Kansan Special Section
Poor darkroom ventilation may be hazardous
By MICHAEL MERSCHEL
Staff writer
Hundreds of students, faculty and employees work with potentially hazardous chemicals in photographic darkrooms at the University of Kansas.
The pungent smells from those chemicals linger in the darkrooms, trapped because of the heat.
Problems might not be serious for people who work in darkrooms temporarily or work for less than a few hours a week. But professional darkroom workers on campus have reported problems related to darkroom chemicals, including respiratory difficulties and allergic reactions.
Some people have made changes themselves, but a lack of money may prevent needed improvements elsewhere.
Darkrooms on campus are found in places such as the journalism and art and design buildings, the Museum of Natural History and science departments.
Many different chemicals and chemical
compounds are used in developing and printing photographs. Some are used to process film into developed negatives. Similar chemicals allow prints to be developed from the negatives.
In entirely too many, it's "What ventilation?" .
Steve Cater
Steve Cater
environmental health and safety officer
At KU, acetic acid is one of the chemicals used. It is highly toxic, according to "Overexposure." a book on health hazards in photography. Although acetic acid is diluted for darkroom use, it is highly corrosive to the respiratory system and other tissue.
Other dangerous-to-breath chemicals used at KU include sodium sulfite, sodium thiosulfate, sodium carbonate and hydroquinone.
Steve Cater, KU environmental health and
safety officer, said opinions varied on a safe level of exposure to these photo chemicals.
Some guidelines, such as those from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, say relatively high exposure levels are safe.
Cater said he used the OSHA standards as his guidelines, even though the University did not fall under the gency's jurisdiction.
But Shari Hagen, graphic designer for the department of biological sciences, said exposure to the chemicals was like smoking: One cigarette might not harm a person, but constant exposure increased the potential for danger. Hagen spends many hours a week in a Haworth Hall darkroom.
The University is subject to state regulations. The state enforces OSHA guidelines, said Duae Guy of the Industrial Safety and Health Division of the Kansas Department of Resources. If OSHA does not suggest limits for chemical, the state consults other references.
Cater said that OSHA levels were the most.
lenient he would allow in darkrooms, but that he thought lower levels were better.
"I prefer to have as little exposure as possible," he said, "which is why I'm trying to get better darkroom ventilation."
Cater said ventilation was a problem in darkrooms at KU, and that the quality of darkrooms varied across campus.
Ideally, Cater said, every darkroom should have a system that blocked chemicals and exhausted them outside before workers had a chance to breathe them. One good arrangement would be a boo over the trays of chemicals to catch vapors.
But most darkrooms have much less than ideal.
"In entirely too many," he said, "it's What ventilation?"
"Some seem to be converted closets, and they have the ventilation intended for a closet."
The danger of working in rooms with closet-like ventilation is that dangerous chemical fumes stay in the air for darkroom
Above: Bold-patterned, colorful sweaters are a hit again this winter. Miniskirts are popular again this year, but most women stay with a more conservative length. Below: Acid-washed jeans and camp mocks are worn both men and women.
workers to breathe.
Money, and other safety projects, are why more darkrooms haven't been improved.
Darkroom renovation is low on the list on needed safety improvements, Cater said, although University Relations received money last year to renovate its darkroom.
"I can suggest and suggest and suggest," Cater said, "but if there is no money, nothing happens."
Jim Modig, campus director of facilities planning, said that last year, his office requested three darkroom renovations that would have totaled $25,000 on a list of 143 projects needing money from the Board of Regents.
The Regents granted four items from that list. The darkroom improvements were rejected.
Kansans like basic winter fashion with a twist, store owners say
Unless a severe ventilation problem exists, Modig said, the best possibility for darkroom improvements will be through departmental money. Otherwise, waiting for a project to receive financing could take years.
By ANN SZEMPLENSKI Special to the Kansan
Many KU students may dream of being high-fashion plates, but in reality most Kansans are a lot more conservative and cautious about what they wear and how much they bare.
For instance, faced with many trendy clothing choices this holiday season, students and local shoppers are sticking with new and vibrant variations of fashion basics, downtown clothing store owners and managers said.
Several store managers labeled this more casual and conservative attitude toward clothing as "updated traditional." They said Kansans want to wear clothes that reflect current trends, but don't venture too far from traditional styles.
Karen Browne, instructor at the International Academy of Merchandising Design Ltd. in Kansas City, Mo., said she thought local clothing styles simply reflected the environment of the Midwest.
"I think we just more casual in this area," Browne said. "We don't really have the places or big events to wear very glamorous clothes to."
Jeremy Furse, co-owner of Britches Corner, 843 Massachusetts St., said, "I think we are definitely more conservative in this area. Designers don't create different lines for different parts of the country. Retailers choose what to buy from their perception of their customers. They know what their customers want to wear."
One of the season's hottest items, the miniskirt, has overcome conservative barriers and become very popular, especially with students. Although skirt lengths vary from 23 to 27 inches, local shoppers are favoring the medium-to-long version of the mini.
'Our 25-inch minis have been sell-
in realty well, especially to students," said Heide Bissell, manager of Seiferts, 821 Massachusetts St. "The older, professional women are wearing shorter skirts, too, but their skirts are hitting the knee or right below. Many professional women don't feel comfortable in a really short skirt."
Longer, ankle-length skirts in denim, corduroy and cotton also remain in style, although Bonnie Rippen, manager of Scots Ltd., 919 Massachusetts St., offered some fashion advice for wearing the two very different lengths
"The longer the skirt is, the shorter the heel (of the shoe) should be, and the shorter the length of the skirt, the higher the heel," she said.
Along with the current trend of short skirts, sweaters are also popular in women's focus, especially in women's fitness. Also, shorter, more figure-flattening styles.
"Sweaters are still very important for fall, but the oversized sweater that had been popular is basically gone," said Beth Wasson, manager of Litwin's, 830 Massachusetts St. "This season's sweaters have been shortened 6 to 12 inches."
Furse attributed the shortening of women's sweaters to manufacturers who want to widen their prospective market.
"The majority of women tend to be short, and they are tired of wearing oversized sweaters that hang down to their knees," Furse said. "The cropped, dropped-shoulder sweaters are selling very well this fall."
Although traditional, dark-colored wool and cotton sweaters are again important in men's fashion, vibrant new colors and styles are making a splash this winter.
"More men are venturing forth into the world of fashionable sportswear with bolder colors," said Linda Campbell, who owns Campbell's Clo
thing, 841 Massachusetts St., with her husband. "It's an exciting season for men's fashion."
Wasson said she also has noticed men becoming more fashion conscious. "Men are moving away from the athletic shoe look," she said. "I'm seeing a resurgence in men wanting to look a little dressier."
Current footwear fashion for both men and women includes short leather boots, boat shoes and camp mocks worn over layers of foot-warming socks.
Accessories, which range from ostrich leather belts and purses to silk and cotton scarves, are also important in updating last year's clothes into this fall's fashion.
"All the accessories for this fall seem to be large," said Rippen. "Items with skin or a textured leather seem to be very popular."
Denim, long a basic in casual,
student fashion, is extremely popular
this fall in all shapes and styles. The acid or whitewashed denim items are the fastest selling style, managers said.
"I forecast that a lot of denim of any kind will be popular, especially with students, for quite a while," Browne said.
Privacy rights restrain search for missing adults
By JAVAN OWENS
Staff writer
Jeff Wilson was fed up.
"Mom and Dad — Don't worry about me, I'm OK. I love you very much — Jeff," he scratched on a half sheet of notebook paper.
He had walked away from everything - school, his roommate, his parents.
Wilson, who was a 19-year-old sophomore at the Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville, Fla., set out for Wyoming this fall without as much as a goodbye. He took no clothes and no books but withdrew his entire savings of $800 from a bank in Florida.
Wilson's parents in Flint, Mich., saw no signals that he was becoming frustrated until they received a phone call from his roommate Sept. 10, notifying them that Jeff had not come home. After that they got Wilson's letter, postmarked from Dallas several days after he'd left Florida.
Faye Wilson, Jeff's mother, went to Florida to persuade local police to search for him. But police told her there was not much they could do, except to enter Wilson's name and other information on the FBI's National Crime Information Center.
"He just wasnt 'the kind that would walk off'. Faye Wilson said, "But they (police) said, 'He's nineteen. Ifients to get lost, he can get lost.'"
Wilson's story has a happy ending, but no thanks to police, Faye Wilson said.
She refused to believe that her son
would just walk off from school. She posted signs, interviewed friends and checked the mail to find clues to where he might be.
Mike Boyer KBI Agent
Then she found a call to Wyoming billed to his calling card.
After several calls to Coty, Wyo,
Faye Wilson persuaded her son to
return home Oct. 22.
There are skeletons that are found across the country. We have no way of identifying them because no one has bothered to take a missing persons report.'
"T
And a person's right to privacy is more important than family or friends' desire to know about the person's safety, said Lt. Mike Hall, crime analyst for the Lawrence Police Department.
"I thought that was my connection. It was. He was out there working, but the pay was so small, he did not have much to live off of." Faye Wilson said.
Most law agencies agree that attempting to find missing adults such as Jeff Wilson is an invasion of their privacy.
"It's a balancing act for police all the time," Hall said.
Adding to that difficulty is a lack of
Lt. John Mullens of the KU police said that many who are considered missing by family have decided to change their lifestyles and do not want their families to find them.
data on missing adults. Officials say they have raw numbers, but don't analyze them. For instance, the FBI doesn't group missing people by age group.
"Sometimes, there are people who want to be lost," Mullens said. "They are running away from responsibility, and they want to start a new life."
Local authorities would not rule out the possibility that persons have been missing from Lawrence. But the number of missing persons reported in Douglas County is not large enough for it to be considered a problem, Hall said.
Unless a person is a convicted felon or is evading child support, authorities are not legally obliged to trace the person.
Mullens said he could not remember an incident at the University of Kansas when a missing persons report was filed. Students who have been reported missing by roommates, teachers or parents were soon found, Mullens said.
Hall said that of the few persons reported missing in the past five years, four were found.
"We get one or two calls a year from a roommate who says his roommate did not come home overnight. He was within 24 hours." Mullens said.
In a report Sept. 25, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation recorded just 32 cases of missing persons
between the ages of 18 and 22. None were reported through campus police at the six state universities.
But KB1 Agent Mike Boyer said those statistics could be misleading. Because no one has studied the issue in depth, law enforcement agents can only speculate which persons left of their vollition and which were victims of foul play.
Boyer's gut feeling is that many young adults have disappeared on their way to or from college.
"There are skeletons that are found across the country. We have no way of identifying them because one no has bothered to take a missing persons report," Boyer said.
"The system needs to be improved, we need to be sensitized to the delicate situation of missing persons." Boyer said.
Hall of Lawrence police said that because of lack of communication between college-age students and parents and friends, there was a greater potential for students not to be reported missing.
That was the situation with Eric Wade, said Sheriff William Masters of State.
Masters said Osteen had traveled frequently and was difficult to trave
Osteen, a Kansas City Art Institute student, was found dead Sept. 3 at the bottom of Bridal Veil Falls in San Miguel County. At first, he was believed to be a KU student. The office was able to identify his remains after 22 after running a picture and news releases throughout the Midwest.
"This case was not a usual case."
Even those who had some connection with him in Lawrence say they had no way of knowing he was missing. Osteen had worked at odd jobs after leaving school.
Masters said of Osteen. "It was obvious that he had a transient lifestyle."
Chris Hughes, a 1987 Art Institute graduate and Denver resident, said Osteen had called him throughout July from different places in Colorado and had last talked with him in August.
Masters said students such as Osteen seemed to end up in his county because it catered to vactioners and transients. Calls are common from parents worried about students who didn't return from a spring break skiing trip or a hike in the mountains, he said.
"It's definitely a problem here." Masters said. "Johnny went skiing and did not return home from spring break, or Jane went canoeing or camping or hiking, whatever the case was, and did not make it home. Calls of that nature are not uncommon to us.
"I feel a responsibility to find as much as I can," Masters said. "You never know what you could uncover
"We attract a transient group people here, and a lot of young people die in accidents here and are lost Some have remained unidentified."
Masters said, however, that trying to find the identity of a missing person was not only a courtesy to friends and family, but has been a useful means in solving other cases.
Jeff Wilson never was involved in crime in Wyoming, Faye Wilson said. He said he was a victim of the shooting.
in a case like that.
"Young people are easier prey to the criminal element, and many times uncovering the identity of a young person leads on a path to something else."
"We've asked Jeff about why he did it," Faye Wilson said. "He's pretty quiet about it."
Faye Wilson said that she recognized and respected her son's adulthood, but knew he needed some reassurance in a terrifying part of his life. She has asked him to stay close to home next semester.
Wilson said he wasn't trying to change his identity. He had planned to return after Christmas.
"I didn't know it would upset them so much." Wilson said, "I didn't think they'd care. I'm glad they did."
Why he left still remains a mystery to Wilson. He probably will never understand it, he said.
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