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This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm BobDoughty.
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And I'm Sarah Long. On our programthis week -- health advice about mercury in fish ...
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How some ancient fish gained the ability to do push-ups, and ithad nothing to do with exercise.
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And, the winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize.
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United States health officials have warned pregnant women tolimit the amount of albacore tuna they eat. This is because of thelevels of mercury in fish. The warning is also for young children,for women who may become pregnant and for women who nurse theirbabies.
Mercury is a danger to the nervous system, especially in babiesand children. Even small amounts of this metal have been found toharm development. Mercury in water supplies and fish is connected toindustrial waste. Electric power stations that burn coal are a majorcause of mercury in the environment.
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Albacore is also known as "white" tuna. Health officials sayalbacore contains more mercury than other kinds that are sold as"light" tuna in cans.
The government says women and young children should eat up tothree-hundred-forty grams of fish and shellfish a week. It says thismay include up to one-hundred-seventy grams of albacore.
Women and young children are advised not to eat any shark,swordfish, king mackerel or tilefish. All of these fish contain highlevels of mercury. The advice says five kinds of seafood low inmercury are shrimp, canned light tuna, salmon, pollock and catfish.
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A committee advised the Food and Drug Administration on the issueof mercury in fish. One member resigned as soon as the publicreceived the new advice.
Vas Aposhian is a mercury expert at the University of Arizona. Hetold the Washington Post that the committee wanted to add albacoreto the list of fish not to eat at all. He says the experts thoughtchildren and pregnant women should not eat a lot of light tunaeither.
The Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protectionagency jointly released the new advice. The two agencies state thatfor most people, the risk from mercury by eating fish and shellfishis not a health concern. They say people should know that seafoodcan be part of a healthy and balanced diet.
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Scientists have reported the oldest arm bone ever found. They sayit comes from a small animal that lived aboutthree-hundred-sixty-five million years ago. The discovery may helpexplain more about how animals moved from the sea to live on land.
Scientists at the University of Chicago and the Academy ofNatural Sciences in Philadelphia reported the finding. Their reportis in the magazine Science. Neil Shubin from the University ofChicago led the team.
Professor Shubin says the creature was a mix of ancient fish andearly amphibian. Fish have fins. Amphibians have arms and legs. Theyare able to live on land or in water, like frogs or crocodiles. Thebone is said to show the changing structure as fins became limbs.
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The upper arm bone, or humerus, was hidden in rock from the stateof Pennsylvania. The scientists collected the red sandstone innineteen-ninety-three. But no one found the bone untiltwo-thousand-one. Other evidence from the rock suggests that theanimal lived in a freshwater system that flowed in ancient times.
The scientists say the animal was about sixty centimeters longand had thick front leg muscles. They think it looked something likea modern crocodile.
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Professor Shubin says the arm bone was connected to the samemuscles that a person uses to do push-ups. Such an ability wouldhave helped the animal raise its head above water to breathe. Also,it would have helped the creature move through plants in water thatwas not very deep. The animal might even have walked on land. Butprobably not very well.
Scientists say animals began to move from water to land duringthe Devonian period. This was between three-hundred-sixty andthree-hundred-seventy million years ago.
Other fossils from the area where the bone was found suggest thatthe animal lived among meat-eating fish. In fact, one of them mayhave killed the creature. Neil Shubin says the arm bone has marksthat could have been left by teeth.
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Seven activists are the winners this year of the GoldmanEnvironmental Foundation awards. The winners each receivedone-hundred-twenty-five-thousand dollars. A ceremony took place inSan Francisco, California.
Richard and Rhoda Goldman created the prize in nineteen-ninety.It is meant to show the difference that individuals can make to helpthe environment. Environmental groups nominate people. So do formerwinners, policymakers and others. Winners are chosen by a jury offoundation directors and environmental experts.
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This year, two people share the prize for Asia. Rashida Bee andChampa Devi Shukla were victims of the chemical leak in Bhopal,India, in nineteen-eighty-four. More than twenty-thousand deathshave been blamed on the poison gas from a Union Carbide pesticidefactory. Many thousands more were severely injured. The two GoldmanPrize winners were among them.
Rashida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla have led efforts to make thenew owner of Union Carbide, Dow Chemical, take responsibility. Theyorganized a hunger strike. They have traveled to protest at Dowshareholder meetings. The two women are also part a legal action tomake Dow clean up the factory and take other steps to help people inBhopal.
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The Goldman Prize for North America went to Margie Richard of theUnited States. Mizz Richard grew up in Lorco, Louisiana, in an areawith a high rate of cancer. People call it "Cancer Alley."
The Shell company has a chemical factory there. The factoryreleases tons of poisons into the air. Margie Richard led athirteen-year campaign to demand that Shell pay for people to moveto safer areas. Shell agreed. It also has agreed to reduce thefactory's pollution by thirty-percent. Mizz Richard is the firstAfrican American to win the award.
The Goldman Prize for Africa went to Rudolf Amenga-Etego ofGhana. He is a lawyer from Accra. He stopped a plan to give controlof the water system in Ghana to private companies. MisterAmenga-Etego says getting clean drinking water is difficult enoughalready. He got many people involved in the campaign. These includedfarmers, teachers, trade groups and religious leaders.
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Manana Kochladze of Tbilisi, Georgia, is the Goldman Prize winnerfor Europe. She established a group called Green Alternative. Itpressured the government and British Petroleum about a majoroil-pipeline project. The path would cut through the mountains whereGeorgian mineral water comes from.
Mizz Kochladze helped gain promises from the project leaders toprotect local villagers and the environment. Her work also led tothe creation of an international group of scientists. The group wasformed to study possible environmental effects of the pipelineproject.
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The prize winner from South and Central America is Libia Gruesoof Colombia. She helped other black Colombians win territorialrights to lands they have lived on for hundreds of years. The lawnow recognizes Afro-Colombians as a separate ethnic group withrights to more than two-million hectares of land. Mizz Grueso hasalso helped restrict activities that can harm the environment, likelogging, gold mining and fishing.
The final Goldman Prize winner this year is Demetrio do Amaral deCarvalho of East Timor, representing island nations. The formerresistance fighter has established the Haburas Foundation. Thisprivate group helped to secure environmental language in theconstitution when East Timor became independent from Indonesia. Thedocument recognizes the right to a healthy environment. It alsorecognizes the need to deal with national resources in anintelligent, responsible way.
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SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver, Robert Brumfieldand Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. This is Sarah Long.
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And this is Bob Doughty. Listen next week for more news aboutscience, in Special English, on the Voice of America.