- The ARC - California Edition -

Food For Preventive Thought

California Collision Death and Injury Facts
—Annually we have over 450,000 traffic collisions with over 3250 fatalities and over 185,000 injuries. Listed below are some of the details which should stimulate some preventive thought.

A traffic collision is reported almost every minute (average 1 minute and 8 seconds).

A person is killed every 2-1/4 hours as a result of traffic collisions (average 2 hours and 13 minutes).

A person is injured every 2 minutes (average 1 minute and 51 seconds).

Thirty percent of those killed or injured as a pedestrian or bicycle rider are children.

In the 7 years since the safety helmet mandate, motorcycle rider fatalities have decreased over 60 percent (512 killed the year before the law in 1991, versus 195 killed in 1998).

One-fourth of the licensed drivers are under 30 years of age; however, these drivers are involved in over one-third of the collisions with fatalities or injuries.

California has not had a day without a fatality since May 1, 1991.

Human Genome -- The first complete genome of a multicellular organism has been sequenced, according to an international team of scientists from United States and Great Britain.

The organism is the roundworm, C. elegans, which contains 97 millions bases in their genome. The completed genome should assist biologists in their quest to better understand how genomes function.

Rh Disease — The blood of every person is either Rh-positive or Rh-negative. The Rh-positive designation means that the blood contains the “Rhesus” protein. When the blood is Rh-negative, it does not contain the “Rhesus” protein. Key to this discussion is an Rh-negative woman whose blood does NOT contain the Rh protein.

If a woman whose blood does NOT contain the Rh protein conceives a child by an Rh-positive father, the baby may inherit the father’s Rh-positive blood group. As this fetus grows and develops its own blood, there will be some traces of this blood which enters the mother’s blood system.

When this occurs, the blood system of the Rh-negative mother perceives that some dangerous toxin is entering her system. Her blood system will then quickly start making an antidote to destroy the foreign Rh protein.

This anti-Rh antidote will also destroy the Rh protein in the blood of the fetus and has the potential to severely and permanently damage the unborn child.

Usually the amount of blood involved in a first pregnancy is minimal, and therefore the damage to the first child is also minimal. However, the potential for damage is there and a woman should make certain that she knows if her blood contains the Rh factor or not.

If her blood tests Rh-negative she should make certain that she is communicating with a medical professional before her first pregnancy occurs.