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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 28, 1984)
Tuesday August 28, 1984/ r The Battalion/Page 3B y he co^| noniMist bee « ma^ se system system n n serve a. '^ters,^ es. her e sun j ? ’I'e device. Imittohav,; tuse they fee idicapped. enial prot almost > l>e a stig® >SS. People ding attap ’son." p the average tearing | eforeadmi loti «i; ces that >eople to tet a g hfe.espec erson tuntt *, itcotnpb e said. “I ce to the ■e have ait ration fatii romy and >u can intap under whet o heariy 3ns Ion ted States n decried er this yen lions on Ci ction, ale :nt to den • aircraft! vinced thsti is not cr«B Wooden car may be boon for Third World United Press International NAIROBI — A car made of tim ber and epoxy resin, cautiously ter mite-proof, just may be the better mousetrap that British engineer and part-time dreamer Tony Howarth set out to design. The Africar is wood sculpted into a durable, fairly attractive conventio nal-looking auto body. Howarth claims it gets 40 miles to the gallon and insists it is no passing fad. He believes his “sort of strange- looking wooden vehicle” is the an swer to the monstrous cost of motor ing in the developing world. “I set out to build a better mouse trap: a better mousetrap capable of handling bad roads, mud and sand,” he said. “There is nothing clever about it. It is a vehicle designed for manufacture in the Third World. “I don’t like to call it a wooden car. It is not back-stepping. In fact it makes a Mercedes-Benz, or Porsche, or Volvo look like last century’s product,” the bearded designer said. The Africar is not only a car but ;an ideal. Howarth, 46, will only part with the technology providing the car is built in the Third World. After a decade in Africa he knows some of the roots of the continent’s prob lems. By the time the Africar’s wooden frame and kitchen-cupboard-like in terior are ready for production in 1986, Howarth estimates he will be in debt $5 million for design and de velopment — mostly to his “friendly neighborhood bank.” There are three Africar designs. Howarth said he expects the one based on the Land Rover to cost about $2,000 to produce. In Kenya, a real Land Rover sells for close to $80,000, including nearly 200 per cent import duty and taxes. Along with its tiny price tag, the Africar can be produced now with 50 percent local imput in the devel oping world, Howarth claims. As an added bonus, minor damage can be repaired with a saw and glue. Designed with high clearance for rough ground and an extra-wide wheelbase, the Africar now uses a Citroen engine although Howarth has nearly completed his own design for both gasoline and diesel engines. Howarth claims that the cars with wooden chassis, steering racks and interiors have tested far beyond ex pectation. Bright orange prototypes of the three versions — a six-wheel, 17-pas- senger car capable of being trans formed into an ambulance, a four- wheel six-passenger Land Rover type and a two-passenger pickup truck — completed a 18,750-mile test drive from northern Sweden to Nairobi along some of the worst tracks that Africa calls roads. The five-month drive ended July 23 in Nairobi. “There wasn’t a road — be it mud, ice, snow, sand — that could beat us,” said Howarth. “The biggest problems were suici dal reindeer in Sweden and camels in the Sahara,” said co-driver Caro lyn Hicks, 39, a film editor from Ha waii and a co-director of the Africar Project. Despite its wooden frame, “crash tests” nave proved the car durable and, in some instances at slower speeds, more damage-resistant than metal. But it is its potential as a boon to the Third World that excites How arth and company. “This car would not have been possible to make economically five years ago,” he said. But now a com puter-controlled lathe and turner- can grind out all the necessary com ponents for 5,000 Africars per year. The basic components of the car ~ are cut into 200 patterns from 320 pieces of west African marine wood worth about $65. Resin to stick the car together costs about $30. The engine and gear box can be built in a Third World country on existing machines costing about $500,000 each, Howarth says. For a total investment of about $5 million, a developing country could produce 5,000 cars that would normally cost about $40 million to import, he said. “We are looking to put the future into Africa — reverse the trend,” he said. “It is a vehicle designed for manufacture in Africa and the Third World.” He expects the first production of Africars to be rolling out of Fiji in the Pacific within two years. The Af ricar would then be exported to Aus tralia and New Zealand. Howarth says he is close to clinch ing franchise deals in Uganda, Zim babwe and Nigeria. More than 90 business concerns in 30 countries have expressed serious interest in building the Africar. “I even received a telephone call from the president of Colombia asking about it,” Howarth said. Dentists told to protect against AIDS United Press International SAN FRANCISCO — Dentists were told Sunday to use precaution ary “barrier” techniques — wearing safety glasses, masks, gowns and gloves — when treating patients sus pected of suffering from the disease AIDS. “These precautions are in line with the management of many infec tious diseases and are specific guidelines for suspected or known viral hepatitis patients,” Sol Silver- man of the University of California at San Francisco School of Dentistry told a scientific session of the Cali fornia Dental Association. Silverman said all instruments and materials used while treating someone believed to have AIDS should be appropriately sterilized or discarded. AIDS — an acronym for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome — is a deadly disease that breaks down the body’s immune system, leaving it vulnerable to viruses. It attacks mainly homosexual males and can be spread by sexual contact. Silverman, a professor and chair man of oral medicine at UCSF, said dentists might also be able to diag nose patients with AIDS by detecting oral lesions caused by cancers like Kaposi’s sarcoma and squkuamos carcinoma, both related to the occur rence of AIDS. The affliction has struck an esti mated 4,000 people nationwide, 95 percent of whom are homosexual men. In San Francisco, 500 cases have been reported and the number is rising. “Although no evidence to date suggests transmission by casual con tact, patient assessment should be made with care because many AIDS patients are asymptomatic; high-risk individuals are numerous and a pre cise definition of AIDS remains somewhat equivocal,” said Silver- Another dentist told the session Saturday that a growing problem of teeth grinding — known as bruxism — is likely psychological or stress-re lated. There is also a strong indica tion that it can be hereditary, said John Rugh, an associate professor of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. “Only about 10 percent of the public recognize they have this prob lem, he said. “However, examina tions in the dental office show signs of teeth grinding in 40-50 percent of our patients." He said tooth grinding can cause teeth wear, tightness and pain in the face and temple, split or fractured teeth, clicking in the chewing joint and soreness of the jaw. It is some times treated by fitting patients with a night guard of plastic worn over ei ther the upper or lower arch, but this still doesn’t prevent grinding, said Rugh. Drug therapy and a biofeedback techniques can be used for treat ment, but they only provide a tem porary solution, he said. “The ideal way, but the hardest, for controlling bruxism is to remove the stress factors that cause it,” Rugh said. “Often this means a change in lifestyle — finding a new job or re solving marital disputes. Individual states act on foreign med grads United Press International Here is an explanation of actions taken to regulate licensing of foreign medical graduates in selected states: • The Arkansas Medical Board has licensed a number of doctors who graduated from Caribbean or Mexican colleges, but none from the suspect schools, said Little Rock At torney Robert Mraining. He has since left the state. Four other for eign graduates still are resident doc tors, and two have full-fledged li censes to practice. The board has drawn up a new rule that requires graduates of for eign medical schools to complete a medical training program equivalent to the one at the University of Kan sas Medical School. • Licenses of eight resident doc tors in Missouri who attended CE- TEC or CIFAS were terminated ear lier this summer by the Missouri Board of Registration of the Healing Arts. • In Texas, medical authorities reversed themselves on the issue. The State Board of Medical Examin ers voted in July not to issue licenses to graduates of any Caribbean or Mexican school, pending an investi gation. Then the Texas board, on legal advice, lifted the blanket mora torium. 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