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In Essence | Spring 1986
Does Pollution Cause Cancer?

Michael
R. Greenberg, in The Sciences (Jan./Feb, 1986), The New York Academy of Sciences, 2

Cause Cancer? -.
East 63rd St., New York, N.Y. 10021.
Cancer Alley. That was the name journalists gave America's Northeast- ern industrial corridor in 1974 after a National Cancer Institute (NCI) report revealed that the rates of cancer mortality in New Jersey and its neighboring states were far above the national average.
The Atlas of Cancer Mortality for US. Counties: 1950-1969 showed that New Jersey r...

In Essence | Spring 1986
Of Mites and Men

the early 1970s, the two rates differed no more than a single percentage point.
This "convergence" of the rates, Greenberg maintains, had little to do with air and water pollution. Medical wisdom now links outdoor pollu- tion to only one percent of all U.S. cancers; tobacco smoking, eating fatty foods and other nutritional factors, and exposure to carcinogens in the workplace are responsible for 60 to 90 percent of all cancer deaths in America. By the time NCI had released its report,...

In Essence | Spring 1986
Toxins at Sea

'Incineration of Hazardous Wastes at Sea: Go- ing Nowhere Fast" Pamela S. Zurer, in Chemical and Engineeri?zg News (Dec. 9, 1985), 1155 16th St. N.W, Washington, D.C. 20036.
'Eleven years after the [U.S.] Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials declared the technology environmentally sound, ocean incin- eration of hazardous waste is not [yet] a commercial reality," writes Zurer, a reporter for Chemicaland EngineeringNews. "There are many who think it never should be."
Among...

In Essence | Spring 1986
Food News Is Good News

IODICALS

RESOURCES & ENVIRONMENT
burned on land, where the process can be monitored more closely. Unfortunately, notes Zurer, only 10 percent of the roughly 250 U.S. onshore hazardous waste incinerators are available for general commer- cial use (the rest are small, specialized facilities), and they are already running at full capacity.'These incinerators are more reliable, albeit more expensive, than their floating counterparts. According to a recent EPA study, 30 incineration ships or 8...

In Essence | Spring 1986
Soviet Art after the Thaw

40 percent during each of the past two years. Avery sees even more promising agricultural technol- ogies on the 11orizon.Genetic engineers are now perfecting viral insec- ticides, new varieties of ammonia-producing bacteria (to fertilize soil), and vaccines against the hoof-and-mouth disease in livestock.
The sad exception to this otherwise rosy picture is famine-ridden sub- Sahara Africa. Avery blames bad planning government leaders (and Western advisers) who rushed to industrialize backward societies....

In Essence | Spring 1986
Da Vinci's Jesus

Curtis Bill Pep-Da Vinci'sJesus oer. in The New York Times Maeaziize (Oct.
L, "
13, 1985), 229 West 43rd St., New York, N.Y. 10036.
After eight years of effort a Milanese art restorer, Leonardo Da Vinci's masterpiece, The LastSupper, may once again see the light of day.
Encrusted in grime and the residue left by earlier restorers, Da Vinci's vision of Jesus seated anlong the Twelve Apostles at his final Passover meal was, until 1977 (when the restoration began), just a shadow of its original...

In Essence | Spring 1986
Finnomania

Curtis Bill Pep-Da Vinci'sJesus oer. in The New York Times Maeaziize (Oct.
L, "
13, 1985), 229 West 43rd St., New York, N.Y. 10036.
After eight years of effort a Milanese art restorer, Leonardo Da Vinci's masterpiece, The LastSupper, may once again see the light of day.
Encrusted in grime and the residue left by earlier restorers, Da Vinci's vision of Jesus seated anlong the Twelve Apostles at his final Passover meal was, until 1977 (when the restoration began), just a shadow of its original...

In Essence | Spring 1986
A Red Manila?

? The New Khmer Rouge" Ross 1-1. Munro,
in Commentary (Dec. 1985), 165 East 56th
St., New York, N.Y. 10022.
On the outskirts of Manila these days, Communist insurgency is no longer a minor nuisance inflicted by a handful of lackluster guerrillas. It is a real-and growing-threat on which Philippine president Ferdi- nand Marcos, and Washington, had best keep a watchful eye.
So says Munro, New Delhi bureau chief of Time-Life News Service. In 1974, he notes, members of the New People's Army...

In Essence | Spring 1986
Unconstructive Engagement

the CPP has thrived since 1978 under Sison's pr-otkgk, Rodolfo Salas. The 37-year-old former engineering student has forged a formidable sierrilla network now active in 59 of the nation's 73 provinces.
Many U.S. and Filipino analysts blame the "corrupt and exhausted" Marcos regime for the Communists' rise. During his 20 years in power, Marcos has presided over the virtual collapse of the Philippine econ- omy and the unraveling of Manila's authority. But Munro points out that "trashing...

In Essence | Spring 1986
Hungary's Malaise

relative prosperity, the country has won the admiration of more than one Western observer.
But Volgyes, a Rutgers political scientist, warns of troubles to come. Outwardly stable, Hungary's "economic, social, and political life," he argues, "is very close to a major crisis."
In 1968, Hungarian Communist Party chief Janos Kadar launched a series of reforms known as the New Economic Mechanism. Stressing a flexible price structure, upgrading the role of the consumer, and mini-...

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