Around the sun leaving a bright trail behind. For more than

When An Accident Happens

Union safety representatives should have an agreement with management on being informed as soon as possible of all accidents. Only under that condition will it be possible to reach the scene of the accident immediately to follow these procedures:

*Make sure it is safe to approach.

*Make sure anyone injured is receiving attention.

*Insist that nothing is removed or altered Until inquiries are complete.

*Check the accident is recorded in the accident book and that the record is not concerned with blaming the victim, but is an accurate description.

*Take statements from the injured person(s), if possible, and other witnesses. Remind witnesses they do not have to give statements to the management by law.

*Check that the factory inspector has been informed, if required by law₁

*Sketch accident area, take photographs, if possible, and samples of defective equipment or chemicals.

Only if these procedures are carried out properly will it be possible for safety representatives to find out the real cause of the accident.

162

FUTURE OF RAIL TRANSPORT

Unfortunately, England's highest main-line railway station hangs on to life by a thread. Deserted and unmanned since it was officially closed in 1970, Dent, situated high in the hills of Yorkshire, wakes up on six summer weekends each year, when a special charter train unloads walkers, sightseers and people who simply want to catch a train from the highest station, onto its platforms. However, even this limited ~existepce may soon be brought to an end. Dent station, situated on the Carlisle railway line, is said to be the most scenic in the country, but no amount of scenic beauty can save the line from British Rail's financial problemse This year, for the sake of economy, the express trains which used to pass through Dent station have been put onto another route. It is now an open secret that British Rail sees no future for this railway line₁ Most of its trains disappeared some time ago. The stations on it, besides its bridge, built on a grand scale a century ago, are falling down. It is not alone. Half a dozen railway routes in the north of England are facing a similar threat. The₁ prob₁lem is a worn out system and an almost total lack of means to repair it. Bridges and tunnels are showing their age, the wooden supports for the tracks are rotting and engines and coaches are getting old.

On major lines between large cities, there is no problem. These lines still make a profit and money can be found to maintain them, but on the country branch line the story is rather sad. As a ₁track₁ wears out, it is not replaced. Instead, speed limits are introduced, making journeys longer than necessary and discouraging customers who live in the country and who travel only from time to time. If a bridge is dangerous, there is often only one thing for British Rail to do: go out and find money from another source. This is exactly what it did a few months ago, when a bridge at Bridlington station was threatening to fall down. Repairs were estimated at £200,000 and British Rail was delighted, and rather surprised, when the local authorities of two nearby towns offered half that amount between them. This was a good solution, which the British Rail can always make use of.

163

GLOBAL WARMING

According to scientists at the Meteorological Office and the University of East Anglia, who have recently completed their analysis of global temperatures, the eighties were the earth's warmest decade since records began. Their findings show that six of the ten warmest years so far have occurred during the ¹980's, with 1988 the hottest of all.

Since 1900, average temperatures have risen by about 0.5⁰C, which fits in well with predictions from climatologists about how human activities should have warmed the planet. The factors that contribute to the warming up of the atmosphere are mainly carbon dioxide gas, produced by the burning of fossil fuels and forests, pollutants, such as chlorofluorocarbons, used in refrigerators, and methane.

Climatologists predict that by midway; through the next century, temperatures may have risen by as much as 4⁰C. Happening so quickly, that could catastrophically reduce mankind's ability to grow food, destroy or severely damage what wildlife and wildernesses remained and raise sea levels, flooding coastal cities and farmland. Phil Jones, senior researcher at the University of East Anglia, said: "If we, are changing the climate, we should do something now rather than wait Until the warming is more severe

Dr. Paul Heaton and Dr. David Parker of the Meteorological Office gathered together temperature records from about 1000 different locations spread across every continent and compared them with the average for those places from 1951 to 1990. The research also included temperatures measured on ships. The scientists found 1989 was 0.23⁰C above the 1951-80 average, and 1988 was 0.31 above. They agree with American researchers that the warmest years during this century were the eighties, and the tendency may be for the nineties to be even hotter!

164

COMETS
from Illustrated London News, 1985

There can be few people who have not heard of comets, but there are still a great many non-scientists who have no real idea of what a comet is. The most popular mistake is to assume that a comet streaks across the sky and disappears in a few seconds. In fact, all comets are very distant - far beyond the top of the earth's atmosphere - and you cannot see them moving. If you ~see an object moving visibly, it certainly cannot be a comet. It will be either an artificial satellite, thousands of which have been launched since the Space Age opened with Russia S Sputnik 1 in October, 1?57, or else a meteor. Of course, it can also be a weather balloon or a high-flying aircraft.

Comets belong to the Sun's family, or solar system, but they are quite unlike planets. They are not solid and rocky; a comet consists of an icy central part (or nucleus), a head (or coma) and a tail or tails made up of tiny particles of 'dust' together with extremely thin gas. Comets may be enormous (the head of the Great Comet of 1843 was larger than the Sun), but they are very light since the nucleus, the only relatively massive part of a comet, cannot be more than a few miles in diameter. If a comet fell to the earth, it would only cause local damage.

Comets move around the Sun. In almost all cases their paths (or orbits) are elliptical, and except for Halley's Comet, all the really bright comets take thousands or even millions of years to complete one circuit. This means that we cannot predict them. During the last century, several were seen but in our own time they have been extremely rare. The last really 'great' comet was that of 1910, though there have been others which have ~becom~e bright enough to be seen with the naked eye. Halley's Comet is unique because it appears every 76 years, and it has been seen regularly since well before the time of Christ; there is even a Chinese record of it dating back to 1059 B.C. However, it was only recently that astronomers realised that there was something unusual about it.
165

EFFECTS OF SNOW

It is interesting to observe the effect that the arrival of snow has on people in different countries. There are those countries for whom the arrival of the first snow showers is an expected annual event. There are those countries for whom the arrival of snow at any time of the year would be almost unheard of, and would be regarded as a major climatic catastrophe, or even a miracle.

But there are countries between these two ~ that normally expect snow some time over the winter months, but never receive it regularly or in the same quantities every year. For them (and Britain is a prime example of such a country), the arrival of snow quite simply creates havoc. Within hours of the first snowfalls, however light, roads (including motorways) are blocked, train services are disrupted and bus services to suburbs and country districts are ~ Normal communications quickly begin to suffer as well; telephone calls become difficult and the post immediately takes twice as long as usual. And almost within hours there are also certain shortages -bread, vegetables and other essentials - not because all these things can no longer be produced or even delivered, Although deliveries are disrupted, but mainly because people panic and go out and stock up with food and so on - just in case'.

But why does snow have this effect? After all, the Swiss, the Austrians and the Canadians don't have such problems. The answer is quite simply a lack of planning and preparation - and we can't blame the weather forecasters for that. We have to remember, however, that equipment needed for dealing with snow and ice costs money. To keep the roads clear, for example, requires snowploughs and vehicles to spread grit or salt. The argument against investing in snowploughs in a country like Britain is that they are only used for a few days in any one year, and that money could more usefully be put into other things such as the hospital system, social services, helping the elderly, and so on.
166

NUCLEAR THREAT

Many of the scientific achievements that we take for granted today have reached far beyond the dreams of scientists and science fiction writers of just seventy-five years ago. One of the most spectacular of these scientific accomplishments was the splitting of the atom. Life has never been the same since that event. From microwave ovens to electrical power and nuclear medicine, to ships that can sail the seas for as long as twelve years without refueling, the atom provides a better life for many of the inhabitants of the earth. Yet, this same power that is used today to detect genetic disorders in unborn children or to destroy a malignant cancer cell was the destructive force that killed over one hundred thousand people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. The splitting of the atom, the unleashing of its terrific power, poses the greatest single threat known to humanity. We now have the power to destroy in a matter of minutes a civilisation that has taken centuries to develop. Never before has the power for such potential good or such total destruction existed.
167

ACID RAIN

Acid rain is rain, snow, or fog that contains high amounts of sulphuric or nitric acid. To some extent, acidic rain occurs naturally and can have a beneficial effect - for instance, serving as fertilizer. But, when the acidity of the precipitation is abnormally high over a prolonged period, it can overwhelm the ability of water and woods (and buildings, statues, car finishes, fish, game, and humans) to accommodate it. When this happens, lakes and trees may die, game species may weaken, and human health may be endangered. Those who have studied the current crisis believe it to be the result of high acid levels caused primarily by sulphur dioxide emissions from coal-fired utility plants and nitrogen oxide emissions from automobiles. These pollutants are either transformed to acid in the air or deposited on the ground in dry form, combining with ground water to form sulphuric or nitric acid.
168

NICOTINE ADDICTION

A large-scale campaign to alert smokers to the dangers of filling the lungs with carcinogenic smoke has been undertaken in many countries. Cigarette promotions have been banned on television in several major areas, and there has been endless discussion of how to discourage children from taking up the habit. Gruesome films are shown of pathetic hospital patients in the advanced stages of lung cancer. A few smokers have responded

page 340

intelligently and given up, but many others have become so alarmed that Instead they have been forced to light up an extra cigarette to calm their shattered nerves. In other words, Although the problem is at last being dealt with, it is by no means solved.

The great error of the anti-smoking campaigners is that they rarely stop and ask the basic question: why do people want to smoke in the first place? They seem to think it has something to do with drug addiction - with the habit-forming effects of nicotine. There is an element of this certainly, but it is by no means the most important factor operating. Many people do not even inhale their smoke and can be absorbing only minute amounts of the drug₁ so the causes of their addiction to cigarettes must be sought elsewhere. The answer clearly lies in the act of oral intimacy involved in holding the object between the lips and this answer almost certainly applies as the basic explanation for the full inhalers as well. Until this aspect of smoking is properly investigated, there will be little long-term hope of eliminating it from our stressed, comfort-seeking cultures.