Bits and Pieces: Professional Beekeeper, Motorcycle-Caused Pollution, Radiation Therapy and More

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ILLUSTRATION: MOTHER EARTH NEWS EDITORS
HIghlights and headlines on environmental, economic and social topics of interest.

If you had radiation therapy as a child to shrink infected tonsils, adenoids, or thymus glands, the Health Insurance Institute asks that you notify your doctor or hospital of that fact as quickly as possible. The Institute says that the treatment (common during the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s . . . and then discontinued) is related to a high incidence of thyroid cancer, but that prompt action can help prevent the malady.

There’s always room for modern medicine. . . OR IS THERE? Dr. Adrian Upton, professor of neurology at MacMasters University in Hamilton, Ontario, recently rigged a brain wave machine, artificial respirators, and intravenous feeding equipment to a bowl of lime jello about the size of a human brain, and–gasp!–recorded readings typical of those emitted by a living person. In fact, the good doctor noted, the results of the electronic analysis would not have qualified the dessert as sufficiently “dead” to have the fife-sustaining plugs pulled under existing legal guidelines!

The Environmental Protection Agency reports that most motorcycles produce “several times” more pollution than the average 1976 car, and that–unless strict controls are established soon–total emissions from those “cute little bikes” will actually exceed those of all autos by 1978. It would seem that the two-wheelers do indeed “let the good times roll” . . . right past all of us.

The conventional building industry may be having its ups and downs these days, but folks involved in the field of alternative housing are enjoying a booming business. One such company, American Geodesic Inc., offers an “instant home” kit called “Omegadome” which–according to the firm–costs between $4,800 and $6,900, can be transported to even remote areas, and is easy to erect and fully weatherproof within three days. All you would-be entrepreneurs out there might take note of the fact that sales of the kit–and others like it–are soaring.

Don’t be misled by industry complaints that “environmentalism” is the culprit behind today’s high unemployment rate. Russell Peterson, Chairman of the President’s Council on Environmental Quality, reports that every $1 billion spent for ecological cleanup creates 66,900 new jobs . . . and that the field of pollution control will be “one of the relatively few areas of job strength” during 1976.

  • Published on May 1, 1976
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