University Daily Kansan / Friday, April 21, 1989
Nation/World
7
Radon a nationwide problem
EPA tests suggest high levels of the gas in public schools
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Preliminary tests suggest unhealthy levels of radon in schools across the country, Environmental Protection Agency every school to test for the odorless, cancer-causing gas.
The EPA said that 54 percent of 130 public schools tested in 41 communities had at least one room in which radon levels were found to exceed certain limits. The agency is indicating a need for additional tests and, likely, corrective action.
In 101 rooms tested at schools in five states, levels of at least 20 pioceuries to every liter were found, and the number would be found in uranium mines.
EPA spokeswoman Martha Casey said no list of the schools tested was immediately available, but affected 12,000 students who have been held of the test results.
The agency has said that exposure during a lifetime at that level is unlikely to harm the EPA. The EPA said studies have indicated indoor exposure to radon
The EPA said that the 3,000 schoolrooms tested, 19 percent had levels of four picurences or more and had levels of at least 20 picurences.
may cause up to 20,000 lung cancer deaths a year.
The agency gave this breakdown of states with schoolrooms having radon levels at at least 20 picoures: Tennessee, 77 rooms; Washington, 14; New Mexico, 7; Maine, 2; and Montana, 1.
The highest level was found in a schoolroom in Tennessee in which 136 picuccies to every liter of air were detected. Schools with unusually high levels, ranging from 25 to 98 picuccies to every liter of air were Washington (98 picuccies), Montana (51), New Mexico (41) and Maize (25).
The other states in which schools were tested were Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado, North Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Indiana, Georgia and New Jersey.
According to the agency, unhealthy radon levels also have been found in EPA tests in schools in Virginia, Florida, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and Iowa. Those findings were not part of the latest study, and no additional information was available.
Radon is a naturally produced gas that is colorless, odorless and tasteless. It is the product of the natural radioactive decay of Radium-226 in soil and rocks. Although levels not correlated with radiation, it can curie to every liter, post no known dangers, accumulated concentrations can be much higher indoors.
1,500 Chinese students march for democracy
BEJELING — About 1,500 students braved a daylong downpour yesterday and marched for democracy in the capital, and authorities threatened harsh measures to crush four days of dissent.
The Associated Press
About 1,000 students marched in the central Chinese city of Nanjing, and students in Tianjin, a port city east of Beijing, plastered posters on walls. Other marches also were held in Wuhan, Wenzhou and Hefei, but details were sketchy.
Nationally televised news led with a stern warning that the protests, the biggest since the pro-democracy demonstrations of 1986 and 1987,
would no longer be tolerated.
The protests were prompted by the death Saturday of Hu Yaobang, an outspoken reformer who was ousted as Communist Party chief in 1987. Hu Tao, a former liberal idea and failing to crack down on the 1968-87 student demonstrators.
The Beijing city government issued regulations that restricted commemoration activities for Hu to universities, businesses and facto-
Early yesterday, thousands of 'security forces rushed into crowds of students as they protested near the court of the ruling Communist Party
Police guard house where Hitler lived
The Associated Press
BRAUAUN, Austria — Irt rots ringed the house where Adolf Hitler was born, and police said they arrested eight people yesterday for their involvement in the history of the dictator's birth with Nazi salutes and stiff armed salutes.
Hundreds of police swarmed the city of 17,000 people to prevent a repeat of the 1979 clashes between neo-Nazi and leftists that marked Hitler's 90th birthday. No serious incidents were reported.
Across the border in West Germany, foreigners closed their stores and kept children out of schools because of fears of neo-Nazi violence. Several members of anti-Nazi vigilantes were arrested for carrying weapons.
Security was heaviest here, at the two-story yellow house where Hitler was born on April 20, 1889. The house, a former inn now used as a day-care
center for handicapped children, was sealed off with metal barriers manned by dozens of police and special riot squads with dogs.
Police said unspecified numbers of people were being turned back at the border by West German or Austrian border police.
A police spokesman said two Austrians, three Italians, two West Germans and a U.S. citizen were injured when they were up to $2,300 for their public behavior.
The Italians, one Austrian and the U.S. citizen gave the Nazi salute, said a police officer who did not give his name. One West German was accused of shooting guards and spat at reporters. Police said he was carrying a large knife.
In West Berlin, police arrested nine people who were driving around in cars, apparently to defend against anti-Nazi attacks.
Navy investigating explosion Reports show that gun powder may have been a cause
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The bodies of 47 sailors killed in the gun explosion on the USS Issa arrived in the United States yesterday as the Navy tried to figure out what caused the battleship's turret to blow up.
None of the guns in the No. 2 turret had been fired before the explosion that instantly killed the seamen. Navy officials said. They discarded a theory that the gunners fired red-hot debris left in the gun's breech by earlier rounds.
The Navy organized a board of inquiry and placed a moratorium on firing 16-inch guns, found only on the Iowa and its three sister battleships, the New Jersey, the Wisconsin and the Missouri.
The Iowa was headed back to its home port at Norfolk, Va., while the bodies of the dead were flown to the military mortuary at Alver Air Force Base in Delaware for identification. A spokesman said he would learn that their relatives were among the dead.
The blast occurred Wednesday morning northeast of parrots Rico as the Iowa took part in firing exercises that were underway.
At the White House, President Bush brushed aside suggestions that the explosion was due to the age of the Iowa, a World War II helium brought out of mothballs during the military buildup of the Reagan administration.
Asked about the ship's safety, Bush said he wanted to insure that procedures were checked "to be sure that safety is at the highest point ... but I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that because that kind of powder was put into these turrets in that way that makes a useful platform obsolete."
Adm. Richard D. Milligan, a former commander of the New Jersey, began the board of inquiry's investigation. Hoffman said he could not predict when the investigation would be completed.
Seaquested reporters, "It seems from the reports that those powders exploded." He referred to the six 110-pound sacks of powder rammed into each gun after it is loaded with a 1,900-pound shell.
Seaquist said a pressurized air system that clears debris from the breech at a gun's rear must be operated manually. Each gun has a one-inch diameter tube and is supplied with pressures of pressure to blow debris from the 62-foot barrel.
Naval officers familiar with the Iowa said an explosion could occur if a gun breech is cracked, or from a shell that "cooks off" — ignites prematurely from the heat of a weapon. Underdering debris left in the barrel from the previous round.
"The first thing that comes to mind is something like a projectile. It could have been a bag or a projectile. We just don't know."
Flooding hits Soviet Union; five are killed
The Associated Press
MOSCOW — Landslides and flooding struck the mountainous area of Adzhar in Soviet Georgia this week, killing five people and leaving another 47 missing and feared dead, state TV said on Thursday.
About 13,000 people are threatened by flooding rivers, melting snow and mudslides aggravated by earth tremors, the news program Vremeyi "The Voice" said. It was evacuated, it said, and 3,000 others are due to leave in the near future.
The news show said 52 people were caught Wednesday in a landslide on Mount Salgan, which buried four houses and a bus. It said five bodies had been recovered and rescuers were searching for the missing 47.
The Tass news agency had a different version. It said a mudslide blocked the River Charukh, flooding the river and a bus in the village of Tablaim.
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