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BAD MEDICINE: Physicians conducting lead-screening programs in the West have found that a Mexican folk medicine—azarcon—was the culprit in several puzzling cases of lead poisoning in children. The bright orange powder—which has a high lead content—is commonly administered by Mexican-Americans to relieve empacho , an all-purpose term referring to chronic indigestion.

BENZENE ALERT: Benzene (a hydrocarbon that may contribute to the development of leukemia) is contained in such consumer products as stove and lantern fuels, brush cleaners, and rubber cement, and is also used as an octane booster in lead-free gasoline. The Carcinogen Information Program (Dept. TMEN, P.O. Box 6057, St. Louis, Missouri 63139) has published a special bulletin, entitled Benzene and Cancer , which is available free upon request (please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope).

HUMAN BIRTH DEFECTS have been tentatively linked with a toxin that may be contained in some goat's milk, according to a group of California researchers. Preliminary findings indicate that foraging dairy goats may have browsed on Lupinus latifolius , a leguminous perennial, and transmitted plant-produced teratogens (substances that cause fetal malformation) to pregnant women who drank the milk. (A fuller report is contained in the article "Toxic Plants as Possible Human Teratogens", in the November-December 1981 issue of California Agriculture , published by the University of California.)

AMERICA IN RUINS is a new study examining the nation's deteriorating "infrastructure"—the country's highways, bridges, prisons, water and sewer systems, mass transit departments, and railroads—which predicts that the U.S. cannot even bear the cost of simply maintaining its vast network of public works. It's available for $9.95 postpaid from the Publications Department, Council of State Planning Agencies, Dept. TMEN, 400 North Capitol Street, Washington, D.C. 20001. . . . Cornell University researchers have definitely proved that chickens march to a different drummer: HENS PREFER A 28-HOUR DAY , and allowing the birds to follow this biological cycle results in bigger, stronger-shelled eggs. . . . THE AMERICAN SEED COMPANY of Lancaster, Pennsylvania—which, for 60 years, helped supply pocket money to youngsters who sold the firm's seed packets on the "honor system"—has closed its doors because of last year's $600,000 loss in unreturned funds. . . . VIDEO-SCREEN GAMES such as Pong, Air-Sea Battle, and Breakout are being used at a California veterans hospital to help brain-damaged patients improve their hand/eye coordination.

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