H ne Ira Tl 7: features February 24, 1 Scientists inspect rattles Testing protects infants United Press International GAITHERSBURG, Md. — At a federal compound once used to protect the nation’s capital from enemy missiles, re searchers now work to guard in fants against unsafe rattles, and everyone from hazardous toas ters. The facility is the Consumer Product Safety Commission's engineering laboratory. Each year it tests as many items as can be found in a department store catalogue. “We like to consider ourselves the backbone of the commission,” said William Wal ton, the CPSC’s engineering di rector who oversees the lab. “We are also its technical integrity.” Over the past decade the CPSC has ordered 3,100 recalls involving 290 million product units. It has also imposed stan dards on countless other pro ducts designed to prevent injury and death. The lab is housed in six stark cinclerblock buildings on a roll ing 8-acre site 20 miles from Washington, D.C. Researchers opened shop in 1976, three years al ter the CPSC was created and several years af ter the compound was vacated by its previous tenant, a Nike missile base. Inside the buildings, en gineers and technicians use technological wizardry and old- fashioned common sense to dis sect, probe and explore every thing from teddy bears and lawnmowers to coffee makers and 10-speed bicycles. Their tools vary. They have Rube Goldberg- type contraptions, such as one with thread, tiny weights and a timing device, to test a material’s flammability. A NEW CLASS IN STUDENT LIVING! • compact, efficient space • 3 minutes from campus • security/covered parking • washer/dryer in every unit • CHANCE FOR FREE TRIP TO EUROPE* (* subject to total occupancy) 846-8960 They have a bevy of calibra tors, including one to gauge the sharpness of a toy truck. Manuel Ratios spends his days in a brightly colored lab that looks like a small kindergar ten classroom. He specializes in safety for children. lot of people.” Many studies, however, are initiated after someone already has been hurt or even killed. The lab examined a playpen in which a child suffocated. It concluded such playpens should carry labels warning against placing a youngster in the device if any of its four sides are down. For more than a year the lab has been examining increasingly popular chain saws, trying to re duce the estimated 28,()()() in juries a year attributed to the tools. “There is an intrinsic reward for what we do,” said Ratios. “We know we are protecting a During the past two years the CPSC’s staff has been cut by ab out a third as a result of White House budget cuts. The lab now has 23 people and an annual budget of $1 million. Lab director William West said motivation remains high despite budget cuts. “There is a real sense of mis sion out here,” he said. DIETING? 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Video games teach si and strategy, prof sa United Press international Children are belter oil play- Mock, Tn vidt United Press International SYRACUSE. N Y. — Parents concerned about their youngs ters spending hour upon hour playing Pac Man, Defender, Tron, or some other popular video game should relax, a Syra cuse University communic ations expert says., Children are lx*ttei off plac ing video games than they are watching television, said George Comstock, author of" 1 ele vision and Human Behavior." "T here’s more to be con cerned about violence on televi sion and in films than there is about video games,” said Com stock, “In video gaiml dealing with soaa/fpf conflict and rules, learK to play games better, < not such a bad thine. GRADUATES DIPLOMA FRAMING Starting at $23.81 Your choice of metal or wood frame J-'rornwg 923 Texas 775-9292 Lay-a-way now for graduation Limited quantities after April 15th. "Granted there arel other aspects, suchastP might play them too id that thev might deiek; I )i (rhleins or something® hut soil develop problenT vou do too much of and Comstock said he I \ ideo games would ben uel ie ial il theveiicoura^ tc-i cooperation between® pla\ers rather thanone