Page 6 THE BATTALION
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 1980
r
Oilman
believes
in drug
l
United Press International
HOUSTON — Because he be
lieves every American has watched a
family member win or lose a fight
with cancer, a wealthy Texas oilman
is quietly raising $20 million for in
terferon research.
“My mother died of lymphoma,”
said Leon Davis, 61, from his office
in the smoked-glass Pennzoil Tower.
“Interferon has been successful in
the treatment of lymphoma. My un
cles and aunts have had it (cancer). It
certainly has hit our family. ”
If Americans die in greater num
bers from heart disease, they never-
Potts changes
his mind again
United Press International
ATLANTA — Convicted killer
Jack Potts, who decided on the eve of
his execution last week to appeal his
death sentence, has abruptly
changed his mind again.
His attorneys say he wants to die
because he can’t bear the cruelty of
his guards who allegedly smashed a
mirror given to him by his mother.
In a handwritten plea to a federal
judge, he asked the appeal be stop
ped and his execution be carried out.
U.S. District Judge William C.
O’Kelley had scheduled a hearing
Tuesday to hear personally from
Potts, 35, why he is again refusing
appeals — “so that the court may
determine his competence and
whether or not his action ... is freely
and voluntarily given, with full
knowledge and understanding of the
consequences of his actions.”
In his letter to O’Kelley, who
issued a stay of execution for Potts
last week some 11 hours before he
was to die, Potts said he had agreed
to appeal only to “satisfy my brother
whom I love very much.” His
brother, John Potts, was one of his
visitors last Wednesday when he
dramatically changed his mind and
signed a paper saying he wanted to
appeal.
Potts begged O’Kelley to allow a
new execution date to be set “im
mediately and most of all, let me die
while in a state of grace.” Potts con
verted to Roman Catholicism in
prison.
Potts, assuring the judge he was
“of sound mind and body,” said he
was refusing the help of attorneys
Millard Farmer and Andrea Young of
the Team Defense Project, and he
would not meet with reporters again
as he had done several times before
his scheduled electrocution date.
Farmer said Potts’ change of mind
was the result of harassment he has
suffered since he was returned to a
fourth-floor cell at the Georgia State
Prison at Reidsville.
The Atlanta attorney claimed
guards broke a mirror that was given
to Potts by his mother and “des
troyed his personal belongings.”
Farmer, who in recent months
had pleaded with Potts repeatedly to
change his mind and seek an appeal,
said he would not stand in the way of
the condemned man’s wishes.
Microwaves’ effects
being probed by UT
United Press International
SAN ANTONIO — Research has begun at the University of Texas
Health Science Center into the effects of radio frequency radiation,
such as is produced in a microwave oven.
Along with the many benefits of man’s harnessing radiation for use in
the home and in communications has come concern about potential
effects of radiation on human bodies, especially on genetic material —
the DNA — of cells.
Although the researchers emphasize that microwave ovens are care
fully manufactured and sealed, their studies will determine what
would happen if one of the ovens hypothetically “sprang a leak.”
., Tfre Air Force is funding the $57,000 research project by Dr, Martin
L. Meltz, assistant professor of radiology, to study the effects of micro-
waves on the DNA repair process in human cells.
Meltz said he believes that DNA’s normal ability to repair itself
when damaged may be affected in the presence of radio frequency
radiation, specifically that energy absorbed by a cell may cause
microscopic heating and vibrations that interfere with the DNA
repair process.
“Damage to the DNA in reproductive cells, if not repaired correctly,
could cause birth defects in future generations,” he said. “Damage to
DNA in other cells in the body, if not repaired correctly, might lead to
cancer. ”
As the first step in his experiments, Meltz said he would use ultra
violet light to damage DNA in normal human cells grown in a test tube.
Then, while the cells normally would be repairing the damage, he will
expose them to microwaves.
The rate and amount of repair then will be measured to determine
whether microwaves have affected the cells’ ability to repair their own
DNA.
While the Air Force is interested in the effects of radio frequency
radiation for operational reasons, there also is concern because of the
proposed use of microwaves in satellite power systems designed to
bring energy back to earth from space.
Meltz said the likelihood of people being exposed to microwaves is
increasing. In addition to ovens, microwave generators are used in
communications equipment, radar and medical diathermy units.
“Scientists have tried for years to detect possible microwave radia
tion damage at levels not producing measurable heating,” he said. “In
cases like these, it’s ‘innocent until proven guilty.’”
Meltz is conducting the research in collaboration with Dr. David
Erwin, a research physiologist at the School of Aerospace Medicine,
Brooks Air Force Base.
Maintenance of human cells and preparation of chemical solutions
are done at the Health Science Center. Damage to the cells by ultra
violet light and their subsequent exposure to microwaves are per
formed at Brooks because of the base’s outstanding microwave irradia
tion facilities, which Meltz described as “among the best in the world. ”
Work boat accident caused
fire on offshore platform
United Press International
NEW ORLEANS — Marathon
Oil Co. officials said it will take sev
eral days to determine the cause for
sure, but the Coast Guard said a
workboat accident is to blame for a
fire aboard a multimillion dollar
offshore oil and gas rig.
The fire forced 42 crew members
to evacuate the rig and seven were
hurt, none seriously.
Cmdr. Stewart Walker, a Coast
Guard investigator, Monday said the
fire started Sunday after the supply
boat Gulf Fleet No. 10 bumped into
a pipeline feeding natural gas from
the platform to shore.
The fire, which burned more than
six hours, scorched and twisted the
75-foot by 110-foot steel rig.
Marathon operated the rig, located
in 220 feet of water 200 miles south
west of New Orleans.
Work crews and investigators
boarded the rig Monday. Wes West-
gaard, a Marathon spokesman, said
the company would not confirm the
Coast Guard report.
“The assessment process will con
tinue for two to three days,” he said.
“We’re still trying to determine the
cause. ”
The upper levels of the rig were
tilted sideways by the accident.
“It was involved pretty heavy with
fire,” Westgaard said. “A lot of steel
has been melted and it is sagging.
We don’t think it could fall over.”
Walker said the Coast Guard did
not know if the supply boat was
approaching the rig or departing
when the accident happened. The
boat moved away after the fire
started and was undamaged.
“Apparently the vessel hit and
ruptured a gas transmission line,” he
said. “The gas escaped and was
ignited from the stacks on the
vessel.”
Westgaard said emergency equip
ment sealed the 24 oil and gas wells
on the platform.
r
Buy it in Battalion Classified
845-2611
theless fear cancer more. Cancer
awareness, high for years, has inten
sified with recent reports of the prog
ress of some patients treated with
interferon, a substance discovered
23 years ago but whose amino acid
composition remains a mystery.
The body secretes tiny amounts of
interferon when infected by certain
types of viruses. Researchers must
extract it from living cells and there
are four known different kinds of in
terferon.
Scientists doing research on the
substance stress that its use still is
strictly experimental — that no one
is claiming it is a cure for cancer,
simply that it seems to have some
effect on some cancers, and that its
side effects are still largely unknown.
One of the nation’s leading inter
feron researchers, Dr. Jordan Gut-
terman of M.D. Anderson Hospital
and Tumor Institute, said every na
tional news article on interferon
prompts 50,000 calls to physicians
from patients and relatives of cancer
victims.
To oilman Davis, the problem is “a
question of money. ”
“Up to the discovery and clinical
use of interferon, if a man had a bil
lion dollars he could go to the finest
doctor in the world and say, ‘cure
me,’ and if the doctor was honest,
he’d have to give his money back
because there was no hope,” Davis
said.
However, scientists say it isn’t
simply a case of “if we had money, we
could buy interferon. ” There is more
money available to buy interferon
than there is interferon to buy.
If Davis and oilman acquaintance
Roy Huffington are successful in rais
ing $20 million through the non
profit Interferon Foundation in the
next two years, that would be more
than three times the $5.8 million the
American Cancer Society has allo
cated to acquire interferon in two
years.
“The $5.8 million has not been ex
pended for the simple reason that
the interferon is so hard to come by,”
said spokesman Charles Dahle of the
Cancer Society’s single largest re
search commitment. “You can’t get
it.”
But Davis and Dahle agree money
might prime the interferon pump.
“One psychological reason for hav
ing money in the pot is to show a
market is there to spur production so
that the stuff becomes availat
Dahle said.
“The foundation is gearei
ly to give money so interferone
purchased,” Davis said. “Were
trying to synthesize it. Thatisale
process the pharmaceutical
are all doing. A huge raceisonto
who can do it first and we're’s®
will be done.”
The scientists report
has some effect on some kindsoL
cers, causing reduction in tis
masses in certain cases, but#
effects are not fully known,
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