Disasters and the unborn

Some extraordinary facts are emerging about the effects disasters seem to have on babies still in their mothers' wombs. Americans being carried by their mothers at the time of the great flu pandemic of 1918 (pictured) would, 50 years later, have done worse at school, be earning less, and be more likely to be disabled than those who just missed it.

Babies born to Dutch women who went through the 'hunger winter' of 1944-45, when the German occupiers cut off food supplies, were more prone in adulthood to obesity, heart disease, schizophrenia and depression.

Swedes born in the months after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident, when radiation-contaminated dust spread across parts of the country were 40% more likely to fail in middle school, even though their physical health did not seem be be affected.

A study in Sweden also found that the children of women who had lost a relative during pregnancy were more likely to suffer attention deficit disorder, anxiety or depression, while another looking at Bangladeshi and Pakistani families in England found that children whose first trimester in the womb coincided with Ramadan, the time of fasting, lagged behind at school when they were seven.

Road accidents becoming no 1 killer

Fascinating piece in the Economist of Jan 25 on road accidents. At present, they kill about 1.3 million people a year – not far short of the number who lose their lives to tuberculosis, but the World Health Organisation expects the total to reach nearly 2 million by 2030, well outstripping tb deaths and catching up with AIDS as a killer.

The biggest increase is expected in the poorest countries, with deaths almost tripling. One of the main reasons being that when money is invested in new roads, little is spent on safety.

Already, road crashes are the main cause of death worldwide for people aged 15 to 29, with most victims men and boys. In poor countries, most of the people killed are pedestrians, while in developing countries such as Thailand, it tends to be motorcyclists.

In the developed world, better safety measures have seen road deaths actually being reduced. New York now has fewer than it did 1910, while Sweden has halved the number since 2000, cutting them by 80% since 1970.

*My updated website - http://www.disasterhistorian.com/index.html

Women and children last?

When the Titanic sank in 1912, there was a lot of controversy about whether some men had elbowed their way into lifeboats ahead of women and children, but a new study from Sweden suggests the evacuation of the liner was a model of chivalry compared with what happens in most shipwrecks.

About 70 percent of the women and children on board Titanic were saved, compared with just 20 percent of the men, but the researchers from Uppsala University also examined another 15 sinkings since the 1850’s involving around 15,000 passengers and crew from more than 30 different countries.

They discovered that men generally had twice as good a chance of surviving as women, and that children fared worst of all.   Crew members did better than passengers, and while Capt Edward J Smith went down with the Titanic, only 8 of the other 15 skippers met the same fate.

Nor was there any evidence overall that British crews were more selfless than those of other nations.    The most crucial consideration appeared to be whether the captain gave a clear order to give priority to women and children.    On Titanic such an order was given, and there were reports of officers shooting at any men who disobeyed.