European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 30, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Modem life needs a danger scale Charles Osgood Tribune Media service we still Haven to come up with a Good Standard for measuring How risky anything is. We re told that some things Are dangerous but there a no Way to make comparisons. How risky is smoking a cigarette lets say compared with Riding in a car without a seat Belt what we need is a Universal scale so we can know whether something is a 5 or a 12, for example. We know we re taking some sort of Chance every time we Cross the Street but its an everyday risk we accept either because it seems so slight or because we realize there a no Way to eliminate All risk from life. Other risks such As Drunken driving Are never Worth taking. Food and drink Are particularly troublesome. Some things make you fat some elevate your cholesterol Levels and some give you cancer. In fact so Many substances supposedly cause cancer that its almost impossible to avoid them. Some 350 synthetic chemicals were tested and it turned out that 212 of them were carcinogenic. Does this mean synthetic chemicals Are no Good not at All. Seventy seven chemicals that occur naturally in fruits and vegetables were also tested and it turned out that 37 of them were carcinogenic its either that there a something terribly the matter with More than half the foods we eat or there a something the matter with the tests. These Days some scientists Are wondering whether it Isnit the tests that Are haywire. At a recent meeting of the committee on risk assessment of the National Academy of sciences the animal tests that we be been using for years to determine whether something is carcinogenic were called into serious question. Bernard Goldstein committee chairman said a we need to look again to see if this is the Way to do  in the new Issue of the Academy a journal science there Are research reports suggesting that the idea of feeding enormous doses of something to a rat and declaring the substance carcinogenic if the rat gets cancer makes about As Little sense As it seems to. Samuel Cohen of the University of Nebraska did lab tests with mice and concluded that about half of the compounds listed As carcinogenic in the National toxicology program Only cause cancer at extremely High doses. But the government Only classifies chemicals As cancer causing or non cancer causing. There a nothing in Between. Federal Law requires that anything that causes cancer at any dose be regulated. Cohen does no to think that Sall realistic. What we need once again is that risk scale so we can find out whether something is Only a Little bit carcinogenic or like cigarettes truly bad news. To i Irr it to 1 Nojd Uinci total time in space for 8 astronauts Neil Armstrong a 8 Days 14 hours John Glenn a 5 hours Frank Borman a 19 Days 22 hours Wally Schirra a More than 12 i Days Scott Carpenter a 4 hours 56 minutes James Lovell a nearly 30 Days Buzz Aldrin a More than 12 Days Alan Shepard a More than 9 Days source who s who in spa costars whose first name became their last Benny Kubelsky a Jack Benny Allen Konigsberg a Woody Allen Malden Sekulovich a Karl Malden Conrad Robert Falk a Robert Conrad Muni Weisenfreund a Paul Muni Webb p. Hollenbeck a Clifton Webb Wayne Mckeekan a David Wayne Borge Rosenbaum a Victor Borge Louico world almanac 6 specialized books you May have missed Quot the social history of the machine gun Quot the unconscious significance of hair Quot Quot Wall paintings by Snake charmers in Tanganyika Quot Quot fish Hooks in Africa and their distribution Quot Quot defensive tactics with flashlights Quot Quot jaws arid Teeth of ancient hawaiians Quot source bizarro books september 30,1990 sunday c