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i MEDICINE + imagine a healthy America if an increasing ~ number of its chihlren are growing up chronically ill. MATT:CLARK with M.hR1ANAGOSNRL:L. inNrx.York.PAMELAABRAMSONlinSn Fn isco. andCONNt E LESL IE in. Ralt'i.morc Light Cigarettes Have . Just as Much Nicotine The widely touted' notion that low-tar. and-nicotine cigarettes are safer than stronger, brands is,a pipe dream. A studyy in last week's New Englandl Journal of Medicine says smokers who switch to "light"cigarettesabsorb asmuch nicotineas before. The problem, according to Dr. Neal L. Benowitzandcolleaguesat theUniversity ofCalifornia, San Francisco, is that smoking machi nes used to set federal tar and nicotine ratings don't smokelikehumans. Benowitz tested'awidevarietyofcigarette brands on 272 volunteers. He found'that blood concentrations ofcolinine, a nicotine al anesthesia, Now a team of Califorr physicians has developed an alternatis nonsurgical treatment for infertility called "ovum transfer" thati uses a "donor' egg from aSertlle wotnan. Last week doctors at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center announced the first two pregnancies resultingfromihe technique, which not only promises a high- er success rate but is simple and safe enough to be performed in a doctor's ol6tce.. Since the infertile woman's own eggs are noUinvolved, ovum transfercould be help- ful in the case of damaged Fallopian tubes and for women whose ovaries are defective orhave been surgically removed-as well as those who carry genetic disorders they donlt'want to pass on to their offspring. Procedure: Because ovum transfer has been used successfully in,animal breeding for more than 90 years, "the basic research hadibeen dbne before we got there," ex- plains Dr. John Buster, the obstetrician who~tieadedlthe UCLA team. The physi- cians recruite,tJ a group of:healthy; fertile donors and matched their ovulatory cycles with those of the infertile women they were treating. At the time of! ovulation, each F'CCsmoking macb'ihe: ,tfeasuriirg tar, nicotine and carbon-maroride content breakdown producti varied with the num- ber of cigarettes scnoked, but~bore no~rela- tionship to a& ertised tanandi nicotine rat- ings..Moreover, tobacco from supposedlylow-yield cigarettes contained just as much ni¢ot i ne as tobacco from heavier brands. W halimakes a cigarette light has nothingg to do with the kind of tobacco used, but rather with factors suchias filter construc- tion and papertexture: Whilethesepermit a cigarette to aehieve a low: nicotine rating on the Federal Trade Commission's smoking machines, Benowitz argues that a humani smoker tends to get the same satisfying levell of nicotine he would from a stronger ciga- rette by smoking more, inhaling more deep, ly or puffing more frequently:, _ Endin Infertility I g With `Ovum Transfer' The birth of the world's first test-tube baby in 1979 delivered hope to thousands of infertile women. ButYhe success rate of in vitro fertilization retnainsa disappointingly low 20percent and the procedure carries the risks ofany surgery performed under gener- 48' donor was artificially inseminated with sperm from the husband of an infertile woman. Five days later the donor s uterus was flushed out with a newly, developed instrument designed specifically to retrieve the fertilized egg. From a group of 74'do- nors, the UCLA doctors harvested five fer- tilizedleggs and placed them in the uteri of infertile recipients, using a catheter with a plunger attached to it. No anesthesia was required. Two pregnancies resulted: one woman is in her fifth month and the other, in her seventh week. Because the fertilized egg is implanted at a more advanced stage of development' than~ in the "test tube" technique, and because it develdps "natur- ally" in the uterus,instead'of ini a plastic dish„the leam hopes for sturdier embryos and higher pregnancy rates: For some couples, the fact that the wom- an's genes.are not passed to their baby might be a drawback. Butiunlike infertile women who allow "surrogate mothers" to bear their children, those who choose ovum transfer do eaperie.nce pregnancy and deliv; ery. "They will nurture and shape that babyy for nine months," says Buster. "If that's not motherhood, what is?" NEWS MEDIA Unhappy Days W hen "World NewsTonighll'slipped: into third'placebehihd CBS and NBC three months ago, it caused a minor panic at ABC head'quarters- Most network execu- tives assumed that Frank Reynolds's sick leave was the main reason for the drop and they were unusually candid about the day- to-day difficulties caused by his absence. ABC Newsvice president David Burke told The New York Times,in~June that Reyn- olds's absence had I"hurt us badly,"' and network news and sportspresidentRoone Arledge worried that "ifwe havesubstitutes for too long, people maylook elsewhere and som e of those may not come back:" Out of respect for Reynolds and uncer- tainty about whether he might eventuallyy return, Arledge did nothing whilt his recov- ery remained in doubt. Now, the unhappyy choice is no lbnger avoidable: "One of the things people look for in a news broadcast is a sense of continuity," says Arledge. "We want to restore that as soon as possible." Energy: Fi ve years ago Arledgeoriginated the three-anchor, format with Reynolds in Washington, Max Robinson in Chicago and Peter Jennings in iLondon, Interesting as it has sometimes been for viewers, manv ABC News correspondents feel h he cl uttered look it'; gives the broadcast has rfbw become a liability. Arledgesay'sone reasonheinitiated the th'rcc-anchonapproach was that "if we had said, `Here is Mr. X who is ouranswer to Cronkite, CHancellor and Brinkley:'.' tfie people who were writingabout ABC News at that time would havejust eaten him alive before he got t wo words ou t'." Beyond the format, the money and'ener L r t ~ 1': t F l ~ G gy Arledge injectedlinto.the news divisionr" paid off. By the en& of 1979, ABC. th traditional also-ran, was running virtuall neck and neck for second in the ratings wi NBC and, in July of 1981, even bested C at one point, holding the No.~ I position f ' the first time in its history. Ptestige soar~4,;._ _ and both Jennings and Ted Koppeli of t(*,_ late-night program "Nightline," are no considered respectable anchors by rii'als~-' -' the other networks. Not surprisingly, d ledge says they are the two leading cand =- d'ates to succeed Reynolds. ~' A decision seems likely withinfhe next tw•o weeks, but the central question is whether or not the network will jettisonthe ~ three-anchor format. Either way, Jennings probably has the inside track. He took over f1 from substituting David Brihkley as the principall anchor on "World News To- nigNt" on July 4-the same day his former producer in London: Robert E. Frye, sue- eeed'ed Jpff Gralnick as the program's new ezeeuti L-e. producer in New York. Jenntngs, aetually started his first stint as the ABC anchor (1964 to 1968):when he wasjust 26;, then;,therombination ofhis youth and his NEw'SwEEK/AUGCSTI. 1963 r