The biggest growth in bottled beverages isn’t soft drinks or juices. It’s tasteless, colourless and sugarless water. There is great demand for plastic water bottles, while the recycling rate is extremely low, and the demand from recyclers quite high. Patricia Franklin, who runs the Container Recycling Institute that promotes recycling, doesn’t blame individuals as much as what she feels is a recycling system that hasn’t kept up with consumption patterns — especially when it comes to water.
Bottled water is the single largest growth area among all beverages that includes alcohol, juices and soft drinks. Per capita consumption has more than doubled over the last decade, from 10.5 gallons in 1993 to 22.6 in 2003, according to the Beverage Marketing Corporation. The growth has been even more impressive in terms of water bottles sold: from 3.3 billion in 1997 to 15 billion in 2002. But most bottled water is consumed away from home, usually at a park, in an office or even while driving — areas where there’s usually no recycling. “The opportunities for recycling outside the home are minimal,” Franklin says, “and therein lies the problem.” Some environmental activists argue that one of the most effective tools for pushing up recycling rates is a deposit law whereby consumers pay 5 to 10 cents more per bottle for their beverages, with the money refunded upon the bottle’s return to a recycling centre.
Currently, such laws are in place in 11 states, and consumers in those states recycle four out of five bottles. But only two of those states, California and Maine, now include plastic water bottles in their programmes. Used plastic bottles found a new life in California, where recycling reached an all-time high last year due to a deposit law. A national bottle bill has had varying levels of support in the Congress in the past, but the powerful beverage industry largely opposes it, wary of legislation that would add to consumers’ costs and, it argues, hurt sales. — Samina Iqbal
Smoking and lung cancer
Cigarette smoking is the major risk factor for lung cancer. Familial aggregation of the disease has now been identified as a high risk, states a recent issue of the Journal of American Medical Association. Recently, a susceptibility region has been located on chromosome 6, which provides evidence for lung cancer to be a disease not only of environmental origin but also to affect people with a genetic predisposition. Greatest risk is for families with early onset lung cancer.
A study was done on 7576 biological mothers, fathers and siblings of 692 early onset cases showed a high risk in people with a family history of early age lung cancer, especially with advancing age. This was more in blacks compared to whites. The risk was 1.7 fold higher in blacks. There could be other risk factors aggregating in families, which have still to be identified.
Other studies have provided results of familial aggregation of lung cancer. It is advisable to consider the family history of lung cancer when evaluating smokers, especially those with symptoms consistent with lung disease. With the rising number of lung cancer cases, especially in the younger age groups, cancer should be considered as a diagnosis. Early identification and treatment will reduce mortality and morbidity in this younger population. — Fatema Jawad
Promoting science and maths
The falling number of students passing the exams of science and mathematics subjects at the primary school level in Brunei has caused great concern in the country. Statistics have shown that in the primary school exams, passes in the science subject has fallen as much as 2.23 percent while passes in mathematics has dropped by 6.22 percent. This has resulted in a diminishing number of students able to take up Science Mathematics subjects at the university level.
To overcome this, the Science, Technology and Environment Partnership Centre, with the cooperation of Brunei Shell Petroleum Company Sdn Bhd and support from Radio Television Brunei, organized a Primary School Science Olympiad Quiz to develop student’s talent and interest in science. The competition was participated by hundreds of students from both government and private primary and secondary schools. Bandar Seri Begawan - Dayang Palwasha Khatri, whose hobby is reading science books, walked away with a gold medal and cash prize of B$400 after outsmarting her opponents by scoring 17 points in Quiz Final held recently.
According to the Deputy Minister for Education, Dr Haji M.B.P. Abdul Rahman, who gave out the prizes, Brunei Darussalam is still moving toward a progressed and educated society and the knowledge of science and mathematics plays a vital role in the development of the nation.
He said principals and teachers should also carry out researches to find out the reasons why students are failing in a subject and look for solutions to the problem. He also said one of the main factors why students fail or are good at a subject is the skills of the subject teachers. Educators should be well-versed in teaching methodology and psychology, as well as the subject they are teaching. He added that students may also be asked to provide feedbacks on whether they understand what was being taught to them.
