The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 273 No 7323 p660
30 October 2004

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Scientific meetings dilemma more
Catalogue of deception more
Complex organic balms for animal mummies more

Scientific meetings dilemma

There is an important editorial in the 10 September issue of Science by two professors, from Oregon and Bangalore, dealing with the impact of politics and militarism on the choice of individual scientists to attend meetings in certain countries.

The article stresses that progress in science is heavily dependent on the worldwide exchange of ideas, information, experimental data, materials, and people. Yet conditions in the modern world of increasing political, military and religious conflict, and the situation in any particular country, may cause misgivings in scientific institutions regarding the desirability or otherwise of organising a meeting there, and individual scientists may have to examine their consciences before they decide to participate. Should certain countries where a doubtful regime is in charge be boycotted so far as scientific gatherings are concerned?

As regards organisations and organisers, there is a generally accepted guide called the Principle of the Universality of Science, which calls for non-discrimination and equity. This means that all scientists should be able without discrimination, and on an equitable basis, to participate in legitimate scientific activities, including international conferences. If a proposed host country imposes arbitrary restrictions on who should be allowed access, it is an unsuitable venue. There are individual concerns, such as personal safety, to be taken into account also.

Both individuals and organisations must consider that the record of a proposed host country over basic human rights, and discrimination on grounds of gender, ethnicity and religion, must be taken as a warning. It is always possible that a political regime will seize the opportunity of hosting a conference as a way of conferring legitimacy on its policies. This may raise doubts over the desirability of participation by others. Yet in general the active support of the principle of universality should help to ameliorate discriminatory policies of countries that are less progressive than their neighbours.

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Catalogue of deception

An editorial in The Lancet for 2 October pulls no punches in criticising those who promote the habit of tobacco smoking.

In September the US government initiated steps to combat what it has called a 50-year pattern of misrepresentation, lies and half-truths in which the tobacco industry has promoted its product to gullible consumers. It is hoped that this long overdue move will prevent the manufacturers of cigarettes persuading young people to adopt the habit.

In a case expected to last six months, US government lawyers will attempt to prove that defendant cigarette manufacturers have colluded during the past half century to deceive the public about the health hazards of smoking, including misrepresentation of the harm posed by so-called “light” cigarettes and passive smoking. It is expected that the defendants will argue that dismissing health concerns over smoking does not constitute fraud.

The challenge is huge and the chances of the government winning the case are far from assured. In the event of success, no one is clear about what the effect might be on the marketing of cigarettes, although the tobacco industry would certainly be seriously injured.

Millions of taxpayers’ dollars are being spent in a battle that is rather about money than about public health. If health were the main issue, the critics argue, tobacco products could be regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration, which at present is not allowed.

If global tobacco control is seriously contemplated, the US government could ratify the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control already set out by the World Health Organization, which it has failed to do. Of the global 168 signatories of the convention, only 32 countries have so far ratified it. These exclude, as well as the US, the UK, Germany, France, Spain and China. Indeed, China offers the world’s biggest cigarette market, with some 350 million smokers.

For the convention to come into force, 40 countries need to ratify it. Ratification carries the obligation to introduce comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, to print health warnings covering at least 30 per cent of the display area on packages, to ban misleading terms such as “light” or “mild”, to protect non-smokers from exposure to tobacco fumes in public places and workplaces, to increase tobacco taxes and to combat smuggling.

It is discouraging that the UK government cannot face the complete banning of smoking in workplaces and in bars and restaurants. As The Lancet comments, the Government prefers to put the tobacco industry before the health interests of its citizens. And it is alarming to note that in our own country one in every three girls aged 16 and more is a smoker and thus susceptible to the arguments of the tobacco barons.

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Complex organic balms for animal mummies

In Nature for 16 September a group of biogeochemists from Bristol has examined votive mummies of a variety of animals from ancient Egypt.

Since millions of mummified mammals, birds and reptiles were produced, particularly during the reign of Amenhotep III about 1400BC and thereafter, it might be assumed that little care and expense was involved in their preparation. Yet it appears that they took as much care of their pets as of their parents.

Tissues from cats, hawks and ibis were submitted to analysis by several kinds of chromatography and spectrometry, and revealed the presence of highly complex mixtures of n-alkyl and cyclic compounds characteristic of fats, oils, beeswax, sugar gums, petroleum bitumen and coniferous tree resins.

The embalming materials identified were either polysaccharide-based plant exudates or lipidic. Their fatty acid composition suggested both plant and animal agents were employed, either sugar-based or cholesterol- or acyl acid- based. A strange red material, possibly of plant origin, was found in the ear of a cat. As has been found in human mummies, animal fats and vegetable oils were used as a base for more exotic ingredients. Beeswax was identified by a number of wax esters and hydroxy wax esters. A bandage from a cat revealed bitumen by gas chromatography. The source of this must have been the Gulf of Suez or the Red Sea.

Three impregnated wrappings of a mummified cat revealed a coniferous resin. Whether this was from a true cedar or a juniper was not revealed by the investigation, since such oils deteriorate over time. However, there is some confirmation that Diodorus Siculus was correct when he wrote in the first century BC of “the cedria and other substances which have the virtue of preserving bodies”, and particularly cats. In two wrappings of cats, triterpenoids were detected, including moronic acid, which indicates the use of Pistacia resin among the embalming substances.

These findings suggest that domestic animals were greatly prized by the Egyptians, who cared for them after death as much as they did their own kith and kin.

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