Another rule of halves: half of all injecting drug users have been to prison, half of all prison inmates have injected drugs, and half of all imprisoned injecting drug users inject drugs while in prison. Quoting these figures, the Medical Journal of Australia (1997;166:116) argues that exposing prisoners to known risks makes their punishment cruel and unusual, and it calls for them to be provided with sterile injecting equipment.

The competition between fishermen in Europe gets a lot of publicity, but one aspect that was news to Minerva was that boats have recently been working in heavy weather that would have kept them in port a few years ago. A report from Denmark (Occupational and Environmental Medicine 1997;54:141-4) claims that changes could be made in the quota system to make it unnecessary for fishermen to go out in all weathers. Fishing has one of the highest of all occupational mortalities; Europolitics should be trying to make the industry safer, not more dangerous.

Rotavirus is the most common enteric pathogen in young children; it is found more commonly in those under 2 years old in the winter months. A study in the Republic of Ireland …