White House takes grim
perspective on therapy ad
WASHINGTON (AP) — White
House officials are not happy about a
full-page newspaper advertisement
showing President Clinton in an ad
for physical therapists. “Could physi
cal therapy help you?” the ad asks.
The ad, run by the American
Physical Therapy Association in
USA Today, shows Clinton in a
wheelchair after knee surgery, on
crutches and then walking nor
mally. “Now, after a little more
than two months of treatment by
physical therapists, Bill Clinton is
walking again. Looking good, Mr.
President,” it said. “Could physi
cal therapy help you?”
Actually, the president is using a
cane these days.
“It’s against White House policy
to use the image of the president
for the endorsement of a product,
regardless of its merits,” presiden
tial spokes
woman April
Mellody said.
Mellody said
the White House
counsel’s office
probably would
write a letter to
the therapists’
association. “The
counsel’s office
takes a dim view
of it,” she said.
The ad was a one-time advertise
ment “on physical therapy and Pres
ident Clinton’s recovery,” said associ
ation spokeswoman Alexis Waters.
Another spokeswoman, Pearson
Brown, said she did not think anyone
sought White House permission.
The White House said the cost
of the president’s care is ap
proaching $7,000.
Clinton
The Battalion
Classified
To place a classified ad: Phone: 845-0569 / Fax: 845-2678
Office: Room 015 (basement) Reed McDonald Building
Business Hours
8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday through Friday
Insertion deadline: 1 p.m. prior business day
Mi
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Tuesday - June 3,1997
FDA proposes crackdown on
ephedrine dietary supplements
Miracle drugs linked to
at least 17 deaths
WASHINGTON (AP) — After at least 17 deaths
and 800 illnesses linked to ephedrine-laced di
etary supplements, the government said Mon
day it will crack down on the pills, tablets and teas
that promise to help people lose weight, build
muscle and feel more energetic.
The Food and Drug Administration plans to
dramatically cut the dose of the herbal stimulant
that can be put into any dietary supplement, and
to ban the marketing of ephedrine-containing
products as weight-loss or bodybuilding agents.
In addition, many of the supplements would
bear warnings that too much of the product can
kill, the FDA announced.
No one with heart disease, high blood pres
sure or neurologic disorders should use
ephedrine supplements because the ampheta
mine-like stimulant can cause heart attack,
stroke, seizure or death, the FDA said.
But the FDA found case after case of previous
ly healthy young people who were injured after tak
ing ephedrine supplements, so it proposed new
regulations Monday that would affect how dozens
of brands are manufactured and marketed.
“Consumers should be aware that just because
a product is labeled ‘natural’ or from an herbal
source, it is not guaranteed to be safe,” said Dr.
Michael Friedman, FDA’s acting commissioner.
The FDA didn’t go as far as Florida and New
York, which banned ephedrine supplements af
ter pills with such names as Herbal Ecstacy and
Ultimate Xphoria promised a “natural high.” The
bans came when a 20-year-old college student
died after taking Ultimate Xphoria last year.
The FDA already had moved to stop companies
from promoting supplements as alternatives to il
legal drugs. But Monday’s proposals cover tradi
tional dietary supplements sold in health-food
shops, convenience stores and gyms.
“The industry recognizes that the safety issues
surrounding ephedra need to be effectively ad
dressed,” acknowledged the Council for Respon
sible Nutrition. However, the industry group said
some of the proposals go beyond its own recom
mendations and will need further evaluation.
Ephedrine has a long history of safety, countered
Nutri/System Inc., the weight-loss chain that sells
“herbal phen-fen,” a supplement alternative to the
diet pill phen-fen. Nutri/System’s pill, to be taken
daily, contains 40 milligrams of ephedrine, above the
24-milligram dose the FDA set Monday as safe.
“Our clients like it. We have had no prob
lems,” said Nutri/System spokesman Joseph
DiBartolomeo.
The FDA detailed how a previously healthy 23-
year-old Boston college student used an ephedrine-
containing “protein drink” for bodybuilding for twi
years. One day he dropped dead because, the con
ner ruled, the drink killed portions of his heart.
A 35-year-old woirum had a heart attack after US'
ing ephedrine-containing pills for about 11 day:
and a 35-year-old man took just five capsules befo;
a workout and had a heart attack, the FDA added
Ephedrine also sells under the names Ml
huang, Chinese ephedra and epitonin. It is a
compound extracted from plants and used for
centuries by Chinese practitioners as a medidne. 1
But a 1994 law forbids the FDA to control di- *
etary supplements unless a particular one provi
dangerous. Monday, the FDA called ephedrinl
supplements dangerous, and proposed:
—Banning supplements with more than 8 mil
ligrams of ephedrine or related alkaloids perse
ing, and setting the maximum daily dose at 24 mi
ligrams, limiting some supplements calling for use
to ingest up to 109 milligrams in a single sitting.
—Prohibiting use of ephedrine products for
more than seven days. That would essentially:
ban ephedrine weight-loss or bodybuilding sup
plements, because getting those purported
health effects requires weeks of use.
—Require many supplements to warn: “Tak
ing more than the recommended serving may re
sult in heart attack, stroke, seizure or death.”
—Banning caffeine or other stimulants in
combination with ephedrine.
Shabazz grips to life; grandson held for questioning
YONKERS, N.Y. (AP) — Mal
colm X’s widow fought for her life
Monday after being burned over
most of her body in a fire allegedly
set by her grandson, described by
a family lawyer as “a sad little boy”
with a troubled past.
Betty Shabazz was in critical
condition with third-degree bums
over 80 percent of her body.
“The injuries are catastrophic.
She is in a life-threatening situation
and will be for a long period of
time,” said Dr. Bruce Greenstein at
Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx.
Shabazz, 63, was sedated, on a
ventilator and receiving fluid re
placement. Artificial skin grafts
may be considered if her vital signs
remain stable, but until the
wounds are covered with new skin,
she is in danger of going into
shock, Greenstein said.
Her 12-year-old grandson,
named Malcolm for his famous
grandfather, appeared briefly in
court Monday and was held in a ju
venile detention center, charged
with juvenile delinquency.
Family lawyer Percy Sutton told
the judge he needed the consent of
the boy’s mother to continue rep
resenting him, and the judge
agreed to postpone the hearing
until Tuesday. The mother, Qubi-
ATF credibility
attacked by
judges, agents
WASHINGTON (AP)—Still on the
rebound from Waco and the Good Of
Boys Roundup, the Bureau of Alco
hol, Tobacco and Firearms now is en
during attacks on its integrity from
judges and its own agents.
In criminal and civil cases,
judges have concluded ATF wit
nesses were not credible, had
“failed to adhere to the high ethi
cal standards expected of federal
law enforcement” and had shown
a “reckless disregard for the truth.”
Four months ago, a former infor
mant won the return of his gun deal
er’s licenses after producing a tape
recording that conflicted with the
testimony of an ATF supervisor. The
agency knew about the tape but
continued to stand by the testimo
ny in court filings.
And during a training seminar at
headquarters in Washington, a train
ing supervisor declared that agents “al
ways testify’” in court that the agency’s
firearms registration database is 100
percent accurate “even though we
know that isn’t always the case.”
None of the agents involved in a
dozen cases in which questions of
credibility were raised has ever been
disciplined, according to a review by
The Associated Press.
The agency says such incidents are
isolated given the thousands of cases
it handles — involving violent gun
runners, gang members and bombers
— and that they are being blown out
of proportion because of the recent
negative spotlight cast on the bureau.
ATF agents were cited in 1996
for events that included drunken
ness and racist behavior at gather
ings dubbed Good OF Boys
Roundups in Tennessee. And sev
eral were reprimanded for the 1993
botched raid on the Branch David-
ian compound at Waco, Texas. In
the latter, the government con
cluded ATF supervisors made false
statements to cover up errors.
lah Shabazz, was due to arrive
from Texas on Monday night.
Malcolm wore jeans and a sweat
shirt, sitting calmly between Sutton
and a psychiatrist who is a family
friend. He gave his name as “Mal
colm,” and said nothing else.
Sutton said Malcolm “is a sad
little boy. He’s a child, just a child
who’s been through a lot of trau
ma in his life. He loves his grand
mother very much and he ex
pressed that love for her. He said
how sorry he is.”
Malcolm was arrested a few
hours after the fire erupted in his
grandmother’s apartment in
Yonkers, just north of New York City.
He was found walking in nearby
Mount Vernon, his clothes smelling
of gasoline. Gas was used in the fire
and police were investigating
whether Shabazz encountered
flames in the hallway outside her
apartment or if she was set afire.
Thirty-two years ago, Shabazz
witnessed the assassination of her
husband at the Audubon Ballroom
in Harlem. Qubilah Shabazz, then
4, also saw her father gunned
down on Feb. 21, 1965.
After her husband’s death,
Shabazz went on to raise six
daughters and to become a uni
versity administrator and spokes-
u T .
It pains us
deeply to see what
happened. She is a
great fighter, a great
fighter.”
Coretta Scott King
Widow of civil rights
leader Martin Luther King
woman for civil rights.
Coretta Scott King, widow of
civil rights leader Martin Luther
King Jr., prayed at Shabazz’s bed
side on Monday. Shabazz did not
speak, but King said she felt "a re
sponse without words.”
“It pains us deeply to see what
happened,” she said. “She is a great
fighter, a great fighter.”
NAACP Chairwoman Myrlie
Evers-Williams, widow of slain civil
rights leader Medgar Evers, called
her “one of my dearest friends.”
“Betty Shabazz has not been giv
en the amount of credit she de
serves in shaping America’s civil
rights movement. She has been a
source of strength and encourage
ment not only to myself but to mil
lions of Americans,” Evers-Williams
said in a statement.
Shabazz had long believed that
Nation of Islam leader Louis Far-
rakhan played a role in her husband's
assassination. The two reconciled in
1995 — the same year Qubiiah was
indicted for allegedly plotting to hire
a hit man to kill Farrakhan.
Farrakhan denied any role in
Malcolm X’s death. Three men with
ties to the Nation oflslam were con
victed in the assassination.
The charges against Qubilah
Shabazz were dropped last month
under an agreement that required
her to undergo drug treatment.
Malcolm Shabazz lived with his
mother in San Antonio for Five
months earlier this year, but she had
recently sent him to his grand
mother’s house in Yonkers.
Police reports in Texas show a
half-dozen calls over the past two
years about Qubilah Shabazz, often
alleging drunkenness.
Two recent calls concerned Mai
colm. In February, his mother told po
lice he attacked her and that she want
ed him committed to a mental
hospital. Malcolm in turn told police
he was “angry because Qubilah had
been drinking again.”
Jury selection proceeds slowly in
flight attendants’ smoke lawsuit
MIAMI (AP) — jury selection began haltingly
Monday in a $5 billion class-action lawsuit filed
on behalf of 60,000 flight attendants who say sec
ondhand smoke in the cabin
made them sick.
Lawyers asked prospective
jurors their views on the dan
gers of secondhand smoke and
whether smoking should re
main legal as they tried to agree
on six jurors and an undeter
mined number of alternates for
the first secondhand smoking
case to come to trial.
Trial participants had hoped
to deal with 50 potential jurors
called Monday out of a pool of
250 candidates, but had dis
missed or reserved only 25 by
midafternoon. Fifteen were re
leased immediately based on an-
swers to a questionnaire and another seven were
dismissed after individual questioning.
“It’s going a lot slower than I thought it would go,” Cir
cuit Judge Robert Kaye conceded.
The defendants plan to call two former U.S. sur
geons general and several doctors to testify about
the health effects of secondhand smoke.
I could have
quit my job if I
thought secondhand
smoke was going to
hurt somebody.”
Rejected juror and
smoking dredge worker
The tobacco industry denies that credible ev
idence exists to prove secondhand smoke causes
any disease and says it had no duty to warn at
tendants of any danger.
One rejected jury candidate, a
dredge worker who smokes,
called concern over secondhand
smoke “nonsense.” Asked if he
believes it can cause disease, he
said he didn’t think so.
“I could have quit my job if I
thought secondhand smoke was
going to hurt somebody,” he said.
The names of jurors are se
cret, and the only public infor
mation about them comes
from courtroom question-and-
answer sessions.
A female smoker, who quit
temporarily because “I got to
coughing and I didn’t like that,"
said people who think on-the-job secondhand
smoke makes them sick should find other work. She
was not immediately dismissed from the pool.
Lawyers did reject a college student who said air
lines, not tobacco companies, were responsible for
smoke on their jets, as well as a minister who said
smoking “appears to be unhealthy.... It’s a sin.”
By Quatro