8A Thursday, February 8, 1996 UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN NATURALWAY NATURAL FIBER CLOTHING *820-822 MASS. *841-0100* 图 * NATURAL BODYCARE * NATURAL WAY * 820-822 MASS. * 841-0100 Protect-A-Sweetheart Week February 12-18 It's no coincidence that Valentine's Day and National Condom Day take place during Protect-A-Sweetheart Week-a great week to learn more about healthy relationships and other topics of interest including: HIV and other STDs, safer sex and abstinence, date rape, the effects of alcohol/drug use in relationships, and more effective communication skills. To get a display packet on sexual health issues or to arrange a free presentation from the Center for Peer Health Promotion for your group-call Health Promotion and Education at 864-9570 SPECIALEVENTS Protect-A-Sweetheart Information Tables February 14, at these locations: Kansas Union, 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Burge Union & Wescoe cafeteria, 11:00 a.m-1:00 p.m. Senate uproots subsidies The Associated Press WASHINGTON — The Senate voted yesterday to scrap the decades-old link between farm prices and government subsidies, instead giving farmers a series of fixed but declining payments. The action could lead to an eventual end of farm payments. The 64-32 vote came despite a last-ditch fight by Democrats who wanted to save at least some connection between prices and payments. But that effort failed, 63-33. Democrats charged that Republicans were offering welfare to farmers while cutting money for education, school lunches and health care for the poor. In exchange for less government support, controls on most planting decisions would end, along with requirements that acres be idled. "Today we have a very good opportunity to finally break out of that mold of government restriction," said Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind., chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee and a GOP presidential contender. The overhaul of how the government supports corn, cotton, rice and wheat won't be debated in the House for several weeks. It was unclear whether the bill in its final form would stop President Clinton from carrying out an earlier veto threat. Some changes sought by the administration, including a $300 million, three-year mandatory fund for rural water and sewer projects and other rural development, were made in the Senate. Consumers may feel little impact, because raw ingredients make up a small share of supermarket costs. retained protections that make consumers pay more for sugar and peanuts. Despite those attacks, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole successfully led a 59-36 vote to block an Backers said the bill would help farmers earn more by prodding them to plant for a growing world market. However, critics said despite some reforms, the bill amendment by freshman Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., that would further cut the government-guaranteed price for peanuts and ease limits on who can grow them. Dole faces primary contests next month in Georgia and other peanut-growing states. Another GOP presidential contender. Sen Phil Gramm, R-Texas, was campaigning in Iowa and did not vote. An effort led by Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., to let the sugar program end after two years failed by 59-36. Low fat won't stop breast cancer The Associated Press NEW YORK — Adopting a low-fat diet at midlife or later probably won't reduce a woman's risk of breast cancer, a study suggests. Pooling and analyzing the results of seven previous studies involving a total of 337,819 women, mostly middle-aged or older, scientists found that the amount of fat in the participants' diets had no effect on their risk of breast cancer. The researchers in the earlier studies didn't find out how long the women had been on their diets, so the results don't rule out the possibility that women who have avoided fat for most of their lives run a lower breast cancer risk. Indeed, other studies suggest that a low-fat diet has to be adopted in childhood or adolescence to influence the decades-long processes that lead to cancer. "There are other, very good reasons to stick to a diet, which is relatively low in red meat, and low in high-fat dairy products, and high in fruits and vegetables," said David Hunter, a doctor, citing evidence of reduced risk for heart disease and colorectal cancer. "Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that breast cancer protection, at least in midlife, is one of those good reasons." Hunter is executive director of the Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention at the Harvard School of Public Health. He and other scientists reported the work in today's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The idea that lowering fat intake during middle age could help protect against breast cancer had appeared to be promising, but it shows less promise all the time, said Robert Smith, senior director for detection and treatment at the American Cancer Society. The report comes as the federal government is conducting a major study of whether a low-fat diet can reduce breast cancer. It aims to enroll 48,000 women and follow them for an average of nine years. More than 16,000 women ages 50 to 79 already have signed up for the study, which will assign some participants to follow a diet in which 20 percent of calories come from fat. The new analysis found no evidence of protection in women getting smaller percentages of calories from fat. The results actually suggested an increase in risk for diets of less than 15 percent, but Hunter dismissed that as probably a chance finding.