More than 140 activities have been identified by unique marks left on the skeleton, according to Kenneth A.R. Kennedy, a forensic anthropologist at Cornell. Activities from playing the clarinet to pitching a baseball have been associated with skeletal deformities. A few chronicled by Kennedy: ”milker`s neck,” a compressive facture of the cervical spine caused when cows shift position and lean on the milker`s head; ”cowboy thumb,” a fracture from gripping the saddle horn while riding animals in rodeos; ”hooker`s elbow,”
from excessive ice fishing, and ”executive foot,” which occurs from sitting at a desk with heels on the floor and weight on the toes.
CONTACT-LENS TROUBLE Rampant contamination of contact-lens storage solution is claimed in a report to the annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology in Dallas. Dr. Jay M. Lustbader reported that in a study of 100 patients with no obvious eye problems, it was found that 44 stored their contact lenses in solutions contaminated with bacteria or fungi. The contamination was found in a variety of solutions used to store soft and hard lenses. They can cause eye problems, from mild irritation to serious corneal ulcers, Lustbader said.
”Consumers need to be extremely careful in following the exact disinfecting procedure specified for their contact lenses by the
manufacturer,” Lustbader cautioned.
DEATH BY MURDER Homicide is the cause of nearly 10 percent of the deaths to Americans between the ages of 15 and 44, a study by Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. found. Men account for three-fourths of homicide victims, and firearms were used in three-fifths of the homicides. Maine had the lowest murder rate, less than 4 homicides per 100,000 in population, and Louisiana had the highest rate. But Louisiana`s rate of more than 45 deaths per 100,000 population was much lower than the bloodshed in the District of Columbia, where nearly 75 homicides occur for every 100,000 people.
