CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, June 8, 1994
3
Martin Alstaedten / KANSAN
Enjoying the nice weather before classes start, Becky Boresow, Prairie Village senior, and Tim Reardon, Prairie Village Senior, cool off at the Chi Omega fountain. When the summer semester began yesterday, rain and high winds whipped through Lawrence.
Fierce storm rocks campus
Bv Brian Whitburn
Special to the Kansan
A black wall cloud hovered in the west, and the winds suddenly began to rush. In a flash, heavy rains turned the view outside a fuzzy gray.
About 1 p.m. yesterday, a severe thunderstorm hit campus. The winds yanked branches and recently planted trees, and some Lawrence streets were flooded.
Bill Combes of the KU Weather Service said that about three-fourths inch of rainfall accumulated during the storm.
Robin Weeks, president of the American Meteorological Society, called the storm a super cell storm. Most lines of thunderstorms move from the south or southwest," she said. "A characteristic of a super cell is that they turn to the right, to the mean flow."
Glen Martin, also of the KU Weather Service, labeled the storm differently.
Weeks added that the temperature plunged from 83 degrees to 70 degrees within the first 15 minutes of the storm.
"This was a multicellular beewoecho complex storm," he said. "The storm came from the Concordia area, moved south to Topeka, then across Lawrence, then south to Kansas City."
No injuries or accidents occurred on campus, KU police said.
Heavy winds — reported to be as high as 65 mph — knocked trees to the ground, and rain flooded through open hatches in Wescoe Hall.
Porter didn't seem worried about the storm.
"It got here quick and ended quick," he said. "Typical end of a spring storm."
Martin Alstaedten / KANSAN
Dale Smith, construction worker for facility operations, uses a crane to lift a pin oak tree that has been blown over by high winds in front of Wescoe Hall. The winds were part of a thunderstorm that hit Lawrence yesterday.
Laughing gas danger no joke
By Matt Hydeman
Kansan staff writer
Students who are using the inhalant more commonly known as "laughing gas" may be in for more than just a quick high — it may kill them.
Nitrous oxide, the chemical name for the gas, was the primary factor in the death of Ryan Howell, Arlington Heights, Ill. freshman, on May 9 at Ellsworth Hall, according to Lawrence Price, a Douglas County coroner.
Ron Torline, associate professor of anesthesiology at the University of Kansas Medical Center, said that when nitrous oxide is inhaled, the users feel lightheaded, their extremities tingle and there may also be a loss of consciousness at times.
Nitrous oxide, like other products that are classified as inhalants, is perfectly legal, said Cindy Alliss, community, education and media officer for KU police.
Gunda Hiebert, owner of The Bay Leaf, 725 Massachusetts St., said that her store carried small cartridges of nitrous oxide, called "whippits," about three years ago before deciding to stop.
The cartridges, used in dispensers of whipped cream, turn heavy cream into the fluffy topping used on pies and cakes. The containers allow the whipped cream to remain fresh for up to two weeks.
"We stopped carrying the cartridges because we didn't want to be forced into making a judgment call on people." Hilbert said.
Hiebert said that she and her employees had noticed that while there were adults who purchased the nitrous oxide cartridges for legitimate reasons, there appeared to be an increasing number of younger people buying them as well.
"We would be having these young people who would come in with these elaborate stories," she said. "I would ask myself 'Why do they feel like they have to make up a story?'"
Torline said that when used in the operating room, nitrous oxide is mixed with pure oxygen to make patients unconscious. The use of pure oxygen ensures that the patient will not receive a harmful amount of nitrous oxide.
"When you have people using nitrous oxide illicitly, you then have a mixture of 21 percent oxygen, room air, and 100 percent nitrous oxide," Torline said.
Bad breaths
Like other commonly available inhalants, nitrous oxide is perfect-ly legal. Some of the effects of inhaling nitrous oxide are:
■ lightheadedness
■ a feeling of euphoria
■ a tingling in the arms or legs
■ possible loss of consciousness
KANSAN
Source: KU Medical Center
Torline said that when a person inhales nitrous oxide, the gas fills the lungs preventing oxygen from bonding to hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying substance in the blood.
The effect of less oxygen reaching the brain is called "hypoxia," Torline said.
"You can get a fairly intense 'buzz' from nitrous oxide," he said.
Scott Moore, general manager of Criticare Home Health Services, Inc., 1006 W. 6 St., said that the store's policy was to distribute nitrous oxide only to medical facilities such as dentists', doctors', and veterinarians' offices.
"We have had people who have said they were doctors and gave us an address," Moore said. "When we find that it's a private residence, we tell them that we are unable to deliver.
"We simply don't sell to individuals."
Each tank has a lot number, as well as a serial number, Moore said. Both sets of numbers are required to meet the Food and Drug Administration's requirements in order to track where each tank is being filled and eventually delivered to.
Hiebert learned about the gas' high-inducing properties from a friend and was shocked when her son told her that he had been asked about the cartridges' availability from the store.
"He had no idea why some of his friends had been asking him about the cartridges," she said.
When Hiebert explained to her son what she had learned, she said that he was just as surprised as she.
Hiebert said that as a parent, she did not feel comfortable having the nitrous oxide cartridges in the store and making them available to children.
"If we hadn't found out, then we probably would have sold a lot of them, and we wouldn't have known," she said. "I wasn't willing to merely sell them just to make money."
Construction craziness
The highlighted section of Memorial Drive will be closed until August 12 to allow road crews to lay new asphalt and pour new curbs. There is no detour posted because of other open roads.
Source: Kansan Staff Research
Dave Campbell / KANSAN
KU places first at Hearst awards
KU's school of journalism and five of its students captured more than $17,000 during the national Hearst Journalism Awards Program last month in San Francisco.
Often regarded as the Pulitzer Prize for college journalism, Hearst awarded KU first place and $10,000 in its writing division.
In the national writing competition, Brady Prauer, a May 1994 graduate from Columbus, Kan. tied with a Northwestern University student for the first place, a $3,000 scholarship.
Ben Grove, Davenport, Iowa,
senior, placed second in the writing
category and won a $2,500 scholarship.
Two other recent KU graduates, Vicki Bode and Terrilyn McCormick, were runners-up in the writing competition earning a $500 scholarship each.
In the photojournalism competition, senior Tom Leininger, received a $500 scholarship.
Caterers place first
Kansas Union Catering took first place in the Catering-Special Events division for the second year in a row for the Loyal E. Horton Dining contest.
To win the award, the Kansas and Burge Union Food Services submitted a portfolio for the national competition. The portfolio included pictures from the grand opening gala event for the Lied Center and the opening night of "The Secret Garden."
Deborah Knudtson, assistant manager of food services, said the staff was thrilled and honored to have won the award among tough competition.
Compiled from Kansan staff reports.
According to information released by KU police, Howell was found with a plastic bag on his head, held by his own hand. A container of nitrous oxide was found in the room. Lawrence Price, a Douglas County coroner, listed the cause of death as asphyxia secondary to nitrous oxide inhalation resulting from recreational use, according to the press release.
Sgt. Rose Rozmiarek said Howell was found by his roommate in their room.
Price said Howell's death could have resulted from one of two situations. Since pure nitrous oxide contains no oxygen, he could have suffocated in inhaling the gas. Or he may have lost consciousness and been asphyxiated by the plastic bag over his head. Since no one was present, the exact cause of death was not determined, Price said.
The family has requested that all monetary donations be sent to St. Theresa of Avila Parish in Chicago.
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Freshman Ryan Howell, 19, of Arlington Heights, Ill., died May 9 in Ellsworth Hall.
Nitrous oxide, asphyxia cause student's death
Kansan staffreport
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