CAMPUS AND AREA
University Daily Kansan, January 19. 1984
Page
Safeguards against cold can often be poisonous
By DAVID SWAFFORD Staff Reporter
WARNING: The University of Kansas Medical Center's Mid-America Poison Center has determined that swallowing too many iron-fortified vitamins may be dangerous to your health.
“These multiple vitamins with iron can be fatal if abused,” said Susan Arnold, a registered nurse who works in the poison center. “The body won't but a certain amount of iron, and if it is not well hydrated to the body's system, it can be fatal.”
Iron poisoning is only one of several poisonings related to winter that the country faces.
Because people are inactive during the winter, they often feel bad and ingest more vitamins than the body can use. she said
"People want to eat right in the winter, but too much of what they think to be good may, in fact, be bad," Arnold said.
THE POISON CONTROL center was created in July of 1982 and by the end of that year had received about 3,000 calls. Last year, Arnold said, the center served over 40,000 calls. The center serves the entire state of Kansas and the western half of Missouri.
Arnold and two pharmacists at the Med Center's poison center give advice over the phone and send ambulances to who call with poison emergencies.
The ages of patients vary widely, but out of the 14 patients treated this week were mostly children.
"People are always calling us up and asking about lead poisoning," Arnold said. "But not too many people know about iron poisoning. They are both heavy metals. Iron poisoning is just as severe."
SHE SAID THAT during an average year, 50 percent of all calls were for household poisonings, not industrial poisonings.
For people who ingest poison but live out of the Kansas City area, the center uses helicopters from Kansas City and Wichita to transport patients to the Med Center when necessary. Arnold said that helicopters have flown patients in from as far away as Hutchinson and Independence, Kan.
said. Most of the children's cases involved iron poisoning, she said.
The treatment for any poisoned patient who goes to the Med Center is done in the emergency room. Arnold said treatment varied quite a bit from patient to patient, depending on the amount of poison ingested, the type of poisoning ingested and the length of time the poison has been in the patient.
In the poison center, off a hallway in the basement of Bell Memorial Hospital, an entire computer system is full of on how to treat different poisonisms.
CARBON MONOXIDE poisoning is common in the winter. Arnold said that it could occur not only from a car's exhaust, but also from a fireplace.
This usually happens when someone closes the fireplace damper before going to bed while the fire is still burning, she said.
Any poison victim can call the poison center hotline at: (913) 588-6633.
ON CAMPUS
TODAY
INVISIBLE IN AMERICA, the photo photograph of Marion Palff, will be on display in the Kansas Union Gallery until Feb. 14.
"ROEYER BOATS, Hulls and Floaters 1980-1984," boat-related sculptures by Mark Roeyer, will be on display in the gallery of the Art and Design Building.
THEITA TAU will sponsor a discussion of the Wesco Hall Photovoltaic Clock Tower Design competition from 1 to 315 in of the Art and Design Building.
KU MOUNTAINEERING and Backpacking Association and Student Union Activities Outdoor Recreation will sponsor a slide presentation by Fred Kubiak, President of North America" at 7 p.m. in the Conference Room of the Burge Union.
KU AUMATEUR RADIO Club will host the day's program of the Conference Room of the KU AUMATEUR Radio Club.
KU SWORD AND SHIELD will meet at 10 p.m. in the Pine Room of the Kappa
GRUB STREET, KU'S Literary Center
the New York University
the Organizal of the Kansas Union
GAY AND LESBIAN Services of Kansas will hold an organizational meeting at 7:30 p.m. in the Walnut Room of the Kansas Union.
KU KEMPO KARATE CLUB will meet from 8 to 9:30 p.m. in the Multi-Purpose Room in Robinson Center.
STUDENT RECITAL SERIES will present the KU Percussion Ensemble conducted by George Boberg at 8 p.m. in Swarthout Recital Hall.
DIEGO HAY will speak on "Migracion brasilera en el este de Paraguay." (Brazilian migration in the eastern part of Paraguay) at the Latin American brown bag lunch at noon in 109 Lippincott Hall.
Robert R. Wardill/KANSAN
Brian Friberg, an employee of the Control Data Corporation of Mission, works the bugs out of a new computer during installation. A new, $30,000 computer was recently added to the KU administration's main computer.
Official says computer will help ... for a while
By the Kansan Staff
A $30,000 computer now being added to the KU administration's main computer will only temporarily meet staff requirements. KU Computer Services said yesterday.
Niebba said that the Office of Information Systems was working with the administration to find money to continue to maintain the donated computer; He said he foresaw no problem getting the money.
Larry Lovell, assistant director of production services at the Office of Information Systems, said it would cost $1.5 million and maintain the computer until June.
The installation of the donated computer should be complete by this weekend, he said.
The computer, an IBM 3031 donated by Security Benefit Life Insurance Co. in Topeka, will help Computer Services eliminate a six to nine month backlog of work, but by 1985 Computer Services were ready to launch the system, director Jerry Noblema said.
THE AMOUNT OF SERVICE that is
Computer Services
is continually updated.
And a larger system soon will be needed because various schools and colleges are now asking that more of their records be kept by Computer Services.
"We are receiving new applications
we have never touched before." Nielsen
Niebaum said he had already begun plans for a new computer system. That system would be used to keep track of records for various academic programs and libraries on campus, the Office of Student Financial Aid, the Office of University Relations, the Office of Commtroller, he said.
AFTER COMPUTER SERVICES has paid for its present system, it will be able to use the money it now uses for payment on the computer to buy new computers.
Niebaum said he expected payments (for the present system, an IBM 3031 AP, to be completed by the middle of 1985.
About $30,000 is paid monthly for the system, he said.
Lovell said that the computer now being installed would increase by 25 percent the computer time available to his office
WANTED:
GOOD
LOOKING
COEDS
To appear in female roles in a new TV series: LEGMEN
Send color or black and white photo along with name, address and phone number to:
LEGMEN
C/O Universal Television, P.O. Box 699,
Hollywood, CA 90078
All pictures become the property of Universal Television.
SVA FILMS
Tonight $1.50
Woodruff Auditorium
Robert Altman's
7:30 p.m.
Friday & Saturday $1.50
In news screen splendor...The most magnificent picture ever!
2:30 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. only! Woodruff Auditorium
MIDNIGHT Friday & Saturday $2
Woodruff Auditorium, 5th floor, Kansas Union
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