Month: February 2004

Americans Show Little, If Any, Let Up In Beef Eating

So far there doesn’t seem to have been any appreciable rush by people in the United States to abandon beef in the wake of the discovery of a cow with Mad Cow Disease in Washington State.

A January poll conducted by IPSOS U.S. Express for the American Farm Bureau Federation found that 74 percent of Americans said their beef consumption was about the same as it was before the Dec. 23 announcement of the infected cow.

Fifteen percent said their consumption of beef was down slightly or significantly, while 7 percent said their consumption of beef was up slightly or significantly. Four percent of respondents either did not eat beef or said they did not know whether their consumption of beef had increased, decreased or remained about the same.

Certainly fast food restaurants like McDonald’s were unfazed by the announcement. Sales at McDonald’s increased 12.2 percent in December — the ninth month in a row of increased sales for the fast food chain that had experienced slow growth the past couple years.

Source:

Poll: U.S. Still Eating Beef Despite Mad Cow Case. Reuters, January 12, 2004.

McDonald’s posts strong year-end sales. Dave Carpenter, Associated Press, January 27, 2004.

vCJD Deaths Increased Slightly in 2003

For the first time since 1998, the total number of people who died from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease increased in 2003, but the total number of deaths from the disease is still consistent with a decline in cases of he disease according to Great Britain’s Department of Health.

In 2003, 18 people in Great Britain died from vCJD compared to 17 in 2002. Cases peaked in 2000 when 28 people died from the disease. Altogether, 139 people have died from vCJD in Great Britain and another 10 people outside that country since the Mad Cow Disease scare began. There are currently six known cases of people alive in Great Britain today who are believed to be afflicted with the disease.

Sources:

U.K. deaths from mad cow rise for first time since ’98. Heather Timmons, The New York Times, January 6, 2004.

Human form of mad cow killed at least 18. Morning Call (Allentown, PA), January 18, 2004.

Deaths up but human ‘mad cow’ data consistent with decline. Emma Ross, Associated Press, January 6, 2004.

What a Difference a War Makes for Women in Afghanistan

All those dead Taliban fighters are probably going to be spinning in their graves with stuff like this happening in Afghanistan,

The [voter registration] process started last December and, so far, around 22 percent of the 320,770 Afghans who signed up to vote are women. Up to 10 million people are estimated to be eligible to register to vote in the country.

That, and Kabul Television recently broadcast the first images of a woman singing in more than 12 years

Source:

Number Of Afghan Women Registered To Vote Increases. UN Wire, July 13, 2004.

Afghans lift TV ban on women singers. Sayed Salahuddin, Reuters, January 13, 2004.

A Call For Gender-Neutral Restrooms at the University of Chicago

The Chicago Maroon — the student newspaper at the University of Chicago — reported in November on a panel at which University of Chicago Law professor Mary Case presented the case for an issue near and dear to her — the need for gender-neutral bathrooms on the university’s campus.

In October 2001, Case made her mark at the University of Chicago with a presentation on “Toilet Paper: Toilets as Gendered Spaces” which, according to the University of Chicago’s Center for Gender Studies, was well-received by the more than 100 people who turned up to hear the presentation.

At a November panel discussion organized by the Center for gender studies, Case complained about the iconography associated with men and women’s restrooms, noting that women’s restrooms are frequently marked with a drawing of a stick figure in a dress. According to Case,

Going into it implies that we are willing to be associated with that image. There are only two [images] to choose from. This moment involves an act of self-labeling.

According to the Chicago Maroon, Case favors leaving the iconography alone, but allowing either sex to choose to use either bathroom.

The administration at the University of Chicago is taking this very seriously. Bill Michel, deputy dean at the University of Chicago, told the Maroon,

I was pleased that the students organized [sic] on open panel discussion to highlight the issues and encourage community discussion on the topic. If we are to make this change it would be in order to meet the needs of members of our community.

In fact, it turns out that the lack of gender-neutral bathroom facilities may present a public health problem. According to the Maroon,

Nate Claxton, another panelist, knew people who had contracted bladder infections because choosing a [sic] gender bathroom bothered them so much that they did not got to the bathroom all day.

Source:

Panel calls for neutral bathrooms. Robert Katz, Chicago Maroon, November 21, 2003.

Netherlands Ends Free Contraception Program

The Netherlands recently ended its policy of providing free contraception to all women over the age of 21.

The free contraception policy, in combination with aggressive sexual education programs, was widely credited with the Netherlands having the lowest teenage pregnancy and abortion rates in Europe.

Teen pregnancy and abortion in the Netherlands has grown in recent years, but that increase is largely due to immigration — 60 percent of abortions in the Netherlands are obtained by members of ethnic minorities.

The government cited the high cost of maintaining the birth control subsidy as the reason for eliminating it.

Source:

Dutch abandon free contraception for all. Angus Roxburgh, BBC News, January 15, 2004.

WHO Releases Report on Maternal Mortality Around the World

In October the World Health Organization released its estimates of the continued prevalence of maternal mortality. WHO estimates that worldwide 529,000 women die during childbirth.

Not surprisingly, 95 percent of those childbirth deaths occur in Africa and Asia, while only about 2,500 maternal deaths (less than one percent of the world total) occurred in developed countries.

In the United States, for example, the risk of dying during childbirth was 1 in 2,500. In Sweden it reached an astounding low of 1 in 29,800. But in places like Afghanistan and Sierra Leone, the risk was 1 in 6, while in Angola, Malawai and Niger the risk was 1 in 7.

In the developed world, the lifetime risk of a woman dying during childbirth as 1 in 2,800, while in developing countries it was 1 in 61. For Africa as a whole, the life time risk was 1 in 20.

Not surprisingly, the World Health Organization fond that lack of access to quality medical care was the major cause of most maternal deaths.

Source:

Africa childbirth deaths ‘unacceptable’. The BBC, October 20, 2003.