CONFUSION REIGNED among government advisers last night over the safest way to view next month’s eclipse. Professor Liam Donaldson, the Government’s Chief Medical Officer, advised people to stay indoors and watch the event on their television. “The improvement we find requires only small increases in aerobic fitness,” the researchers say.. Aerobic exercise improved reaction time, enabled the volunteers to switch quickly from one mental task to another and boosted their abilities to ignore irrelevant information.Monitoring of cardiovascular respiration showed just a 5 per cent improvement in the oxygen supply of the lungs was enough to cause the effect. These areas of the brain govern what psychologists call “executive control” activity, such as planning, scheduling, and short-term memory, which are known to be susceptible to degradation in later life.”We found that those who received aerobic training showed substantial improvements in performance on tasks requiring executive control compared with anaerobically trained subjects,” the scientists say.Professor Kramer said that during the six-month course the volunteers went from strolling 15 minutes extra per day to walking briskly for up to an hour more than they otherwise would.

DAILY BOUTS of aerobic exercise can prevent mental decay among the over-sixties, improving mental as well as physical agility, a study has shown. Scientists examining 124 elderly people found that the oxygen boost resulting from a brisk walk improved mental agility in the parts of the brain that are more likely to waste away during ageing.
Half the volunteers, aged between 60 and 75, did aerobic training and half underwent a course of anaerobic activity, such as stretching and toning, which does not increase breathing rates.Arthur Kramer, professor of psychology at the University of Illinois, describes in the journal Nature how those people who exercised aerobically performed significantly better at mental tasks controlled by the frontal and prefrontal cortex, the parts of the brain immediately behind the forehead. Individual directors were not held to be culpable when 187 lives were lost in the Herald of Free Enterprise tragedy; or in the 1987 King’s Cross Tube fire.. She said there was considerable resistance at the Crown Prosecution Service and on the part of judges to put senior managers in the dock.It has been notoriously difficult to hold any individual responsible in such cases. “However if the law is to be changed, it is up to Parliament to do so,” he said. He pointed out that three years ago, the government-appointed Law Commission had argued for an offence of “corporate killing” to clear up the anomaly, but no action had been taken.Louise Christian, head of a group of solicitors acting for relatives killed in the Southall crash, argued that the Government should immediately introduce legislation to make it easier to bring manslaughter charges against individual directors.

There is also concern over safety standards in the privatised industry.The Appeal Court has been asked to examine the law which allowed a judge to throw out charges of manslaughter against Great Western Trains after it was held responsible earlier this week for the Southall rail disaster. Although the Appeal Court is not being urged to reopen the case against GWT, the Attorney General, at the behest of the prosecution, is to ask the court to investigate the operation of the law on corporate manslaughter.Relatives of the seven people killed in the Southall crash have denounced the pounds 1.5m fine levied by the Old Bailey judge as “derisory”. While the fine was a record for a charge under the Health and Safety Act, lawyers acting for the families contended that it was insufficient to act as a deterrent.It is only possible to bring a charge of manslaughter against a company if it is proved that one senior executive in an organisation was the “controlling mind” and therefore responsible for any “act or omission” which lead to fatalities.In the Southall case, Richard George, the chief executive, was held to be ultimately responsible for safety, but not the “controlling mind”.Mr Justice Scott Baker, the presiding judge, acknowledged that the law was seen by some to be unsatisfactory because an individual had to be held culpable before an organisation could face a criminal charge. But 19 months later the driver, Alan Griffiths, was killed after being knocked down by an express train while using it.
It is understood he had been ringing to report a difficulty with the line as instructed under health and safety regulations.The case emerges at a time when there is great public disquiet over the failure of courts to find companies and senior employees guilty of manslaughter in such cases. The company was allegedly told the telephone was too near the track on the line between Stockport and Manchester in 1993.

RAILTRACK AND two of its senior employees have been charged with manslaughter after a train driver was killed while using a telephone at the track side. BBC Worldwide expects to sell the programme abroad as successfully as it sold Teletubbies.”. In contrast, Jake and Milo like dismantling toys, and are said to be full of “energy, speed and loudness”.Roy Thompson, the BBC’s head of children’s commissioning, denied the characters were out-dated: “In different programmes the children will do different things – in some the boys may well like ballet.”Mr Thompson has high hopes for Tweenies, which is why it has been given such a long run: “The success of Teletubbies led us to believe it appropriate to do more for slightly older audiences. Fizz and Bella, the two female characters are described in the programme publicity as loving ballet and dressing up. The characters, Jake, Fizz, Milo and Bella are aged between three and five and the action takes place at their playgroup.”The Tweenies are only one step away from reality and hopefully children will relate to everything they do,” said Ian Lauchlan, the executive producer of the series.The characteristics of theTweenies may lead to the BBC being accused of gender stereotyping. Ms Wood is now estimated to be worth pounds 55m.Tweenies, which is to begin in September, features four brightly coloured “children” who have actors inside them operating animatronic heads, which react to the actors smiling, frowning or talking.