A RECENT dramatic change in family planning in the United States is the increase in the practice of legal abortions in hospitals.Evalu- ation of this change depends on the answers to a number of important questions.First, will the in- creasing use of hospital abortion services contrib- ute to a reduction in birth rates?Second, will the legalization of abortion decrease the incidence of illicit abortions with their attendant morbidity and mortality?Finally, will readily available abortions become a frontline defense against unwanted births or a backup method of fertility control?The effort to establish nationwide reporting of legal abortions began at the Family Planning

The underlying socioeconomic causes of the Watts riots of 1965 were not recent developments.The conditions of poverty that led to the riots had existed in this urban ghetto and others for years.But the turmoil in the streets focused public atten- tion on the conditions and dramatized the prob- lems.In the report on health resources and serv- ices in the Watts area, prepared for the Governor's Commission on the Los Angeles Riots, which investigated the causes of the riots, medical care was singled out as one of the most serious deprivations of the poor (1):Conclusions on the health services available to the people of the Riot Area are not difficult to draw.Medical resources-personnel and facilities-are far below Ameri- can norms in volume and quality.Public programs for general disease prevention, for treatment of the poor, for mental health, for the health of school children are relatively well developed, but their impact is far below the needs, and they are inhibited by the conventional restrictions of governmental action in a free enterprise medical setting.Organized private health actions sup- ported by voluntary donations, insurance, or industry, are weak.

within the California State department of Public Health have prompted a review of race differentials in California's infant mortality as measured by the State's vital statistics.The first concern is the strikingly low infant death rates for Americans of Chinese and Japa- nese descent, which have long been noted in the available vital statistics for both California and the United States.Their 1967 rates (table 1) are among the lowest recorded in the world today, yet little effort has been made to explain them.Of the U.S. live births, 44 percent of the Chinese and 40 percent of the Japanese are in California.If the low infant death rates among the oriental races are valid, it is desirable for epidemiologists in the State bureau of maternal and child health to ex- amine California's vital data with particular atten-

A cohort of white males who had attended elementary schools in Hagerstown, Md., between 1923 and 1928, and whose height-weight records for those years were available, was examined during 1961-63. A study of their childhood relative weight at ages 9-13, and of their adult relative weight 35-40 years later, was made in relation to selected physiological variables and diagnosed morbidity.Essential findings were as follows: Childhood relative weight at ages 9-13 had no significant relationship to adult levels of fasting blood sugar, serum cholesterol, beta-lipoprotein, or blood pressure, or to cardiovascular renal disease.Childhood relative weight at ages 9-13 was significantly related to hypertensive vascular disease. The below average weight group experienced a higher prevalence than observed in either average or moderately overweight childhood groups.Approximately 30 percent of the below average weight children became average weight adults and 21 percent became overweight adults. Of the average weight children, approximately 40 percent became overweight adults. Overweight children tended to remain overweight as adults.Adult relative weight of the same cohort, viewed 35-40 years later, was significantly associated with fasting blood sugar, beta-lipoprotein, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Elevated levels of each of these variables occurred with greater frequency in the overweight child.Adult relative weight was significantly associated with hypertensive vascular disease and cardiovascular renal disease; the higher prevalence occurred in the overweight adults.The highest risk for hypertensive vascular and cardiovascular renal disease was associated with the persons who acquired their overweight status as adults. The higher prevalence of these diseases among the overweight adults was largely attributable to the adults who moved from a below average childhood weight category to an overweight adult group. The moderately or markedly overweight adults who was similarly classified as a child did not appear to be at greater risk than the average weight adult who had been an average weight child.

IN assessing margins of safety and possible toxic hazards from fluorides, it is necessary to con- sider the body's total intake of fluoride from all sources.This consideration is important when de- termining the optimum level of fluoride for dental protection before embarking on a scheme for the fluoridation of a water supply, and it is necessary also when considering possible hazards from fluorides to the community in the vicinity of in- dustries emitting them.The total intake will be derived in part from the diet, in part from drinking water, and in part from the atmosphere.McClure (1) made a comprehensive analysis of the fluoride content of individual foods and esti- mated the adult intake from the diet, excluding that derived from drinking water, was 0.2-0.3mg. per day.Cholak (2), as a result of the analyses of actual dietaries, calculated an intake of 0.34-0.80

M ODERN TECHNOLOGY and human delvi sire are creating a host of products made of new materials or designs, and an innumerable variety of drugs and other substances are being produced and marketed every year. Many such products, particularly drugs and common household items, are subject to voluntary or accidental abuse among certain age groups in all classes of our society. To help control potentially hazardous products and protect consumers from unreasonable risk of injuries, Congress created the National Commission on Product Safety in 1967. The commission has stated that except for annual accident reports from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, the supply of adequate epidemiologic data needed for both consumer education and manufacturer orientation is limited. With the recommendation of the commission, efforts have been made by the U.S. Government to generate some of the much-needed information.