirat Prasutanont said his officials are also trying to negotiate with protesters to let various airlines retrieve 88 planes that have remained parked since Tuesday.
"We are begging them to let the empty planes take off" but without success, he said.
Some airlines were using an airport at the U-Tapao naval base, about 140 kilometres southeast of Bangkok. But authorities there were overwhelmed with hundreds of screaming passengers cramming into the small facility, trying to get their bags scanned through a single X-ray machine.
"It was terrible! There was pushing and shouting and we couldn't get in the front door," said Veena Banerjee from India, trying for the second day to get on a plane.
Muslim pilgrims, who became stranded at the besieged international airport while on their way to the hajj, were bused Sunday to U-Tapao. An Iran Air flight will take them to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
"We are going to Mecca. There is only Allah," said Mohammad Rosi, one of the 459 pilgrims who arrived Tuesday in Bangkok from Thailand's Muslim-majority southern provinces.
Many Muslims save up for years to go on the pilgrimage, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for most.
The Federation of Thai Industries has estimated the takeover of the airports is costing the country $57 million to $85 million US a day. Some of its members have suggested they might not pay taxes to protest the standoff.
Thousands of government supporters gathered, meanwhile, in the heart of Bangkok for a rally denouncing the protesters, further inflaming tensions.
The rally was designed to show support for Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, who has appeared helpless in ending the crisis that has stranded up to 100,000 travellers, including dozens of Canadians, brought the key tourism industry to a virtual standstill and affected plane schedules worldwide.
Somchai has been forced to run the government out of the northern city of Chiang Mai because of fears he could be arrested by the military, whose allegiances are unclear.
Sunday's explosions hit the prime minister's compound, which protesters have held since August, an anti-government television station, and a road near the main entrance to Bangkok's domestic airport, which the protesters are also occupying. At least 51 people were hurt, including four seriously, officials said.
No one claimed responsibility, but Suriyasai Katasila, a spokesman for the protest group, blamed the government.
The protesters, who call themselves the People's Alliance for Democracy, overran Suvarnabhumi airport, the country's main international gateway, last Tuesday. They seized the domestic airport a day later, severing the capital from all commercial air traffic and virtually paralyzing the government.
The alliance says it will not give up until Somchai resigns, accusing him of being a puppet of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the alliance's original target. Thaksin, who is Somchai's brother-in-law, was deposed in a 2006 military coup and has fled the country to escape corruption charges.
Thousands of government supporters wearing red shirts, headbands and bandanas joined Sunday's rally against the protest alliance. Some danced and clapped to music blaring from loudspeakers.
"This is a movement against anarchical force and the people behind it," said government spokesman Nattawut Sai-Kua, who was to address the crowd.
"They want anarchy so that the army is forced to intervene and stage a coup," he told The Associated Press.
Somchai has appeared at a loss over how to end the crisis and has done little except to issue appeals and make offers of negotiations that have been rebuffed by the protesters.
Police have had their hands tied because of Somchai's reluctance to use force, and the military has refused to get involved, creating the worst political deadlock in the country's recent history.
In the wake of the Sunday explosions, senior protest leader Chamlong Srimuang met with Bangkok police chief Lt.-Gen. Suchart Maunkaew. The two agreed to have police and protesters jointly patrol protest sites at the prime minister's office and Don Muang domestic airport. So far, six people have been killed in bomb attacks, clashes with police and street battles between government opponents and supports.
Suvarnabhumi airport director Serirat Prasutanont said his officials are also trying to negotiate with protesters to let various airlines retrieve 88 planes that have remained parked since Tuesday.
"We are begging them to let the empty planes take off" but without success, he said.
Some airlines were using an airport at the U-Tapao naval base, about 140 kilometres southeast of Bangkok. But authorities there were overwhelmed with hundreds of screaming passengers cramming into the small facility, trying to get their bags scanned through a single X-ray machine.
"It was terrible! There was pushing and shouting and we couldn't get in the front door," said Veena Banerjee from India, trying for the second day to get on a plane.
Muslim pilgrims, who became stranded at the besieged international airport while on their way to the hajj, were bused Sunday to U-Tapao. An Iran Air flight will take them to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
"We are going to Mecca. There is only Allah," said Mohammad Rosi, one of the 459 pilgrims who arrived Tuesday in Bangkok from Thailand's Muslim-majority southern provinces.
Many Muslims save up for years to go on the pilgrimage, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for most.
The Federation of Thai Industries has estimated the takeover of the airports is costing the country $57 million to $85 million US a day. Some of its members have suggested they might not pay taxes to protest the standoff.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Why save Endangered Species
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Why Save Endangered Species?
Plants and animals hold medicinal, agricultural, ecological, commercial and aesthetic/recreational value. Endangered species must be protected and saved so that future generations can experience their presence and value.
Medicinal
Plants and animals are responsible for a variety of useful medications. In fact, about forty percent of all prescriptions written today are composed from the natural compounds of different species. These species not only save lives, but they contribute to a prospering pharmaceutical industry worth over $40 billion annually. Unfortunately, only 5% of known plant species have been screened for their medicinal values, although we continue to lose up to 100 species daily.
The Pacific yew, a slow-growing tree found in the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest, was historically considered a "trash" tree (it was burned after clearcutting). However, a substance in its bark taxol was recently identified as one of the most promising treatments for ovarian and breast cancer.
Additionally, more than 3 million American heart disease sufferers would perish within 72 hours of a heart attack without digitalis, a drug derived from the purple foxglove.
Agricultural
There are an estimated 80,000 edible plants in the world. Humans depend upon only 20 species of these plants, such as wheat and corn, to provide 90% of the world's food. Wild relatives of these common crops contain essential disease-resistant material. They also provide humans with the means to develop new crops that can grow in inadequate lands such as in poor soils or drought-stricken areas to help solve the world hunger problem. In the 1970s, genetic material from a wild corn species in Mexico was used to stop a leaf fungus that had previously wiped out 15% of the U.S. corn crop.
Ecological
Plant and animal species are the foundation of healthy ecosystems. Humans depend on ecosystems such as coastal estuaries, prairie grasslands, and ancient forests to purify their air, clean their water, and supply them with food. When species become endangered, it is an indicator that the health of these vital ecosystems is beginning to unravel. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that losing one plant species can trigger the loss of up to 30 other insect, plant and higher animal species.
The northern spotted owl, listed as threatened in 1990, is an indicator of the declining health of the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest. These forests are the home to over 100 other old-growth dependent species, which are at risk due to decades of unsustainable forest management practices.
Pollution off the coast of Florida is killing the coral reefs along the Florida Keys, which serve as habitat for hundreds of species of fish. Commercial fish species have begun to decline, causing a threat to the multi-million dollar tourism industry, which depends on the quality of the environment.
Commercial
Various wild species are commercially raised, directly contributing to local and regional economies. Commercial and recreational salmon fishing in the Pacific Northwest provides 60,000 jobs and $1 billion annually in personal income, and is the center of Pacific Northwest Native American culture. This industry and way of life, however, is in trouble as salmon decline due to habitat degradation from dams, clearcutting, and overgrazing along streams.
Freshwater mussels which are harvested, cut into beads, and used to stimulate pearl construction in oysters form the basis of a thriving industry which supports approximately 10,000 U.S. jobs and contributes over $700 million to the U.S. economy annually. Unfortunately, 43% of the freshwater mussel species in North America are currently endangered or extinct.
Aesthetic/Recreational
Plant and animal species and their ecosystems form the basis of America’s multi-billion dollar, job-intensive tourism industry. They also supply recreational, spiritual, and quality-of-life values as well.
Each year over 108 million people in the United States participate in wildlife-related recreation including observing, feeding, and photographing wildlife. Americans spend over $59 billion annually on travel, lodging, equipment, and food to engage in non-consumptive wildlife recreation. Our national
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
How clean are your hands?
In the toilets of a service station, at an undisclosed location along a motorway in middle England, Dr Val Curtis is waging a one-woman war on Britain's filthy hands.
As weary travellers flush, zip and button, an electronic message board on the wall flashes: “Washing hands with soap avoids disease... Is the person next to you washing with soap?”
The amount of soap used in any given period is measured by sensors on the dispensers and, when compared with the number of people that enter the washrooms in the same time, gives a depres- singly accurate picture of modern Britain's slovenliness.
Curtis, the director of the Hygiene Centre at the University of London, a co-founder of the Global Partnership for Handwashing with Soap, and all-round hand-washing aficionado, has not collated the final results yet. But even the most disgusting electronic message she could think of, “Soap it off or eat it later”, has failed to elicit a scrum for the soap. “I think what we need to do next is put up a poster with a big photo of poo on it,” she sighs.
Two years ago, the United Nations declared 2008 to be the International Year of Sanitation. Britain, a nation that has produced sanitation visionaries such as John Snow, who proved that cholera was spread by water, and Edwin Chadwick, who conceived of sewage disposal and piping water into homes, should have been leading the way. Instead, our hands have remained decidedly dirty.
Last month, on Global Handwashing day no less, Dr Curtis caused a stir when she did a swab test of commuters' hands in London, Cardiff, Birmingham Liverpool and Newcastle. The results appeared to show that northerners' hands were dirtier than those of southerners. But beyond the geographic hyperbole, the survey had much more worrying implications than a few angry Geordies. Averaged out, the figures showed that more than one in four Britons had faecal matter on their hands - no matter where they came from. And while the number of men with dirty hands varied between the North and the South, the number of women, often the family food preparers and child carers, remained constant at a startling 30 per cent.
An earlier study carried out by Curtis in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, found that just 43 per cent of mothers washed their hands after changing their baby's nappy. “We all wash our hands in principle, but in practice, we've all got an excuse,” says Curtis.
According to John Oxford, a professor of virology and the chairman of the UK Hygiene Council, just half the UK population has an understanding of the importance of hand hygiene and too many do not put their knowledge into action. “Hygiene has not been high on the agenda,” Oxford says. “You say you're a professor of hygiene and people tend to think that you're the man who cleans the toilets.”
In an international study of seven countries conducted by the Hygiene Council in May, the UK was found to be the third worst nation for germs after India and Malaysia. The study, which also included Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Germany and the US, found 33 per cent of surfaces in British homes covered in E. coli, faecal matter and other dangerous pathogens spread by dirty hands.
“Most people we interviewed in the UK did not appreciate that we can catch diseases from our hands,” says Oxford. “They didn't realise that hands had anything to do with it.”
But hands have everything to do with it. Research carried out this month in America found that an average hand is home to 150 species of bacteria - comparable to, or even more than are found in the mouth, oesophagus and lower intestine. And womens' hands were found to have 50 per cent more varieties than men due to skin acidity, hormones and hand cream.
The majority of these organisms are harmless; others are not. Britain's 12 million annual cases of norovirus and gastroenteritis, causing projectile vomiting and diarrhoea, the MRSA epidemic in hospitals last winter, and an outbreak of E. coli in Scotland the year before are all down to pathogens on dirty hands.
It is estimated that most of the 120 million common colds contracted each year in the UK are also caused by viruses spread by hands (See Dr Thomas Stuttaford, page 15).
The average child misses one week of school a year due to communicable ill- nesses such as these. In the UK, this equates to an annual 36 million days lost to absenteeism. But the Hygiene Council has found that good hand-washing practices and ready access to the hand sanitiser in school can reduce this figure by almost 50 per cent. Absentee numbers have plummeted at one school, George Watson's College, in Edinburgh after it introduced mandatory hospital-style handwashing for all its pupils in January.
“The bugs that make us sick come from the toilet,” says Curtis. “And the point after going to the toilet when you don't wash your hands is the superhighway moment.”
The germs spread to hotspots such as door handles, light switches, remote controls, basin taps and telephones where other people pick them up. Or a person will infect themselves by putting their fingers in their mouth or rubbing their eyes or nose. Once a bug is inside a person, it will “multiply like crazy and then pump out by the billion at the other end”, says Curtis. A stool from an infected person contains ten billion pathogenic microbes, many of which rise into the air to continue the cycle.
The solution should be simple. Hygiene is cheap soap and water, the experts say, still the most effective method of hand washing. “Hygiene is self-empowering,” says Oxford. “People don't need an expert like me next to them. They can do something about hygiene themselves.”
Guidance issued by the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta in the US says that a person should sing Happy Birthday twice as they wash their hands. Coughs and sneezes should be directed into elbows rather than hands.
But Curtis believes that the problem of Britain's dirty hands is more complex. “Disgust is a ‘gene' that evolved in our animal ancestors to help us survive and avoid infection,” she says. And out of disgust came hygiene: there is evidence that neanderthals used seashell tweezers to pluck hairs and remove skin parasites, and that woman used the residue of animal fat and ash from roast meat to remove stains.
“A caveman would go to the loo in a field, see and smell what they had done and be disgusted by it, so they would be sure to wipe their hands after,” says Curtis. “Now we live in this beautiful, pristine environment with white tiles on the wall and we do everything to make our poo invisible and unsmellable. We're not feeling the same sense of contamination.”
Our hands are dirty, Curtis concludes, because our toilets are simply too clean.
Germ warfare: the facts
100,000: Average number of bacteria found on one square inch of healthy skin
1,000,000: Number of lives that could be saved in the world each year if everyone washed their hands with soap
One in four: The proportion of British kitchen cloths that harbour the E. coli virus, an indicator of faecal contamination
Two hours: Length of time that some bacteria can remain alive on surfaces after being deposited by hands
20 seconds: The length of time hands should be washed with soap and warm water
30: Number of years added to our average life expectancy in the past century through advances in hygiene
As weary travellers flush, zip and button, an electronic message board on the wall flashes: “Washing hands with soap avoids disease... Is the person next to you washing with soap?”
The amount of soap used in any given period is measured by sensors on the dispensers and, when compared with the number of people that enter the washrooms in the same time, gives a depres- singly accurate picture of modern Britain's slovenliness.
Curtis, the director of the Hygiene Centre at the University of London, a co-founder of the Global Partnership for Handwashing with Soap, and all-round hand-washing aficionado, has not collated the final results yet. But even the most disgusting electronic message she could think of, “Soap it off or eat it later”, has failed to elicit a scrum for the soap. “I think what we need to do next is put up a poster with a big photo of poo on it,” she sighs.
Two years ago, the United Nations declared 2008 to be the International Year of Sanitation. Britain, a nation that has produced sanitation visionaries such as John Snow, who proved that cholera was spread by water, and Edwin Chadwick, who conceived of sewage disposal and piping water into homes, should have been leading the way. Instead, our hands have remained decidedly dirty.
Last month, on Global Handwashing day no less, Dr Curtis caused a stir when she did a swab test of commuters' hands in London, Cardiff, Birmingham Liverpool and Newcastle. The results appeared to show that northerners' hands were dirtier than those of southerners. But beyond the geographic hyperbole, the survey had much more worrying implications than a few angry Geordies. Averaged out, the figures showed that more than one in four Britons had faecal matter on their hands - no matter where they came from. And while the number of men with dirty hands varied between the North and the South, the number of women, often the family food preparers and child carers, remained constant at a startling 30 per cent.
An earlier study carried out by Curtis in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, found that just 43 per cent of mothers washed their hands after changing their baby's nappy. “We all wash our hands in principle, but in practice, we've all got an excuse,” says Curtis.
According to John Oxford, a professor of virology and the chairman of the UK Hygiene Council, just half the UK population has an understanding of the importance of hand hygiene and too many do not put their knowledge into action. “Hygiene has not been high on the agenda,” Oxford says. “You say you're a professor of hygiene and people tend to think that you're the man who cleans the toilets.”
In an international study of seven countries conducted by the Hygiene Council in May, the UK was found to be the third worst nation for germs after India and Malaysia. The study, which also included Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Germany and the US, found 33 per cent of surfaces in British homes covered in E. coli, faecal matter and other dangerous pathogens spread by dirty hands.
“Most people we interviewed in the UK did not appreciate that we can catch diseases from our hands,” says Oxford. “They didn't realise that hands had anything to do with it.”
But hands have everything to do with it. Research carried out this month in America found that an average hand is home to 150 species of bacteria - comparable to, or even more than are found in the mouth, oesophagus and lower intestine. And womens' hands were found to have 50 per cent more varieties than men due to skin acidity, hormones and hand cream.
The majority of these organisms are harmless; others are not. Britain's 12 million annual cases of norovirus and gastroenteritis, causing projectile vomiting and diarrhoea, the MRSA epidemic in hospitals last winter, and an outbreak of E. coli in Scotland the year before are all down to pathogens on dirty hands.
It is estimated that most of the 120 million common colds contracted each year in the UK are also caused by viruses spread by hands (See Dr Thomas Stuttaford, page 15).
The average child misses one week of school a year due to communicable ill- nesses such as these. In the UK, this equates to an annual 36 million days lost to absenteeism. But the Hygiene Council has found that good hand-washing practices and ready access to the hand sanitiser in school can reduce this figure by almost 50 per cent. Absentee numbers have plummeted at one school, George Watson's College, in Edinburgh after it introduced mandatory hospital-style handwashing for all its pupils in January.
“The bugs that make us sick come from the toilet,” says Curtis. “And the point after going to the toilet when you don't wash your hands is the superhighway moment.”
The germs spread to hotspots such as door handles, light switches, remote controls, basin taps and telephones where other people pick them up. Or a person will infect themselves by putting their fingers in their mouth or rubbing their eyes or nose. Once a bug is inside a person, it will “multiply like crazy and then pump out by the billion at the other end”, says Curtis. A stool from an infected person contains ten billion pathogenic microbes, many of which rise into the air to continue the cycle.
The solution should be simple. Hygiene is cheap soap and water, the experts say, still the most effective method of hand washing. “Hygiene is self-empowering,” says Oxford. “People don't need an expert like me next to them. They can do something about hygiene themselves.”
Guidance issued by the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta in the US says that a person should sing Happy Birthday twice as they wash their hands. Coughs and sneezes should be directed into elbows rather than hands.
But Curtis believes that the problem of Britain's dirty hands is more complex. “Disgust is a ‘gene' that evolved in our animal ancestors to help us survive and avoid infection,” she says. And out of disgust came hygiene: there is evidence that neanderthals used seashell tweezers to pluck hairs and remove skin parasites, and that woman used the residue of animal fat and ash from roast meat to remove stains.
“A caveman would go to the loo in a field, see and smell what they had done and be disgusted by it, so they would be sure to wipe their hands after,” says Curtis. “Now we live in this beautiful, pristine environment with white tiles on the wall and we do everything to make our poo invisible and unsmellable. We're not feeling the same sense of contamination.”
Our hands are dirty, Curtis concludes, because our toilets are simply too clean.
Germ warfare: the facts
100,000: Average number of bacteria found on one square inch of healthy skin
1,000,000: Number of lives that could be saved in the world each year if everyone washed their hands with soap
One in four: The proportion of British kitchen cloths that harbour the E. coli virus, an indicator of faecal contamination
Two hours: Length of time that some bacteria can remain alive on surfaces after being deposited by hands
20 seconds: The length of time hands should be washed with soap and warm water
30: Number of years added to our average life expectancy in the past century through advances in hygiene
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Pedestrian dies in hit-and-run
PAWEL DWULIT/TORONTO STAR
A piece from a side-view mirror was found after police marked the scene of a fatal Brampton hit-and-run Nov. 15, 2008.
Police say mirror from vehicle that struck Brampton man will help track down driver
Nov 16, 2008 04:30 AM
Adrian Morrow Staff Reporter
A 40-year-old pedestrian is dead after a hit-and-run in Brampton early yesterday morning.
Motorists called police to Bovaird Dr. E. near Conestoga Dr. around 5:50 a.m. The man was lying on the road in the westbound lanes, roughly 200 metres from the intersection.
He was taken to hospital, where he died of his injuries. He was identified as Mandeep Bhagtana, a Brampton resident and married father of two children.
A portion of the driver's side-view mirror from the vehicle that hit him was left behind.
Police said they did not have a description of the vehicle or any suspects, but said they can trace the vehicle based on the piece of the mirror.
Police were appealing for witnesses and the driver to contact them.
"We're hoping the driver will come forward, it's in their best interest," said Const. Wayne Patterson of Peel Regional Police. "We understand it was dark out, the weather was inclement, it was pouring rain."
Anyone with information can call Peel Region police at 905-453-2121 ext. 3710. Crime Stoppers accepts anonymous tips at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
A piece from a side-view mirror was found after police marked the scene of a fatal Brampton hit-and-run Nov. 15, 2008.
Police say mirror from vehicle that struck Brampton man will help track down driver
Nov 16, 2008 04:30 AM
Adrian Morrow Staff Reporter
A 40-year-old pedestrian is dead after a hit-and-run in Brampton early yesterday morning.
Motorists called police to Bovaird Dr. E. near Conestoga Dr. around 5:50 a.m. The man was lying on the road in the westbound lanes, roughly 200 metres from the intersection.
He was taken to hospital, where he died of his injuries. He was identified as Mandeep Bhagtana, a Brampton resident and married father of two children.
A portion of the driver's side-view mirror from the vehicle that hit him was left behind.
Police said they did not have a description of the vehicle or any suspects, but said they can trace the vehicle based on the piece of the mirror.
Police were appealing for witnesses and the driver to contact them.
"We're hoping the driver will come forward, it's in their best interest," said Const. Wayne Patterson of Peel Regional Police. "We understand it was dark out, the weather was inclement, it was pouring rain."
Anyone with information can call Peel Region police at 905-453-2121 ext. 3710. Crime Stoppers accepts anonymous tips at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
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