12
POPSIlliteracy causing health problems, deaths I wonder if it's a matter of not being able to read, or not being able to read English. I know a lot of people get annoyed when they have to 'press 1 for English', but in such matters of life and death, perhaps someone should translate instructions on prescription bottles into all the major languages and just choose the speaker's lnguage for the sticker. I like the sticker idea too.
43
POPSGirls entering puberty by the age of six - but are drugs the answer?
"Early puberty has even been linked to watching too much television. A few years ago, Italian scientists found that children who watched three hours a day produced less of the sleep hormone melatonin - low levels of the hormone play an important role in the timing of puberty. But perhaps more worrying is the theory that it's exposure to environmental chemicals which is causing the drop in the age of puberty. These chemicals mimic the effect of hormones, disrupting the normal timing of sexual maturing. Whatever the cause, growing numbers of children are being deprived of childhood and are turning, physically, into mini-adults at an increasingly young age. But without the emotional maturity to deal with these changes, they are vulnerable to exploitation. In Britain, it is now estimated that up to at least one in six children under ten is affected. Indeed, there is a belief that schoolgirls as young as six are entering puberty".
11
POPS Human bones in demand at Bhutan monasteries "Mukti Biswas, an arrested villager in another district of West Bengal state, told police he had plucked bodies from the river, as well as collecting those left behind at Hindu cremation centres by poor people who lacked the wood to perform a proper cremation" how disturbing...