HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1990-01-31, Page 5Falling is fun
Falling down seemed to be almost as much fun as snowshoeing for Daniel Sauve, who along with
other members of the Blyth Cubs participated in a Winter Weekend. The youngsters spent Friday
evening in the gym at Blyth Public School then were taken to Wawanosh Nature Centre to enjoy
outdoor activities like cooking over an open fire, feeding birds and playing hare and lynx on
snowshoes.
The International
Scene
THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31, 1990. PAGE 5.
Letters
Why waste money
hiring lawyers, writer asks
A new use
for tobacco?
BY RAYMOND CANON
I have written on a couple of
u?asions about tobacco as a dying
.fop in such American states as
Virginia and North Carolina, a
decline that has not missed Cana
dian growers by any stretch of the
imagination. There have been a
number of attempts by growers
unwilling to leave the land they
have lived on all their lives to find
alternative crops but, even if they
have, such crops are able to
provide a financial yield not more
than 30 per cent of what could be
obtained from growing tobacco.
Small wonder that the industry is in
dire straits everywhere in North
America.
For this reason I was surprised
recently to come across some
information that affects the tobacco
industry in a way nobody would
have thought possible. As you
probably know, one of the reasons
for the decline in the acreage
grown was the fact that evidence
continues to pile up that tobacco is
carcinogenic and is, in fact, bad for
your health in a number of ways.
One observer has commented that
over its lifetime tobacco has proba
bly killed more people that the
sword, the bow and arrow, and the
spear put together. All the more to
be surprised at the news that the
plant has new and exciting possibil
ities.
Biotechnologists at the Research
Institute of the Scripps Clinic in La
Jolla, Calif, have transplanted
animal genes into tobacco plants
and made these plants produce
animal antibodies; the latter are, to
the delight of everybody, exactly
like normal antibodies. The point of
growing them in a plant such as
tobacco is to obtain them more
cheaply than has been the case so
far. The La Jolla team believes that
it will be possible to grow anti
bodies as cash crops in huge
quantities. This would pave the
way for them to be used on a large
scale for, among other things,
cancer treatment.
What the scientists did was
insert half of the genes for the
selected antibody into one tobacco
plant and the other half into
another plant; they then fertilized
one plant with pollen from the
other. The offspring produced
nothing less than complete anti
bodies. Tobacco farmers should not
start running to the telephone to
call La Jolla. What is still needed is
one or more techniques to sort out
the antibodies from the chaff of the
plants’ natural proteins. It is quite
possible that other plants will be
equally suitable for such produc
tion. Soya beans are a possibility;
so are the stalks of cereals such as
wheat and maize.
Researchers at the Scripps Clinic
are developing and testing anti
bodies that are the best suited to
act against cancer cells. If they
prove effective, they would be
needed in relatively large quanti
ties to provide treatment for mil
lions of cancer patients.
The antibodies might also play a
role while still in the plants. Plants
producing antibodies against such
organic pollutants such as PCB’s
could be grown in soil or water with
low levels of contamination in order
to clean it up. Pollutants absorbed
by the plant might also be trapped
by the antibodies so, when their
growing season comes to an end,
they could be burnt in a suitable
container and the pollutants got rid
of in this fashion.
There is even the possibility that
antibodies grown in plants might
also be able to instill into plants a
certain amount of disease resis
tance. Again tobacco plants are
being utilized for research. Scien
tists are already inserting into
tobacco plants antibodies against
tobacco mosaic virus in order to
determine if they give any type of
protection against the disease. If
this turns out to be possible, the
next step would be to give plants
the rudimentary fragments of an
immune system.
Finally another group of scien
tists at the same Institute is looking
into the possibility of developing
antibodies that can act as enzymes
or biochemical catalysts. These
catalytic antibodies are being con
sidered for such things as gobbiling
up blood clots and scar tissue or
even to producing certain types of
bulk chemicals. It is again the
plants which are being examined to
see if they can supply enough
antibodies.
Now, if the tobacco farmers can
hang in there, their crop that has
earned so much opporbrium during
the past decade could well be part
of a growth industry.
THE EDITOR,
I read, with concern, in your
newspaper, the account of the
recent council meeting re - the
Radford Ball Diamond. I find it
very disconcerting that the Village
of Blyth councillors, supposedly
elected to speak on behalf of the
Blyth residents, found it necessary
to hire a lawyer (using valuable tax
dollars) to speak for them.
Surely in a village of one
Village gives Radfords
shoddy treatment
THE EDITOR,
Please allow me a few words in
your newspaper to express my total
outrage at the shoddy treatment
given George Radford Construction
Company by Blyth Council. I
strongly object to my tax dollars
being used to help pay a lawyer to
discuss a matter that should have
been handled easily among local
people. Does this mean we are to
hire a lawyer each time we wish to
approach council?
We are very fortunate to have
several excellent corporate busi
nesses in Blyth, all of whom, over
many years, have contributed
greatly to our community. Are they
being led to believe that every time
their generosity is offered to a local
project, they will be looked upon as
having an ulterior motive, or are
trying to “rip off’ our village.
Where is the horrible distrust
coming from?
The original owner of George
Radford Construction Company has
donated thousands of dollars for
the benefit of everyone in our
community. His successors have
shown they have every intention of
Caesarean surgery brings
more risks to mother
THE EDITOR,
I am writing in reply to Mr. Doug
Zehr’s reaction (printed in The
Citizen, December 19, 1989) to our
press release (printed December
13, 1989).
Of course Mr. Zehr should be
thankful for his three healthy baby
girls. And we should be thankful
whenever a necessary ceasarean
saves the life of mother or child.
But Mr. Zehr is sadly mistaken in
assuming that a “weakened wall of
the uterus from the first surgery”
makes labour foolhardy. In fact, the
danger of surgery is far greater.
While not a single maternal death
from rupture of a scarred uterus
has been reported in the English
language medical literature, the
maternal death rate from caesarean
surgery is estimated at from 1 to
Choices on Huronview
up to county, Riddell says
THE EDITOR,
I have been quite dismayed by
recent reports in local newspapers
as to the situation currently before
County Council with respect to the
construction of a new nursing home
facility on the site of the present
Huronview home.
There are a number of misunder
standings prevalent in the area
about the Ontario government’s
position which I would like to
clarify for all those who have
expressed their concern.
Firstly, the decision whether to
renovate the current building or to
build a new one is solely that of
Huron County Council, and always
thousand people, this type of action
is unnecessary. People here have
always been willing to discuss and
concilliate matters to mutual satis
faction.
I suggest that any further deal
ings with groups trying to work on
improving village facilities should
feature co-operation not confronta
tion.
Fran Cook,
Blyth.
doing the same.
Over the years the Radford
Company has injected millions of
dollars in wages into our commun
ity. Even now many of their
employees are more closely associ
ated with the company than ever. I
can easily imagine how badly hurt
their feelings must be. Isn’t it
ironic the feud is over the “George
Radford Memorial Ball Diamond ”?
Most of Radford’s employees are
residents of Blyth. Are they expec
ted to pay tax money so the village
can involve their employer in a
needless court action? It is my
opinion council has put their com
pany into a position impossible to
back away from.
What is this dreadful illness that
is infecting our village? It must
surely be sought out and eliminat
ed fast before it turns cancerous
and destroys us from within.
We have a good little community
here. If everyone works together it
has the ingredients to be truly
outstanding. Why do we keep
shooting ourselves in the foot?
Doug Whitmore
Blyth.
500 to 1 in 5000. The fetal death
rate is also higher for repeat
caesarean surgery, partly due to
prematurity caused when surgery
is booked too early because of
miscalculation of the woman’s due
date.
At a time when the medical
resources of our province are
strained to the point of month-long
waiting lists for necessary cardiac
surgery and chemotherapy it is
deplorable to waste millions of
dollars on a less safe birthing
procedure.
Caroline Sufrin-Disler
VBAC Association of Ontario
8 Gllgorm Road
Toronto, M5N 2M5
[416] 483-3370
and
J. Harris
RR 3, Blyth.
has been. The Ministry has already
given its approval for the building
of two new homes - one in the north
and one at the present Huronview
site. Although the final decision is
subject to the approval of the
Ministry of Community and Social
Services, since they will provide
50 per cent of the approved costs, it
is up to Council to decide which
route they want to take. Any
suggestion of returning to the
original idea of renovating would
have to come from Council and
would have to be resubmitted to
the Ministry of approval.
There are indications that reno-
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