Minerva

Smoking is expensive for smokers and for their employers. Perhaps that's why over 90% of employers in Scotland operate some sort of smoking restriction policy (Tobacco Control 2000;9:187-92). Only a third, however, insist on smoke free buildings. The tobacco experts who surveyed Scottish workplaces estimate that smoking still causes £450m worth of lost productivity each year in Scotland alone. One solution is for employers to help employees quit.

Could you attach the correct eponym to pictures of Chauffeur's, Smith's, Galeazzi's, Monteggia's, Colles', and Barton's fractures? Neither could 88% of orthopaedic and emergency medicine trainees in three UK hospitals (Injury 2000;31:425-6). Unsurprisingly, four fifths of the trainees surveyed said they thought that eponyms should be abandoned as a way of describing fractures.

There is already some evidence that thin women have a higher than average risk of hip fracture in later life. Results from a US cohort study show that they also have a higher risk of rib and pelvic fractures (Annals of Internal Medicine 2000;133:123-7). Lower bone mineral density at the hip accounted for most of the association between body weight and fractures in this study, although the authors can't explain why the association didn't extend to fractures of the humerus, elbow, wrist, ankle, or foot.

Jargon is a big …