The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, July 09, 1997, Image 1

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    I
Texas A&M University
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*****
Today Tomorrow
See extended forecast, Page 2.
Ilume 103 • Issue 161 • 6 Pages
College Station, TX
Wednesday, July 9, 1997
a doctors fear diet drug may be overprescribed
By Erica Roy
The Battalion
he Mayo Clinic’s warning Tuesday that “fen-phen” may
Je heart and lung damage added to concerns of some
n-College Station health professionals who say the diet-
combination is overprescribed.
istyear in the United States, 18 million people were pre-
1 fen-phen, a combination of the medications fenflu-
Jne and phentermine that helps produce weight loss,
ltd 60 million Americans are considered obese.
Jiarmacist Shannon Griggs, pharmacy manager for the
Clan Supercenter in Bryan, said that 30 percent of the pre-
|ilions that Wal-Mart fills every day is diet medications, in-
iig fen-phen.
triggs said that although fen-phen can be a good drug
Isome people, it is too heavily relied upon by the
p community.
|fs(fen-phen) way overused,” she said. “It should only be
llin cases where it’s a health condition.”
gs also said she has seen fen-phen prescribed to peo-
hoare not extremely obese.
fery person coming off the street is getting it,” she said.
[Michael Ruggiero, D.O., an A&M clinical assistant pro-
ce Dai|°rofcommunity and family medicine and a private prac-
pnga
said.
titioner, said fen-phen should be prescribed when a person
has a body mass index of 37 or greater, which is about 50-75
pounds overweight, and after medical causes of obesity have
been ruled out.
He also said the drug combination is only one part of a
weight loss regimen that includes counseling, diet and exercise.
Ruggiero said the Mayo Clinic study is preliminary, and
although it will not change doctor’s prescribing habits, it
will increase the number of routine health screenings on
the patients who use fen-phen.
“It’s not going to stop me from using the regimen,” he said.
“It’s going to make me a little more cautious in who I use it on.”
He also said that although the study is not definitive, it does
prove that more investigation of the medication is needed.
Dr. Don Freeman, M.D., a physician at the A.P. Beutel
Health Center, said that none of the Beutel physicians pre
scribe fen-phen.
“We really don’t think that’s the answer for most people,”
Freeman said.
He said weight loss drugs are used as a “quick fix,” and
should only be used for people who are extremely overweight.
People can lose weight more effectively through changing eat
ing habits and exercise regiments, he said.
Please see Fen-phen on Page 2.
Study relates ‘fen-phen ’
to heart, lung problems
ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP) —A diet-drug com
bination that is known as “fen-phen” and is taken
by millions of Americans may cause serious heart
and lung damage, the Mayo Clinic and the gov
ernment warned Tuesday.
The Food and Drug Administration began
sending letters to thousands of doctors asking
them to immediately check fen-phen patients
for valve problems and report them to the
agency.
The FDA, which wasn’t connected to the Mayo
Clinic study but independently reviewed the find
ings, stopped short of recommending that people
stop taking the drugs but urged doctors and pa
tients to be “very careful.”
Manufacturers of the drug said the research
was inconclusive, and the president of the
American Obesity Association complained
that the study may panic thousands of fen-
phen users.
He said it is possible that simply being obese
predisposes people to heart valve problems.
“We will be doing a major disservice to the
obese people of this country if this is a false
alarm,” said Dr. Richard Atkinson of the Univer
sity ofWisconsin, who has prescribed fen-phen to
over 300 patients.
“If it is not a false alarm, it should serve to alert
physicians that they shouldn’t be slapping people
who have five to 10 pounds to lose ... on drugs."
Please see Study on Page 2.
ire school hosts classes in Spanish
ons,
Photograph: Sarah Johnson
tents at the Spanish Fire School learn to create a fog curtain to keep heat
yfrom their bodies Monday afternoon at Brayton Fire Field.
By Michelle Newman
The Battalion
Over 700 students are attending the 31 st annual Spanish Fire
School at Brayton Fire Field July 6-11.
This is the largest number of students ever enrolled at the
school, which is geared toward Spanish-speaking students. Mel
ba Lopez, registration clerk for the fire school, said the school
draws from numerous parts of the world.
“Students come not only from the United States, but from all
over the world,” Lopez said. “There are students from Hon
duras, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Mexico and several other Latin
and Central American countries.”
Jose R. Flores, a fire inspector for San Antonio, has worked
with the Spanish Fire School for 20 years. Flores said a majori
ty of the students are not full-time fire personnel.
“I’d venture to say about 90 percent [of the students] are not
firefighters,” Flores said. “Most of them are safety engineers in
charge of fire protection in their respective industries and will
bring information home to teach colleagues.”
C£ T”” -- ””
Where else in the world can you gp
to bring 18 to 20 countries together to
work with one language and be able to
accomplish these courses?”
Johnny G, Economedas
Spanish Fire School staff member
Johnny G. Economedas, a staff member of the Spanish Fire
School, said a diverse number of professions are represented at
the school.
“We have engineers, doctors, lawyers, and nurses here,”
Economedas said. “Doctors and nurses attend the school to learn
about hazardous materials and to understand what firefighters go
through. They also learn about treating people for burns.”
Hazardous Materials I and II, Rescue, and Basic Fire Fight
ing are the classes taught at the school. Instruction begins at a
basic level and progresses throughout the week. All classes are
taught in Spanish.
“Where else in the world can you go to bring 18 to 20 coun
tries together to work with one language and be able to ac
complish these courses?” Economedas said.
Please see School on Page 2.
on Tyner and Casey Possum
living out their dreams
he USA Baseball Team.
See Page 6.
)oks: Space exploration
serves public support to
titinue its goal.
See Page 5.
OPINION
ONLINE
tp://bat-web.tamu,edu
sck out
to other
Winder
pes.
Weims dies
at age 76
Richard E. “Buck” Weirus,
Class of ’42, died of an
aneurysm yesterday around
noon at his College Station
home at the age of 76.
Weirus was a former director
of the Association of Former
Students and a Texas A&M Dis
tinguished Alumni. He is hon
ored with the Buck Weirus Spir
it Award, given annually to
outstanding students.
Weirus is survived by his
daughter, Dianna Burke, and
her husband Ozzie Burke of
Bryan.
Randy Matson, executive
director of the Association of
Former Students, reflected on
his friendship with Weirus.
“I knew him well,” Matson
said. “He was a friend, a men
tor and somebody I looked up
to. He hired and brought me
here. Without him I wouldn’t
be here today.”
Funeral services have not
been scheduled, but burial ser
vices will be held at Fort Sam
Houston in San Antonio.
Weirus will be buried next to
his wife.
Study finds tuition plans help
upper classes more than poor
Texas Tomorrow Fund aidsfamilies in saving for college
AUSTIN (AP) — Funds that al
low parents to pay for a child’s fu
ture college education at today’s
prices tend to help families that
could afford college anyway, while
doing little to help the poor, a new
analysis says.
A study by the American Associ
ation of State Colleges and Univer
sities examined prepaid tuition
plans in several of the 13 states that
have such programs.
Texas is among the states offer
ing contracts to families to save for
college. But data from the Texas
Tomorrow Fund was not cited in
the study.
“Prepaid tuition plans ease col
lege affordability concerns for par
ticipants — primarily middle- and
upper-income families,” the
analysis said. “They are not a
means for increasing access to
higher education — especially for
the neediest students — and do
nothing to address the causes of
rising college costs.”
The results are not surprising,
according to Texas officials.
The Texas Tomorrow Fund was
set up to help middle-class families
save for college, said Sheila Clancy,
a spokeswoman for Texas Comp
troller John Sharp, whose agency
administers the program.
“Rich people don’t have to wor
ry about college, and lower-in-
come people have numerous
sources of income aid,” Clancy
said. “It’s the middle-income peo
ple who have been falling through
the cracks.”
Larry Burt, director of financial
aid at the University of Texas, said,
however, that the amount of aid
available to the needy is not suffi
cient to cover college expenses.
“The problem is, if you go away
to college... you’ve got to pay room
and board, books, transportation
and other costs,” Burt said. “Those
expenses can add up to much more
than the grant funds I have avail
able. Our needy students are still go
ing to have to borrow a substantial
amount of money.”
The Texas Tomorrow Fund pays
for tuition and fees.
The upside is, such programs
spur middle-class people to save ac
tively for college, possibly sooner
than they would have, Burt said.
There is a risk, however.
Taxpayers can get stuck covering
a part of the cost if tuition and fees
escalate higher than expected.
Rock gives hints
of Earth-like Mars
Pathfinderfound evidence that water
was plentiful at time of planet’s birth
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — The
first chemical analysis of a rock on
Mars suggests the dusty world
may have had abundant water at
the time it formed — a vital re
quirement if the red planet was to
develop life as Earth did.
Geologists already know that
water once existed on Mars. On
Monday, Pathfinder scientists pre
sented evidence of massive floods
1 billion to 3 billion years ago. But
the latest evidence hints that wa
ter may have existed there more
than 4 billion years ago, the same
era when life began on Earth.
The findings radioed to scien
tists from the Mars Pathfinder
spacecraft and released Tuesday
suggested the rock — a football
sized specimen nicknamed “Bar
nacle Bill” — may be andesite.
That’s a type of volcanic rock
named for Earth’s Andes Moun
tains, where it is common.
Such a rock could have been
brought to the surface by volcanic
activity or a meteorite impact.
It is too early to tell for certain
that Barnacle Bill is andesite. But
because some types of the rock
only form in the presence of wa
ter, the new results may eventual
ly lead to the demonstration that
early Mars had water in its interi
or, said Allan Treiman, a planetary
scientist at the Lunar and Plane
tary Institute in Houston.
“It completely changes most
people’s views of Mars. Mars be
comes a place that had water from
the beginning and the water was
very active in the planet,” Treiman
said in a telephone interview just
as scientists were finishing a news
conference at NASA’s Jet Propul
sion Laboratory.
After the Sojourner rover spent
10 hours with a small instrument
pressed up against Barnacle Bill,
scientists said it appears to con
tain the mineral quartz.
“This is a real surprise. We were
not expecting a rock of this com
position,” said Hap McSween, a
University of Tennessee specialist
in meteorites who is working with
the Pathfinder team.
A&M students design
drills to look for water
under planet’s surface
By John LeBas
The Battalion
While NASA explores Mars’ environment with the Sojourner rover, Texas
A&M students and faculty are brainstorming ways to search for water below
the planet’s surface.
Dr. Aaron Cohen, chair of the Texas Space Grant Consortium and a pro
fessor in the mechanical engineering department, said senior mechanical
engineering design students worked last semester on ideas on how to drill
into Mars. A drill would be used to find water that may lie hidden under
ground. The classes will work on detailing their plans in the fall.
Cohen, who is a former director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston
and a former deputy administrator of NASA, said finding water on or in Mars
would be one of the most significant discoveries on the red planet.
“If [NASA] did find evidence of moisture or water, I think that would be
just a phenomenal event,” Cohen said. “If water does exist [on Mars], it will
probably be below the surface.”
When Cohen was with NASA, he said, the space agency did not do much
research into Martian drilling. But representatives of both the Johnson Space
Center and the Lunar Planetary Institute suggested such a project to Cohen
following last year’s possible fossil finding in a meteorite from Mars.
The ideas that the MEEN 445 and 446 students generated last spring im
pressed scientists at the Johnson center, Cohen said. This fall, the classes will
try to come up with detailed plans for a drill based on these concepts.
“By the end of next semester, we’ll know if we can [design a feasible drill]
or not," Cohen said.
The students will be “designing to cost,” Cohen said, meaning that a drill
must be planned around size and transportation restrictions.
“We will have a robot that would drill on Mars up to two miles,” Cohen said.
This robot would have to be compact enough to fit on a rocket, limiting
possibilities for design.
Cohen said the earliest a Mars drill could be ready for launch is probably
about two years.
The students have received considerable help from the petroleum engi
neering department, Cohen said, and especially from Jerome Schubert, a
lecturer and graduate student in petroleum engineering.
“We have the best petroleum engineering department in the country,”
he said. “Our best drillers are very interested in this project.”
Cohen said Mars exploration should continue to stoke student interest
in space discovery and technology.
“This actually stimulates students to see that it is real, because that is
eventually what they want to do,” he said.