February 7, 1998

Letters

Crime and retardation
In "Excess crimes by mentally retarded on own" (SN: 12/6/97, p. 359), researchers imply that the rates of reported criminal activity in mentally retarded and in nonretarded populations reflect the true crime rates.

Isn't it possible that the higher crime rate of the retarded individuals is caused by their decreased ability to escape detection?

Carol Withrow
Salt Lake City, Utah

The researchers cite longitudinal evidence that low-IQ offenders are no more likely than other offenders to be arrested. See Terrie Moffitt's chapter in "Crime and Justice: A Review of Research" (1990, M. Tonry and N. Morris, eds., University of Chicago Press).  -- B. Bower

High crime rates among the mentally retarded who are living independently is no surprise to me. For years it has been known that the mentally retarded are targets of physical abuse by frustrated parents and low-paid institutional caretakers. My own research over the past 25 years shows that crime in all groups is directly proportional to corporal punishment history.

One could easily design a study that would compare the retarded persons and their controls regarding exposure to corporal punishment. I have no doubt that the differences would be remarkable.

Ralph S. Welsh
Clinical Psychologist
Bridgeport, Conn.

Levitation for burn victims?
In "Floating Frogs" (SN: 12/6/97, p. 362), Andre Geim states that levitating a person is "a complete waste of money for no reason." The expense is not mentioned in the article, but an excellent reason for levitating people would be to care for acute burn victims.

David H. Kaplan
East Granby, Conn.

This does sound like a good application of levitation, but such magnets would probably cost millions of dollars -- far more than the average burn unit can afford.  -- C. Wu

Immunological musings
"The Dark Side of Immunizations" (SN: 11/22/97, p. 332) made no distinction between killed virus vaccines and attenuated live virus vaccines, such as the polio vaccine, which permanently implant the attenuated virus in the gut.

Autoimmune diseases have been triggered in laboratory animals by chronic administration of an antigen. Might not the continual stimulation of the immune system by a live virus vaccine trigger an autoimmune disease?

Elliott H. Sigman
Pasadena, Calif.

Immunologist J. Barthelow Classen replies: "That is a valid point. It's hard to say how many kids are chronically infected with a live virus. It's not a lot, but maybe it's similar to the rise in [juvenile-onset] diabetes. Much of this needs further follow-up study."  -- N. Seppa

Mightn't the children who received immunizations also have received nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) such as aspirin, which are used almost indiscriminantly by many well-meaning parents and which, by limiting fevers, must have an effect on the immune system?

I think there is a tendency in the medical-scientific community to look for exotica. NSAIDS need to be studied more extensively.

Frank Benedict
Bakersfield, Calif.

Water loss may add to quake risk
Perhaps depletion of soil moisture by vegetation is a seasonal factor affecting earthquake frequency ("California shakes most often in September," SN: 12/13/97, p. 373). Plants use water held in surface soils and shallow aquifers over the growing season, so soil moisture levels are typically lowest in September. At least 50 to 100 centimeters of water may be lost through evapotranspiration.

Even accounting for the associated increase in plant biomass, the reduction in pressure associated with this water loss would probably be on the order of 50 millibars. Perhaps the effects of atmospheric pressure and soil moisture depletion are additive.

T.J. Swiecki
Vacaville, Calif.

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Table of Contents -- February 7, 1998

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