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Longshoremen’s strike
ends; work starts today
United Press International
NEW YORK — The leadership of the
International Longshoremen’s Association
Tuesday evening ordered an end to the
two-month East and Gulf Coast dock-
workers strike against containerized ship
ping.
Thomas W. Gleason, president of the
50,000 member union, said longshoremen
were voting overwhelmingly to ratify new
three-year contracts. The settlement con
tains job security provisions and wage and
fringe benefit increases.
“Balloting in this union is over except in
Philadelphia and New Orleans,” Gleason
said. “With the total vote taken so far, and
as far as this international union is con
cerned — and myself — I’m ordering the
men back to work. The strike is over. ’
Dockworkers in the Northeast had ap
proved the tentative settlements by a vote
of 10,537 to 3,583 as of Tuesday evening
and trends in other Atlantic and Gulf coast
cities were running “three to four to one in
favor of the agreements,” Gleason said.
Gleason said complete vote totals would
not be known until Wednesday, but said
the striking dockworkers in all of the af
fected cities were ordered back on the job
Tuesday night.
In New York, the busiest East Coast
port, where 24 container or automated
ships from nearly all over the world were
berthed and waiting to be unloaded, extra
dockworkers lined up at 6 p.m. EST and
started unloading container ships at 7
p.m., management officials said.
A dissident local in Philadelphia and the
six New Orleans locals planned to vote on
the settlement Wednesday. One of the
New Orleans locals was trying to over
come a provision it felt could possibly
violate a federal court order concerning
the upgrading of blacks.
Union sources said the job security
provision — a key point in the strike —
called for the carriers to set up a fund to
protect union members from “shortfalls”
in the number of manhours available for
work or decreases in tonnage handled, de
pending on how the individual ports tally
workloads.
The major issue in the strike was protec
tion for the Guaranteed Annual Income for
dockworkers, who have lost jobs because
of containerization and the automation of
cargo handling.
The settlements called for an 80-cent an
hour wage increase in each of the three
years of the master contracts.
The U.S. Department of Commerce
Monday blamed the strike, which sharply
reduced exports, for the nation’s record
$3.1 billion foreign trade deficit in the
month of October. t
Three injured seriously
Plane crashes into mountain southwest of Aspen
Dr. Michael DeBakey
&
)eath rate declining,
)r. Debakey says
By JEANNE GRAHAM
he death rate in the United States is de
ling due to the advancement of heart
ase research and treatment.
)r. Michael Debakey, world famous for
heart transplants and open heart
gery, spoke Tuesday night in Rudder
rer on cardiovascvdar disease and his
hniques of treatment.
yVVr )ebakey’s talk was sponsored by Great
One of the most important research
'elopinents was learning that 85 per-
tofheart disease is arterial,” Debakey
1. “This means the disease rests in the
[eries, not the heart.
pproximately 650,000 persons die
;h year coronary heart disease, specifi-
ly from arteriosclerosis and ar-
rosclerosis, Debakey explained. The
ijorpart of his research and treatment is
this area.
When a patient has arteriosclerosis, the
ill of the artery weakens, causing
eurisms. In artherosclerosis, the artery
1 thickens, causing stoppage of blood.
We don’t know why some people de
lop one, and some the other, Debakey
id. Artherosclerosis, with blood stop-
gethat commonly leads to strokes, is the
pch more common of the two, he said.
Itwasn’t until the development of artery
nsplants in 1951 that aneurisms and
bod clots could be treated.
“The first artificial artery consisted of
two sheets of dacron sewn together. When
I first did this myself in animal research,”
Debakey said, “I bought the “ dacron at
Foley’s department store and sewed it to
gether on my wife’s sewing machine. It
proved to be effective.”
Debakey showed a series of slides on
the different techniques of transplanting
artificial arteries after the removal of
aneurisms and of using artificial arteries to
bypass artery blocks.
“The artificial bypass artery was first
used in 1964, Debakey said. “As many
bypasses can be used as are needed.
In addition, a bypass pump can be at
tached to the major chamber of the heart
to support it temporarily. And further re
search is being done on pumps that could
be more effective than heart transplants.
In a short film clip, Debakey showed an
actual artery transplant operation, explain
ing the techniques used.
“We have no precise knowledge of the
cause of arterio and artherosclerosis,” De
bakey said. High cholesterol, smoking and
high blood pressure, though detrimental
to one’s health, are not known causes; he
added.
“We still have a long way to go in re
search. There is much knowledge to be
obtained, particularly in prevention.
“And not until a cause for heart disease
is established can a preventitive medicine
be developed.”
United Press International
ASPEN, Colo. — Six persons were hos
pitalized today, three of them in serious
condition, as the result of a light plane
crash in which an Oklahoma insurance
company executive was killed.
The six, all from Oklahoma City, were
plucked off snow-covered Haystack
Mountain southwest of Aspen before dark
Tuesday and were flown to Sardy Field for
transfer via ambulance to Aspen Valley
Hospital.
The C.B. Cameron family and three
other persons were returning to Oklahoma
City from a Thanksgiving ski vacation in
the Colorado Rockies when the plane
crashed Sunday. Cameron, president of
American Fidelity Insurance Co., was
killed when the plane went down on the
mountain near Capital Creek, southwest
of Aspen.
Cameron’s wife, Jo Carol, the couple’s
son and the pilot, Terry DePlois, were
hospitalized in serious condition. Mrs.
Cameron was suffering from exposure,
shock and possible paralysis of the legs;
Bill Cameron Jr., 18, had a head injury
and a broken leg, and DePlois had a back
injury.
A hospital spokesman said the three se
riously injured persons were placed
aboard a Rocky Mountain Airways plane
late Tuesday and were flown to St.
Joseph’s Hospital in Denver where more
specialized medical treatment is available.
Karen Mills, 15, Charles Randolph, 17,
and Linda Cameron, 15, were in fair con
dition. Miss Mills had a back injury and
frostbite, Randolph was being treated for
frostbite, and the nature of Miss Came
ron’s injuries is undetermined, although
she was being treated for frostbite.
Randolph, son of retired Maj. Gen.
James Mills, left to find help Monday
morning and was spotted Tuesday after
noon by a search helicopter. On the way
back up the mountain, rescuers found
Miss Mills and carried her down on a
board because of her back injury.
A CAP spokesman said the plane appar
ently lost one of its landing gear Sunday
when it hit a fence at the end of the run
way during takeoff from Sardy Field. De
Plois, apparently unaware the plane was
damaged, radioed he would proceed to
Pueblo before going on to Oklahoma City.
Nine aircraft, including two Air Force
helicopters from New Mexico and Wyom
ing and two private choppers, took part in
Tuesday’s search. Snow began to fall dur
ing the afternoon and officials feared it
would cut short the search as it had ear
lier.
Meanwhile, severe winds and high tur
bulence hampered the search for another
light plane missing with a Rifle couple
aboard. A CAP spokesman said searchers
flew only four hours Tuesday morning
looking for a plane carrying Robert O’Dell
and his wife.
O’Dell’s plane has been missing since
Friday on a flight from the Jefferson
County Airport at Broomfield to Rifle. The
CAP official said searchers checked out a
lead that a low-flying plane was seen in the
vicinity of Pagosa Pass about the time
O’Dell’s plane would have been in the
Microwave ovens may cause burns
lit
Strangler’ kills
college student
United Press International
LOS ANGELES — The “Los Angeles
rangier” may be two stranglers, working
ogether to rape and kill young women.
The number of slayings being investi-
iated as the possible work of the “strang-
rose to 12 Tuesday with the discovery
ifthebody of Lauren Raye Wagner, 18, a
letite, red-haired business college stu-
lent.
Witnesses told police she was dragged
om her car and carried away the previous
ight by two men in another auto.
She was the fifth killing added to the
strangler list in 10 days.
Detectives on a multijurisdictional
Strangler Task Force are not sure the same
Idler, or killers, committed all the slay
ings, but have said there are enough
similarities to form the task force and in
vestigate them jointly.
This case bears a number of similarities
with the others and will be part of the task
force investigation,” a police spokesman
said. “We have a whole series of homicides
which seem to be somewhat related.”
The victims, all female, were mostly at
tractive women in their late teens or early
20s. They ranged up to age 28, but in
cluded a 7-year-old girl and two school
mates, 12 and 14, who disappeared to
gether.
All were found nude. Most had been
sexually molested.
Most of the bodies were found within a
five-mile area around Glendale in the
northeastern Los Angeles region, usually
in bushes beside streets and freeway
ramps or in sprawling Griffith Park.
All were strangled within the past six
weeks. Police said they were not revealing
the method of strangulation because it
may provide a key to identifying the killer.
J. G. “Joe” Wagner, Miss Wagner’s
father, said she left the house Monday
night to see a boyfriend.
She apparently was returning home
about 10 p.m., neighbors told police,
when a large black car forced her auto to
the curb only two doors from her house.
“Two large men” jumped out, dragged her
from her auto and sped away, the witnes
ses told police.
Her nude body was found shortly after
dawn, sprawled face up on a narrow street
on Mount Washington, which is within the
five-mile radius where seven other bodies
have been found. It was found two miles
from where the bodies of the two school
girls, 12 and 14, were found, and three
miles from where the 11th body was
found.
Police are looking for a man seen sitting
in the car of one of the victims before she
disappeared. A composite drawing pic
tured him as a Latin or swarthy skinned
Anglo with a mustache, acne scars, reced
ing hairline, a mole on his left cheek,
about 27, 6-feet-2 and weighing about 160
pounds.
By SARAH E. WHITE
Hunger pains gnawing and snarling in his
stomach, the man stops into a nearby con
venience store. He buys a cold roast beef
sandwich and is told by the clerk that he
can warm his lunch in the store’s mi
crowave oven. The man gingerly opens
the door, lying the sandwich on the rack
inside. He closes the door, pushes a but
ton and waits seconds until a timer goes
off. He opens the door, reaches in, and...
In most instances the man will take the
sandwich out of the oven, and walk out of
the store sinking his teeth into a semi-juicy
lunch.
However, sometimes he may suffer
burns from exposure to microwave radia
tion emitted from malfunctioning ovens.
As many as 40 cases of alleged mi
crowave radiation burns have been re
ported in the United States since 1970,
said Robert Eccleston, special assistant for
liaison in the Bureau of Radiological
Health in the Food and Drug Administra
tion.
Eccleston said one case of microwave
radiation burns has been reported in Texas
this year. He declined to reveal the
victim’s name or many details of the inci
dent.
The man who was burned reported
“redness of hand and a warm sensation, ”
Eccleston said. He added that these are
typical symptoms of the reported burns.
The oven, manufactured by Welbitt
corporation was checked, he said, and
found to be in compliance with federal
regulations.
The New York Times reported earlier
this year that two waitresses and one man
in Kentucky were burned by microwave
radiation from an oven. The waitresses
complained of swelling and discoloration
of the area burned, and pain their attorney
said.
The man, David Powell, who was se
verely burned by a microwave oven in a
Burger King restaurant in Louisville, filed
suit in 1976 asking for $100,000 in dam
ages in Jefferson Circuit Court.
Powell said he is now regaining the use
of his hand and is “just getting some feel
ing back into it,” the Times reported.
Spokesmen for the company manufac
turing the ovens said the ovens were in
compliance with regulations.
Federal regulations set the allowed
radiation leakage of the ovens while on the
assembly line in the factory at one mil-
lowatt per square centimeter and at five
millowatts per square centimeter after the
oven is in commercial use.
The federal regulations, however, do
not apply to inspection or repair of mi
crowave ovens. These rules are only appli
cable to manufacturers of the microwave
ovens.
Until Nov. 18, the state of Texas had
never required regular inspection of mi
crowave ovens in commercial use.
Two or three years ago, Texas A&M
University Radiological Safety Officer
R. D. Neff surveyed 37 microwaves ovens
in use on campus. He found one oven mal
functioning in the kitchen of Rudder Tow
er, he said, and put it out of service im
mediately. He said that it did not malfunc
tion all of the time. Neff jerked the door
open very quickly and the oven did not
shut off. No one was injured.
H e has been inspecting campus mi
crowave ovens for three to four years, he
said, and inspects them every six months.
The regulations which went into effect
on Nov. 18 were adopted because mi
crowave ovens have been found operating
with the doors open, said Joe Thiel,
supervisor of field and technical services in
the Texas Department of Health Re
sources.
He said that historically in commercial
microwave ovens, 10 percent of the ovens
manufactured before Oct. 6, 1977 leaked
excessively. Thiel said that excess leaking
is leaking of radiation of more than five
millowatts per square centimeter.
The regulations indicated that all mi
crowave ovens in commerical use must be
inspected every six months.
No provisions are made in the regu
lations about inspection of microwaves in
private use.
The new rules regulate repair of the
ovens for the first time.
Microwave ovens used commercially
must be repaired by persons who will cer
tify that the repaired microwave oven is in
compliance with regulations.
Also, a complete Repair Certification
Label must appear upon all repaired mi
crowave ovens. This label identifies the
repairman, is signed by an authorized
agent and is dated.
Neff said the main problem with service
of the ovens is that repairmen have many
times put the doors back on the ovens in
correctly. This, he said, could cause radia
tion to leak through the door because it is
not sealed, thus exposing those nearby to
the radiation.
Persons repairing microwave ovens do
not have to be licensed or trained.
Interlocking systems are required in
microwave ovens since the rules were
adopted. These systems work so that when
the door is open and the light is on inside
the oven, radiation is not emitted.
Operators could bypass the system in
order to use the oven with the door open.
Neff said that this cannot happen any
more because the new regulation requires
that one access to the system be inaccessa-
ble to the operator.
It is up to the manufacturers to comply
with the regulations, however, and some
are reportedly lax.
Neff said that a good test for radiation
leakage is simply reaching into the oven to
remove a cooked item after operation. If
the inside of the oven feels hot to your
hand, the oven is leaking, he said.
Microwave ovens could malfunction in
definitely until the operator happens to
check inside for heat, and in the mean
time, persons are exposed to the radiation.
Microwave ovens until recently could
interfere with any cardiac pacemaker
within about 20 feet of the oven. During
that time signs were posted in the win
dows of convenience stores. These indi
cated a microwave oven was in operation
inside.
Of 11 convenience stores in the Bryan-
College Station area, all had microwave
ovens but none displayed the signs in the
windows.
Neff said the signs are no longer re
quired because the microwaves will not
interfere with new cardiac pacemakers,
under good conditions.
Pacemakers have been improved so that
the new model is shielded from the harm
ful radiation which could rapidly increase
the person’s heart rate, he said.
If a person wearing an old pacemaker,
which is not shielded from the radiation,
goes near an operating microwave oven,
he can be injured. Most of the old
pacemakers have been replaced; no one
can definitely say all have.
Neff added that if a microwave oven is
leaking radiation, a person wearing a new
pacemaker can be harmed if he gets close
enough to read the small tag placed on
some of the ovens.
Local convenience store managers seem
ignorant or indifferent to the potential
hazard.
The assistant manager of a store located
on College Drive said he had not noticed
the absence of the sign in his store win
dow. He added that he did not know why
it is not up anymore.
The manager of a store on Nagle street
said she could not recall ever having the
sign in the window during the two years
she has been manager of the store.
Radiologial Safety Officer Neff said that
the chances of serious injury as in the car
diac pacemakers is very rare, but still
could occur.
Sandy Carldn, a senior psychology major, removes
her shrimp dinner from a microwave oven in the
Commons cafeteria.
Battalion photo by Jim Crawley