Barometer | 3 December 2011

Gross domestic products

The Office for Budget Responsibility downgraded UK GDP growth for 2011 to 0.9 per cent, down from 1.7 per cent. How many extra manufactured products does a 0.9 per cent growth in GDP — £12.56 million — translate to?

Counting sperm

Wi-Fi zones became the latest culprit to be named in scientific literature as a possible contributory factor in falling sperm counts – which have dropped from around 100 million to 60 million sperm cells per ml in developed countries over the past century. Here are a few of the others:

Tight underwear; nylon underpants; vinyl shower curtains; canned food, iodine food supplements; chemicals in cash register receipts; scented soaps; heated car seats; PCB pollution in fish; smoking; overweight mothers; mothers who ate too much beef; dioxin exposure from industrial accidents

Sunday service

A report revealed that hospitals with the fewest senior staff on duty at the weekend have a significantly higher death rate among patients. The best-staffed hospital, Northwick Park, was found to have a ratio of beds to nurses on a Sunday morning of 2.17. These were the least well staffed:
Number of beds per nurse

Broken bridges

The Mahakam II bridge at Tenggarong in Indonesia collapsed, killing 11 people. Some other bridges that have suffered structural collapse in recent years:

— I-35W Mississippi River Bridge in Minneapolis, built 1967, collapsed 2007, killing 13
— Can Tho Bridge, Vietnam, collapsed during construction in September 2007, killing around 50 workers
— Hintze Ribeiro Bridge, Castelo de Paiva, Portugal, built 1887, collapsed March 2001, killing 59
— Kadalundi Rail Bridge, India, 100 years old; collapsed in July 2001, killing 57
— Kota Chambal Bridge, India, collapsed during construction on 24 December 2009, killing 45