Shoppers will be urged to buy British in support of UK farmers and to sign a petition calling on the Government to come up with a package of measures to alleviate the crisis. Scottish farmers yesterday agreed to suspend the blockades in protest against cheap beef imports and to concentrate on political lobbying. But the blockades continued at other ports with the biggest so far organised at the port of Liverpool where farmers from Cheshire, North Wales, Shropshire and Staffordshire were joined by about 1,000 farmers who arrived from Hereford on a fleet of coaches. Four men were charged with obstruction offences in connection with protests at Dover. Other demonstrations took place at Hull, Anglesey, Heysham in Lancashire and Portsmouth, where one woman was injured as she tried to move in front of a barrier fencing in angry farmers. Farmers leaders urged the protesters to "keep up the pressure" on the Government as they launched a major campaign to win public sympathy for their cause.Advertisements placed by the National Farmers' Union are due to appear in national papers today warning that the entire rural economy is at risk. At a press briefing in London the NFU president, Sir David Naish, said the Government could end the problems "overnight" by agreeing to apply for pounds 980m aid to compensate farmers for the strong pound.Meanwhile the Government unveiled details of its plan to ban sales of beef on the bone which comes into force on 16 December.
Later, a "second hit" such as an infection triggers the disease. "It is like a bomb waiting to go off," Professor Greaves said.A large US epidemiological study has linked drinking in pregnancy with infant leukaemia. But other substances also have a similar effect, including benzene, a constituent of petrol, antibiotics and other medicines."There is a list of potential villains," Professor Greaves said "A lot of women are exposed to them and the disease is rare That is the way cancer is - it strikes at random. I don't want to worry women who have had a couple of drinks in pregnancy.". In these cases it appears that what happens in the womb is enough to cause the disease.In older children the researchers believe there is an exposure in the womb which makes the child vulnerable but which is not sufficient on its own to start the disease. However, they say the technique they have developed can be used to trace the origin of other childhood leukaemias.Professor Greaves said: "It made sense to start with a leukaemia with a convenient molecular marker It confirms what we suspected. The hints are there that in general there may be a foetal start [for all childhood leukaemias]."Most cases of childhood leukaemia develop between the ages of two and six, but infant leukaemia begins between six months and one year of age.
The origins of childhood leukaemia may lie in the womb. Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor, examines research suggesting that substances, such as alcohol, to which the foetus is exposed may be a cause of the commonest childhood cancer. Examination of blood samples taken from children suffering from leukaemia which were compared with blood taken at birth have revealed that the same cancer cells were present when the children were born. The discovery, by scientists from the Institute of Cancer Research in London, confirms what has long been suspected: that childhood leukaemia starts in the womb.Professor Mel Greaves and his colleagues, whose findings are published in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, say they apply to only one type of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, associated with an abnormal gene, which accounts for one in 20 cases of childhood cancer. A study in 1994 by AEA Technology, an independent consultancy, concluded that "doing nothing is not an option".The material crammed into the shaft has already exploded once - on 10 May 1977.