2004-5-10
(THEME)
VOICE ONE:
This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob
Doughty.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Sarah Long. On our program
this week -- health advice about mercury in fish ...
VOICE ONE:
How some ancient fish gained the ability to do push-ups, and it
had nothing to do with exercise.
VOICE TWO:
And, the winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize.
(THEME)
VOICE ONE:
United States health officials have warned pregnant women to
limit the amount of albacore tuna they eat. This is because of the
levels of mercury in fish. The warning is also for young children,
for women who may become pregnant and for women who nurse their
babies.
Mercury is a danger to the nervous system, especially in babies
and children. Even small amounts of this metal have been found to
harm development. Mercury in water supplies and fish is connected to
industrial waste. Electric power stations that burn coal are a major
cause of mercury in the environment.
VOICE TWO:
Albacore is also known as "white" tuna. Health officials say
albacore contains more mercury than other kinds that are sold as
"light" tuna in cans.
The government says women and young children should eat up to
three-hundred-forty grams of fish and shellfish a week. It says this
may include up to one-hundred-seventy grams of albacore.
Women and young children are advised not to eat any shark,
swordfish, king mackerel or tilefish. All of these fish contain high
levels of mercury. The advice says five kinds of seafood low in
mercury are shrimp, canned light tuna, salmon, pollock and catfish.
VOICE ONE:
A committee advised the Food and Drug Administration on the issue
of mercury in fish. One member resigned as soon as the public
received the new advice.
Vas Aposhian is a mercury expert at the University of Arizona. He
told the Washington Post that the committee wanted to add albacore
to the list of fish not to eat at all. He says the experts thought
children and pregnant women should not eat a lot of light tuna
either.
The Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection
agency jointly released the new advice. The two agencies state that
for most people, the risk from mercury by eating fish and shellfish
is not a health concern. They say people should know that seafood
can be part of a healthy and balanced diet.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
Scientists have reported the oldest arm bone ever found. They say
it comes from a small animal that lived about
three-hundred-sixty-five million years ago. The discovery may help
explain more about how animals moved from the sea to live on land.
Scientists at the University of Chicago and the Academy of
Natural Sciences in Philadelphia reported the finding. Their report
is in the magazine Science. Neil Shubin from the University of
Chicago led the team.
Professor Shubin says the creature was a mix of ancient fish and
early amphibian. Fish have fins. Amphibians have arms and legs. They
are able to live on land or in water, like frogs or crocodiles. The
bone is said to show the changing structure as fins became limbs.
VOICE ONE:
The upper arm bone, or humerus, was hidden in rock from the state
of Pennsylvania. The scientists collected the red sandstone in
nineteen-ninety-three. But no one found the bone until
two-thousand-one. Other evidence from the rock suggests that the
animal lived in a freshwater system that flowed in ancient times.
The scientists say the animal was about sixty centimeters long
and had thick front leg muscles. They think it looked something like
a modern crocodile.
VOICE TWO:
Professor Shubin says the arm bone was connected to the same
muscles that a person uses to do push-ups. Such an ability would
have helped the animal raise its head above water to breathe. Also,
it would have helped the creature move through plants in water that
was not very deep. The animal might even have walked on land. But
probably not very well.
Scientists say animals began to move from water to land during
the Devonian period. This was between three-hundred-sixty and
three-hundred-seventy million years ago.
Other fossils from the area where the bone was found suggest that
the animal lived among meat-eating fish. In fact, one of them may
have killed the creature. Neil Shubin says the arm bone has marks
that could have been left by teeth.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
Seven activists are the winners this year of the Goldman
Environmental Foundation awards. The winners each received
one-hundred-twenty-five-thousand dollars. A ceremony took place in
San Francisco, California.
Richard and Rhoda Goldman created the prize in nineteen-ninety.
It is meant to show the difference that individuals can make to help
the environment. Environmental groups nominate people. So do former
winners, policymakers and others. Winners are chosen by a jury of
foundation directors and environmental experts.
VOICE TWO:
This year, two people share the prize for Asia. Rashida Bee and
Champa Devi Shukla were victims of the chemical leak in Bhopal,
India, in nineteen-eighty-four. More than twenty-thousand deaths
have been blamed on the poison gas from a Union Carbide pesticide
factory. Many thousands more were severely injured. The two Goldman
Prize winners were among them.
Rashida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla have led efforts to make the
new owner of Union Carbide, Dow Chemical, take responsibility. They
organized a hunger strike. They have traveled to protest at Dow
shareholder meetings. The two women are also part a legal action to
make Dow clean up the factory and take other steps to help people in
Bhopal.
VOICE ONE:
The Goldman Prize for North America went to Margie Richard of the
United States. Mizz Richard grew up in Lorco, Louisiana, in an area
with a high rate of cancer. People call it "Cancer Alley."
The Shell company has a chemical factory there. The factory
releases tons of poisons into the air. Margie Richard led a
thirteen-year campaign to demand that Shell pay for people to move
to safer areas. Shell agreed. It also has agreed to reduce the
factory's pollution by thirty-percent. Mizz Richard is the first
African American to win the award.
The Goldman Prize for Africa went to Rudolf Amenga-Etego of
Ghana. He is a lawyer from Accra. He stopped a plan to give control
of the water system in Ghana to private companies. Mister
Amenga-Etego says getting clean drinking water is difficult enough
already. He got many people involved in the campaign. These included
farmers, teachers, trade groups and religious leaders.
VOICE TWO:
Manana Kochladze of Tbilisi, Georgia, is the Goldman Prize winner
for Europe. She established a group called Green Alternative. It
pressured the government and British Petroleum about a major
oil-pipeline project. The path would cut through the mountains where
Georgian mineral water comes from.
Mizz Kochladze helped gain promises from the project leaders to
protect local villagers and the environment. Her work also led to
the creation of an international group of scientists. The group was
formed to study possible environmental effects of the pipeline
project.
VOICE ONE
The prize winner from South and Central America is Libia Grueso
of Colombia. She helped other black Colombians win territorial
rights to lands they have lived on for hundreds of years. The law
now recognizes Afro-Colombians as a separate ethnic group with
rights to more than two-million hectares of land. Mizz Grueso has
also helped restrict activities that can harm the environment, like
logging, gold mining and fishing.
The final Goldman Prize winner this year is Demetrio do Amaral de
Carvalho of East Timor, representing island nations. The former
resistance fighter has established the Haburas Foundation. This
private group helped to secure environmental language in the
constitution when East Timor became independent from Indonesia. The
document recognizes the right to a healthy environment. It also
recognizes the need to deal with national resources in an
intelligent, responsible way.
(THEME)
VOICE TWO:
SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver, Robert Brumfield
and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. This is Sarah Long.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Bob Doughty. Listen next week for more news about
science, in Special English, on the Voice of America.