features
Battalion/Page 5B
February 24, 1983
KJ Tear of toxic chemicals is risinsr
O
m
Institute studies poison problems
United Press International
EW YORK — One of the
lushrooming problems of
American industry today is the
Chemical toxicity of many mate
rials and products.
■A case in point is the current
dispute between the steel mills
hd the plastics companies over
he alleged poisoning potential
if plastic pipes and electric con-
pts, particularly over fumes
Based if the plastic pipe
pins.
I Although it is not directly
ncerned with the plastic pipe
tspnte, the Chemical Industry
Institute of Toxicity in Raleigh,
N.C., active since 1976, is en
gaged in wide-based research
paid for by some two-score ma
jor chemical companies to deter
mine which chemicals are most
likely to involve industrial com
panies in serious pollution and
public health problems.
“CUT is not an adversary in
stitution,” said its president. Dr.
Robert A. Neal. “We don’t take
cases to defend companies
against specific allegations that
the chemical substances they use
are harmful to workers or their
products are harmful to con
sumers.
That is left up to the manu
facturers themselves, he said.
CUT engages in basic, inde
pendent research on the toxicity
of chemical and other physical
substances.
Since, in interpreting the fed
eral Toxic Substance Control
Act of 1976, the Environmental
Protection Agency listed 43,()()()
such substances, the priority
problem is enormous. These
43,()()() substances don’t include
finished combination products
in food, cosmetics, drugs and
pesticides. The institute does
not test proprietary compounds.
Despite the huge number of
substances listed as potentially
poisonous, Neal said no one
knows for sure how many che
mical substances really are high
risk for workers or consumers.
In its work up to now, Neal
said, CUT has given higher
priority to hazards to workers
than hazards to consumers.
That’s probably because work
ers are better organized than
consumers and their claims for
protection and compensation
present a more direct threat to
manufacturers.
“The goal,” Neal said, “is to
present industry and the scien
tific world with impartial evi
dence about the potential toxic
ity of materials so manufactur
ers won’t rush into new products
unaware of potential poisoning
and pollution problems.”
Because of the comparative
paucity of current knowledge of
toxicology, Neal said, industry
faces a severe regulatory bot
tleneck in the development of
new and useful chemicals and
consumer products, and even in
the use of chemicals now avail
able.
ew UT telescope may help
ASA with space exploration
United Press International
WIS MOUNTAINS —
ond earth's obscure corner
| star-packed spiral arm of the
|ky Way, the universe and its
eciets stretch out in all direc-
kins — perhaps even beyond
nlgination.
But if the universe has an
dge, as many scientists believe,
he first glimpse of it may come
rim two new scientif ic tools —
NASA’s orbiting space telescope
ind, if approved by University
if Texas of f icials, a land-based
descope on a desolate moun-
dJ.SchirnWiiifitop in west Texas.
jAbout $1 million in private
lunations has already been col-
1 ected to expand UT’s McDo-
11 laid Observatory, located on
Totirni t [ oim , Locke in the Davis
2 t0 fountains, by adding a 300-
jounial' nT telescopic mirror on nearby
dount Livermore.
■ The McDonald telescope
ould be the world’s largest and
lave the capability of seeing
vents that took place soon af ter
'he cosmos' Big Bang birth some
15 pillion years ago.
■ “Astronomy has enriched
>ur lives and given us a proper
since of perspective,” said Dr.
Frit/ Benedict, a research scien
tist at UT’s astronomy depart
ment. “Humans have always
Bn anxious about what’s out
there.”
■The UT Board of Regents
will decided within the next few
months whether to approve the
Now
you know
United Press International
Being late for dates or
appointments is the most com
mon signal that a man wants to
Break off a relationship, savs a
sex therapist and magazine col
umnist.
■Writing in the March issue of
Clamour, Dr. Avodah K. Of fit
says other signals are changes in
the expected schedule of meet
ings. subtle shifts in topics of
n o^umversation and a dif ferent
V —^attitude toward lovemaking.
project, which will eventually
cost $45 million, Benedict said.
The telescope could be func
tional by 1988, making it a valu
able research tool to be used in
conjuction with the space tele
scope, due for launch in 1985.
The space telescope, while
much smaller than land-based
The McDonald tele
scope would be the
world’s largest and have
the capability of seeing
events that took place
soon after the cosmos’
Big Bang birth some 15
billion years ago.
telescopes, will be able to peer
seven times farther into the uni
verse — from 2 billion light
years to about 14 billion light
years. (A light year is the dis
tance that light, traveling at ab
out 186,()()() miles per second,
travels in one year).
The space telescope will have
the advantage of working out
side the earth’s atmosphere,
which interferes with the ability
of land-based telescopes to see
faint, distant objects clearly,
even in optimum viewing condi
tions.
“It will allow us to see that
fuzzy blob with clarity,” Be
nedict said.
But, “the space telescope will
not solve all our problems,” he
said. “More likely, it will raise
more questions that it will
answer. There will be a growing
role for McDonald’s (after the
space telescope is in place). Any
telescope we build on the
ground will not be wasted.”
With its huge mirror, the
McDonald telescope will be able
to collect more light over longer
periods of time. And it is the
information contained in
photons of light that gives away
the secrets of distant stars.
By collecting what Benedict
calls “buckets of light,” scientists
can better deduce a star’s tem
perature, distance and velocity.
The telescopes will search for
quasars — highly energetic ob
jects that might have been
formed during the Big Bang
and which travel near the speed
of light.
By studying stars that seem to
be orbiting an invisible twin, the
telescopes may find further evi
dence of black holes - areas of
densely-packed space that seem
to be nothing but pure gravity.
Scientists already have disco
vered a prime candidate near a
star called Cygnus X-l, which
appears to orbit a non-existant
neighbor.
Benedict said he hopes the
telescopes will also find new con
figurations of galaxies or catch
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the evolutionary process of a
new star.
“The scopes will raise the cur
tain on the golden age of galax
ies,” he said. “The biggest hope
with the 300-inch, is to set it on a
piece of the sky for perhaps a
month. We may see a new galaxy
in formation or a super nova
(exploding star) event."
Benedict explained that the
most distant objects in space are
the oldest ones. Therefore, to
look at light f rom such objects is
to look back in time.
“We will come full circle,” he
said. “Physicists are moving to
ward a basic understanding of
matter. As our telescopes push
back in time, we may eventually
find what happened during the
first few seconds of the uni
verse.”
Finally, the telescopes may be
able to provide scientists with in
direct evidence of extraterrest
rial life by determining the fre
quency of planets in the uni
verse.
“Are planets a rarity? If so.
we are a rarity,” Benedict said.
“It will be very important to see
planets orbiting around other
stars.”
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