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University Daily Kansan / Thursday, January 15, 1987
3B
2 from KU join Slattery in Central America
By LAURA BOSTROM
Staff writer
U. S. Rep. Jim Slattery, D-Kan., and a delegation of 18 Kansans are in Central America learning about the lives of the people in Honduras and Nicaragua.
Two KU instructors, James K. Terry, a retired U.S. Army brigadier general and instructor in computer science, and Charles Stansifer, the director of the Center of Latin American Studies and professor of history, are part of the delegation.
George Paley, of natural Way, 820 Massachusetts St., and Kerry Scott, assistant
news director for KANU-FM radio station, also are on the trip.
The group is meeting with politicians, educators, ministers, journalists, peasants and contra and military leaders.
The Kansans hope to gain insight into the region's political, economic and social movements, especially the continuing conflict between the Nicaraguan government and the U.S.-backed contras, said Renee Wessels, Slattery's press aide.
Carol McDowell. Slattery's administrative aide, said Slattery made the trip to learn more about the region. The people on the trip
have noticed signs of a U.S. influence amidst widespread poverty, she said.
Slattery consistently has voted against giving money to the contras.
"They're all struck by the contrast and the conflict," McDowell said.
About 75 to 100 people applied for the trip. McDowell said members of the delegation represented a variety of different interests and opinions.
The group arrived in Honduras Jan. 9 for a four-day visit and will spend five days in Nicaragua before returning to Kansas City on Monday. Slattery will break from the
McDowell said she called the delegation every evening and usually spoke with Slattery or one of his two aides.
group Jan. 17 and travel to Costa Rica and El Salvador.
"We expect that all telephone calls into Nicaragua are recorded, transcribed and analyzed by the Nicaraguan and U.S. governments," she said.
McDowell said Managua, Nicaragua, which is now in its dry season, turned off its water every Tuesday and Friday. Members of the group must store washing and drinking water in their hotel wastepaper baskets and
"It's not a luxury trip," she said.
bathtubs.
Meeting with a variety of people in the region has given the group contradictory information, McDowell said.
The contras told the group that Nicaragua's government was a communist state and a threat to other democracies, she said, and the government told the Kansans that the contras were the threat.
McDowell said the group heard one story from representatives of the Nicaraguan government, and the exact opposite from the opposition leaders.
Irradiation cooks up debate
FDA approves food preservation method
By BENJAMIN HALL
Staff writer
Lawrence grocery shoppers soon may encounter fruits, vegetables, spices and pork preserved by exposure to radioactive material
The Food and Drug Administration has approved these foods for irradiation, and some officials are hailing the expansion use of the irradiation process as a better way to improve the shelf life of foods and to control bacteria.
The food irradiation process, in which food on a conveyer belt is exposed to high doses of radiation for one to two minutes, has been given wider approval by recent FDA decisions.
In December 1985, fruits and vegetables were added to the list of foods authorized for irradiation. Also, wheat flour, milk, cheese, wheat, flour, pork, and 47 bones.
But Joseph Scales, organizer of the local chapter of the National Coalition to Stop Food Irradiation, is working to increase opposition to irradiation and irradiated products.
"I don't like the idea of having our food anywhere near radioactive waste," Scales said. "I don't want to eat irradiated food, and I don't want radioactive waste being transported down the city streets on which we live."
Scales and the coalition contend that the FDA is ignoring research suggesting that food irradiation produces dangerous side effects.
A pamphlet Scales distributed at the University of Kansas last spring said food irradiation might cause genetic irregularities, produce cancer-causing toxins, destroy vitamins and nutrients in foods and create mysterious chemical compounds.
safe." Scales said. "Not enough research has been done to claim safety, and the research that has been done is not reassuring."
"The FDA chose five of 413 studies done to claim food irradiation is
But Edward Shaw, professor of physiology and cell biology, said irradiation was a relatively safe way to preserve food.
"I would say that generally the concept of preservation of food — that is, the retardation of spoilage by the use of radiation is probably as useful as the means that are used, and certainly a lot safer than many," he said.
Shaw said irradiation was not likely to create dangerous toxins in food. He added that none of the numerous safety studies done on food irradiation had shown any detrimental effects.
Scales and others, who do not believe those optimistic forecasts, are working to turn public opinion against irradiation.
Scales said he had collected more than 500 signatures on a petition that expresses opposition to food irradiation and the building of irradiation plants. The petition also demands stricter labeling of irradiated food.
Scales said the coalition was upset that although the FDA requires labeling of irradiated foods, products that use irradiated ingredients don't require labeling, even if the ingredient makes up 90 percent of the product.
But Robert Bartlett, who works on Food Safety and Inspection Service, 2400 W. 31st St., said those efforts
Scales he hoped to get a local ordinance passed that would require stores to notify customers of irradiated foods. Meanwhile, he is trying to garner support for legislation calling for a moratorium on fruit and pork irradiation, more restrictive labeling, further studies on irradiation safety and better regulation of the industry.
wouldn't stop food irradiation. Food Safety and Inspection reviews food safety efforts for the Department of Agriculture.
"It's going to find its way into the industry," he said. "It's obviously a way to improve shelf life, just as the canning process was."
Bartlett admitted that consumer acceptance of irradiated foods had been slow. New procedures are quite likely to draw criticism, although he said the USDA considers food irradiation a step in the right direction.
The irradiation industry has plans to expand from 43 plants, none of which is in Kansas, to 1,000, according to a coalition newsletter. Scales said transporting waste between plants also was hazardous.
"There are still people who won't drink homogenized milk," he said. "You've got all these people objecting to what most call progress."
The newsletter quoted an Associated Press article about a truck-train collision near Bowdon, N.D., that spilled 30 drums of radioactive ore and contaminated more than 40 people.
The irradiation industry is not well regulated. Scales said, adding that the FDA was losing its credibility as a protector of food safety. It has not compiled a list of irradiation plants and does not require companies that treat foods to register with it.
But Shaw said tens of millions of dollars were spent to prevent accidents in the radiation industry.
"I think it's probably one of the best-regulated industries in the U.S. in regards to safety," he said.
Shaw said people were afraid to eat in the food because they feared the unknown.
"It's been a phobic type of response," he said. "That's how people are reacting to food irradiation."
KU official back at work after heart attack in fall
By JENNIFER WYRICK
James Bibb returned last week to his duties as associate director of business and fiscal affairs after recovering from an Oct. 18 heart attack. But he said he would not work full time at that job or as a KU lobbyist to the Kansas Legislature for a white.
Bibb and Marlin Rein, then associate hospital administrator of the University of Kansas Medical Center, took over the legislative duties of Richard von Ende, former University executive secretary, when von Ende went on sick leave last summer.
Rein assumed all legislative responsibilities after Bibb's heart attack.
Bibb said he hoped that Rein still would assume the lead role as lobbist for a while.
KRONEN James Bibb, associate director of business and fiscal affairs, is recovering from a heart attack he had in October. Bibb now is working part time as an administrator and as a lobbyist for the University to the Kansas Legislature.
"I would like him to take more than half of the workload," he said.
Bibb said he was doing fine and already was benefitting from a physical conditioning program that included walking 2 miles and riding a stationary bicycle.
He now realizes, he said, that a combination of personal matters, his work on several committees and the von Ende situation was more taxing to his health than he had realized.
"I'm not going to let the workload get as heavy as it was," he said.
Bibb said he would remain as active as he was able and was planning to start a new system for the University to track legislation. The system would monitor both appropriation and non-
appropriation bills that could positively or negatively affect the University.
"These are bills that could represent a danger if someone amended them," he said.
tion of the importance of education and realization of the economic impact that the University has on the state."
The University's legislative program is in good shape, Bibb said, because of "the growing recogni-
He said he thought that in the past, the state had given less than desirable financial support to the University.
Labor official opposes minimum wage boost
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Labor Secretary William Brouk refused on Tuesday to endorse calls to increase the minimum wage, saying raising the current $3.35-an-hour level would not solve the problems of the underdrain.
Brock, who this week unveiled an advisory panel recommendation for a $200 million job retraining program for the permanently unemployed. Retraining was also the key to get people into higher paying occupations.
"I don't think that (increasing the minimum wage) is a fundamental answer to the problem," Brock told Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass, and the Senate Labor and Human Committee, which support an increase in the minimum wage called for by many labor groups.
"I think the fundamental answer is to change the skill base of those who go out looking for jobs," Brock said. The minimum wage was last increased Jan. 1, 1980, from $3.10 an hour to the current level.
Kennedy, who conducted the first
hearing of the 100th Congress on the subject, said he was far from done with the issue.
"We'll have a chance to revisit it. I'm sure," he told Brock with a broad smile.
Brock pointed to the creation of 2.2 million jobs last year to illustrate the administration's success in that area. But Kennedy said that 60 percent of those jobs provided wages below the poverty level.
"Those are basically poverty jobs," Kennedy said. "It's amazing people get people to go into those poverty jobs when there are so many disincentives."
Kennedy said that thousands of people had applied nationwide for jobs when only hundreds exist.
"The American people are prepared to work," he said, saying there were 10,000 applications in Buffalo, N.Y., in March 1986 for 272 jobs at a General Electric plant there.
"In January, 4,000 showed up for 350 jobs in a Hyatt Regency hotel . . . those aren't the kind of high-tech jobs . . . with all respect to Hyatt Regency," he said.
Brock said the trend pointed out
the necessity for increasing the skills of workers.
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, sparked the only acrimonious exchange when he asked Brock if he believed that
Brock said skilled jobs are the jobs of the future, but at the same time, we have the "insane tragedy of 700,000 kids graduating from high school who can't read the diploma."
Americans had a right to a job.
"You have a right to seek those things." Brock said. "I don't think you have a right to be provided them. I don't recall the Constitution establishing the right to a job. We as a society have a responsibility to provide the maximum opportunity we can."
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