Tuesday, March 22, 1983AThe Battalion/Page 5 State Capitol fire lamed on TV set United Press International USTIN — State Attorney General Jim Mattox Monday blamed a defective television set for the Feb. 6 fire in the easi wing of the State Capitol ATi which killed one and injured [J selen. I Mattox said his office will file a products liability dam age suit against the manufac turer and retailer of the faulty television set. The television set was manufactured by Zenith 'ood&'Gnj. Radio Corp. and purchased new by the Senate on Oct. 2(i. *11 d 1982, from G&M Television Inc. in Austin, Mattox said. He said evidence gathered during his investigation of the blaze which began in Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby’s apartment indi cates that the fire originated in the one corner of the lib rary and spread to other areas. A guest in the apartment was killed in the fire which in jured six firefighters and one security guard. Hobby’s daughter, Kate, and two other guests were able to flee the apartment. Damage to the building was estimated at $500,000. “The television set was the only electrical appliance lo cated in that corner of the lib rary,” Mattox said. “Accord ing to our investigation, the fire burned through the 8- foot ceiling of the library up to the old 18-foot ceiling,” he said. Three weeks after the fire, the Legislature approved a $7 million appropriation to re pair the damage and begin re storation work. is $50 dpi EPA charged with coverup 'd to tea Kail Cl Toy use, not design meld accident cause y groi lion art Hie flat nicipant I the At one tea uttion b or for it ionatffl uilding: Thene noon or ?e c/i igorgama dinnerm urge in Naw ■4321 in H United Press International ^■ALLAS — A toy manufac turing official says the most de fective items in America’s toy stofes are the parents who buy them. K)oiig Thomson, president of the New York based Toy Manu facturing Association, says a lack oMisdonl in buying toys and a lack of supervision when chil dren play w ith them led to more accidents than defects in the toys themselves. ^■‘VVe’ve dealt with this issue (toy safety) for five years in the TMA, and I’m convinced it is no issue at all,” Thomson said at the opening seminar of the Dallas Toy Show Sunday. “Most manu facturers have well designed, safe toys that meet (Consumer Product Safety Commission) standards. ^■‘The issue is not toy design but toy use, and the commission isbeginning to see that, too. It is beginning to look at how toys are selected by parents and what happens to them in the child’s hands.” ftthomson said he felt some parents were not using good judgment in selecting toys for their children based on manu facturers’ age recommenda tions. He said, for instance, a pa rent of a 3-year-old might buy a toy suggested for 5- to 8-year- olds with the idea the child will grow r into it. He said, however, toys manu factured for 3-year-olds are de signed so parts cannot be broken off and sw allowed, but that toys for older children have more sophisticated designs that could be a hazard if played with by a younger child. “You should not give a young child an older child’s toy,” he said. Thomson.said parent super vision was the key in families with children of varying ages. He said parents should do better at making sure youngsters are not left alone for long periods in which they could get themselves into trouble. As an example, he indicated that by later this year companies producing toy chests may be re quired to equip the lids with springloaded hinges. He said re cently the CPSC had received re ports of babies falling into toy chests and having the lid fall down and entrap them. “The answer is keeping young children from being alone in a room, unsupervised, for extended periods,” he said. Nevertheless, as a result of those accidents, Thomson said, about 84 percent of America’s toy manufacturers already were putting 67 -cent spring hinges on boxes to prevent lids from fall ing accidently. He said by November he expected 100 per cent voluntary compliance. Thomson also complained that while most defective toys in the $6 billion wholesale industry could be traced to foreign pro ducers, the vast majority of the product safety enforcement rests with domestic companies. He said of the 41 recent re calls of defective toys, all but a few involved toys produced in Korea, Hong Kong or Shanghai, China, that were not produced according to American stan dards. United Press International DALLAS — Environmental Protection Agency officials co vered up lead contamination E roblems in two Dallas neigh- orhoods in 1981, a former em ployee charged. Dr. Bill McAnalley, an EPA toxicologist from 1979 to 1981, Sunday said he had advised EPA officials in Dallas and in Washington that an immediate cleanup was needed in areas- near smelters in West Dallas and East Oak Cliff. “It’s obvious that they co vered it up,” McAnalley said, “there’s no question in my mind.” One West Dallas smelter firm voluntarily cleaned some con taminated areas, but the EPA has not indicated the need for a full scale cleanup of either that area or the one in Oak Cliff. Allyn Davis, the EPA’s Dallas area official who coordinated much of the agency’s study of lead contamination in the city, said he would not comment on McAnalley’s charges until an in vestigation of the EPA is com pleted by congressional commit tees. Medical experts have linked lead contamination to learning disabilities in children. Rep. Elliott Levitas, D-Ga., said over the weekend his sub committee will begin hearings this week on the EPA’s alleged effort to abort a voluntary cleanup of lead-contaminated soil in the Dallas area. Levitas charged that docu ments and interviews reveal the EPA halted a cleanup of soil which had levels of lead 50 times higher than the allowable limit, even though children were suf fering from lead poisoning. He accused acting EPA administra tor John Hernandez of delaying cleanup of lead contaminated soil near the RSR Corp. facility and another smelter, Dixie Lead Co., for 18 months. Hernandez, who served as de puty director of the agency under Anne Burford, replaced the controversial EPA chief when she resigned two weeks ago. Petal Patch 707 Shopping Village 696-6713 C ollege Station Petal Patch,Too Post DARK SILKS • SE1DEN BRASS Oak Village Hw). 30 764 0091 C ollege Station RUY, StLL.TWAPE OB BENT THHOUOH THE ■- M-H1 d L=l rJT^ Brutality witness / accuses police might dm. Suif ■ United Press International DALLAS — A New Orleans toliceman says a man who laims his civil rights were ibridged asked to be taken into . ;u9ody in handcuffs so his leighbors would not realize he 11 " vas helping in the investigation )f an officer’s slaying. & Stephen Reboul, 29, was the hird defendant to testily in the ederal trial of seven white New submitIDrleans officers accused of con- 16 Reftlfpitacy to beat and illegally jail totential witnesses. 1; Reboul told the jury last week tel accompanied three other )ffic:ers to the Algiers home of ohnny Brownlee the night of Vov. 11, 1980, three days after HryTrilimn Gregory Neupert vas shot to death. ■Brownlee lived down the )lock from where Neupert died, aid police had been told he t night have witnessed the thooting. L “1 had the impression that he Brownlee) definitely knew why ^ 1 ( ' vewere there, and he wanted to P lckl J ,< Reboul said. on , .Mtbut he w'as so scared, he —value room tskfed us to put some handcuffs on him.” Reboul said he never saw Brownlee again after taking him to headquarters, except in court. Brownlee last week testified that a group of officers dragged him from his home, beat him at headquarters and took him to the woods south of Algiers to beat him some more. He identi fied Reboul as having struck him across the face with a pistol in the woods. Brownlee said he lied to stop the beatings, telling officers he had seen two men near Neupert’s patrol car. Those two men were among four people killed by police during arrest raids in the following week. Police defendants John McKenzie and Ronald Brink tes tified last week that they never saw anyone beaten. Each officer could be sent enced to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine if convicted of felony conspiracy. 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