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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 28, 1978)
&M’s new student legal adviser ;xcited about working with students THE BATTALION Page 5D MONDAY, AUGUST 28, 1978 Petition asks water heaters reach no higher than 130 By FLA VIA KRONE Battalion Staff Texas A&M University’s new stu- ent legal adviser has arrived. Gaines West, a 31-year-old hetman, Texas, attorney fills the Litton vacated by former attorney Lgene “Sonny” Lyles who left the Liversity in mid-August for a pri- L Jaw practice in College Station. West graduated from the Baylor iniversity School of Law in 1973. lince that time he has served in a Ljety of positions including assis- mt director of elections under irmer Texas Secretarv of State [ark White, hearings officer for the ;xas Health Facilities Commission lid practicing attorney with a !-man law firm in Sherman. As assistant director of elections Zest administered all state, district id local elections from Sept. 1973 Aug. 1975. In his capacity as hear ts officer for the Texas Health facilities Commission, he wrote jany of the rules governing the instruction and equipment aquisi- 3 n by hospitals, nursing homes id home health agencies in the [ate. As a private attorney West specialized in administrative law be fore state agencies. While the past three student legal advisers at Texas A&M have left the University for private practice. West may be reversing that trend by leaving his private practice in Sherman to come to Texas A&M. Private practice left little time for my family,” said West, who will bring his wife and two children to the Bryan—College Station area. “I examined my priorities and decided that my family is most important to West said he is “genuinely ex-! cited to be working with students at Texas A&M. He added that he has plans to extend the scope of the student legal adviser’s office to in clude an outreach program that will increase student awareness with re spect to the legal services available on campus. Currently, the student legal ad viser counsels students and recog nized student organizations in all legal matters including: ' . i ice majofl usedii speed), i Elena itapling stomachs shut lids in weight control Gaines West / Contracts, criminal, consumer protection, landlord-tenant, do mestic relations, auto accidents, traf fic accidents and insurance. For any individual case the action taken by the office of the student legal adviser will vary with the legal matter in question, Eugene Lyles, former student attorney, said. The Texas A&M System Board of Regents has ruled that student at torneys must limit courtroom repre sentation to consumer protection cases only. “The Board of Regents decided that this was in the best interests of the students,” Lyles said. “It varies with the university. Attorneys at the University of Texas have repre sented students in almost every court in the state while at Texas Tech they can’t go to court at all.” In the past, Texas A&M student legal advisers have defined “con sumer protection cases” to include legal problems which involve con sumer fraud and deceptive trade practices, Lyles said. “Let’s say a student buys a used car and then discovers that the odometer has been rolled back,” Lyles said. “This is the type of case that we would classify under con sumer protection.” Office attorneys went to trial once last year, settling the case before it went to a jury, Lyles said. The student’s legal adviser cannot represent a student against the Uni versity or one student against another student under any circum stances. For legal problems outside the consumer protection definition the office of the student’s legal advisei can give the student advice, provide legal counseling and, if it is deemed necessaiy, refer the student to ar attorney who is a member of the Brazos County Bar Association. Lyles said. The student’s legal adviser is lo cated in the Y.M.C.A. Building 306. United Press International WASHING ION — One young girl was standing in her bathtub when a playmate turned the hot water on all the way, scalding her. A woman taking a shower acci dentally turned on the hot water tap full blast. She tainted and suffered second and third degree burns on 18 percent of her body. Both victims recovered, painfully and with scars. They are among an estimated 3,000 persons scalded by hot water each year. Most victims are chil dren, some the object of deliberate abuse by adults. The case of the woman who fainted in her shower and the young girl burned by a playmate were cited in a petition to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which is investigating the problem. The petition was filed by Seattle City Light, that city’s electric util ity, and signed by the two victims, among others. The petition asks that all water heaters be built with ther mostats that will go no higher than 130 degrees. Currently, both gas and electric hot water heaters are set at the factory at 150 degrees. An adult’s skin scalds in about 30 seconds in 130-degree water. At 150 degrees it takes only two seconds. Commission experts are studying ways to regulate hot water heaters better and the economic impact any such changes would have. They hope to have a recommendation for the commission this fall. One study already on file at the commission was prepared for the agency by Arthur D. Little Inc., a Cambridge, Mass., research firm. It says a net saving of 8 to 9 percent would result in gas or electric con sumption if all hot water heaters were set at 130 degrees instead of 150. The Seattle petition says hot water heaters use the energy equiv alent of 1.1 million barrels of oil per day, so an 8 percent reduction would result in a daily reduction in energy consumption of 88,000 bar rels of oil. The Little study concludes that "the majority of scald incidents would be prevented if water heaters were set no higher than 130 de grees.” But two problem areas exist: —The proposed 130 degree set ting would result in less hot water being available for consumers who have smaller heaters. A unit that now produces an average of 75 gal lons of hot water per hour would be reduced to 55 gallons per hour by the lower temperature setting. The Little study estimates that setting thermostats back to 130 de grees would have no noticeable im pact for about 26 million dwellings, but the change would probably re quire an additional 17 million households to buy larger hot water heaters. —Automatic dishwashers are de signed to operate at temperatures higher than 130 degrees unless they are equipped with an internal de vice to raise water temperature once they are operating. One manufacturer, Whirlpool Corp., says the dishwasher question is particularly tough because a heat er setting of at least 140 degrees is needed to insure that the water in the dishwasher is hot enough — roughly 130 degrees — to remove food particles and leave dishes spot less. Another manufacturer, Maytag, agrees, adding that animal fat is a real problem in dishwashers and that waste build-up occurs when the water temperature is too low. The Maytag spokesman said he could only speculate on the safety factor, but thought waste build-up might harbor bacteria. He said his company’s safety rec ommendation is water temperature of 140-150 degrees at the point where the water enters the dish washer. A lower temperature could also create problems with clothes wash ing machines, he added. He said many newer fabrics attract oil from the skin and other soils that are best cleaned with hot water. He said a lower temperature would require consumers to pre-scrub and pre treat clothing, destroying much of the convenience that automatic washers now provide. iders are ntage said. that pen United Press International COLUMBUS, Ohio — Surgeons Ohio State University Hospitals e turning a technique developed the Russians into a weight- fintrol measure for grossly fat pople — they are stapling their [omadis shut. Since July 1977, doctors have per iled about 30 gastric staplings, deferred over bypass and other |irgery because it doesn’t entail the me serious risks and side eff ects. Dr. Larry Carey, chairman of the iSU Department of Surgery, said, So serious complications have re nted from the surgery and patients ofT-caq re ' osin 8 an average of 10 pound? heyeffi! ermonth for the first six months. m He emphasized that the doctors nifficaji ill wield their staple guns only on in the* iders toi wasl ty’s St* 978. Itiil aperima (atients who weigh more than 100 nds over their ideal weight and ave failed on other weight-loss Ians like Weight Watchers or sychiatry. He said most candidates seen so |ar are women, many of them des perate and unable to get a job be cause of their weight. Carey explained that a double row of staples is placed near the top of the stomach, creating a small pouch below the esophagus. Then, three staples are removed to allow a small opening through which food passes into the stomach and intesti nal tract. Once healed, the stomach can hold only two to three ounces of food, Carey said, and the patient is forced to change his eating habits. Surgeon William Pace is credited with pioneering gastric stapling. “We’ve been using staples in surgery here for the last five years,” he said. “Each row consists of sev eral quarter-inch staples which are inserted into the body via a staple- gun device.” The stainless steel staples mesh together parts of the intestinal tract in less than a minute so that stapling is less time-consuming and less ex pensive than bypass surgery. asocce ithsoHJ ormal® th peritil gestf :ates ( ivas a* tian lsl» •eported i or liigl' riod, with p 1 id 7.9 |: jnitude’ lakesst n, June ids ref THE i DRAFTING 1BOARD 108 COLLEGE MAIN 846-2522 10% PLUS IN-STORE SPECIALS □ □ □ NORTHGATE SUPPLIER Fnn vrmo nOAPTiNf; EXCELLENCE a r\ a V Gfl[p[PD@S, ,, ^ ,<a-Q—^ r® oo° * o o ooO OOoo< orre^ i o o 11 c & 0JJI opQt aaaj U J v f V V '9 '9 9 '9 ’9 mmnnmuus gS OS