European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 4, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                July 1985 the stars and stripes Page 11 health science hews new Epa maps reveal larger acid rain danger Washington up regional maps produced by the environmental Protection Agency show the acid rain problem in the Northeast and upper Midwest to be worse than originally environmental groups the maps show that surface Waters susceptible to damage from acid rain Are More seriously endangered and distributed Over a broader geographic area than previously said Susan of the National clean air an Arm of the National clean air the maps Are More detailed versions of a National map produced by the Epa in which showed areas where lakes and streams had been damaged by High the acidity enters the air from chemicals excreted from Power plants and returns to Earth through releasing its analysis of the regional the National clean air fund said the Epa documents had been Avail Able for the past but had not been highly Deborah a research specialist for the natural resources said the difference is startling be tween the National map and the two regional she said the groups had not been Able to determine exactly How much More damage there was in the areas than first but noted it was Clear that certain such As Cape and the upper Peninsula of were much More seriously affected than we causes and effects of acid rain Coal and Oil burning industries the pollutants mix with oxygen and water in Emit Fulfur and nitrogen dioxide the air to produce sul uric and nitric acid vehicles Emit nitrogen dioxide and volatile organic i Walling winds compounds ammonia and soil particles in the air partly neutralize the acid acidic a forests Leaf canopy May dangers excessive acidity can kill reduce acidity decaying leaves aquatic damage forests and on the ground May increase it erode manmade structures Chicago Tribune graphic sources technology government of Canada Freshwater Environ rental Protection Agency and Chicago to Bune news reports can an alcoholic drink socially study says Boston up less than two of every 100 alcoholics who spent time at four Missouri treatment centers were Able to re Vert to Lon term moderate thus dampening claims that alcoholics can be come social researchers the Large which followed Alco Holics Between five and seven also found that women and less severe alcoholics have a slightly better Chance of becoming social drinkers than the average among those serious enough to come to medical the evolution of social drinking is very said John the study primary the reported in the new England journal of found that per cent of alcoholics were Able to abstain from percent were occasional drink percent became moderate percent were heavy drinkers without any social or medical problems and percent remained this study suggests that there is Little cause for optimism about the likelihood of an evolution to moderate drinking among treated the re port the study was undertaken to resolve the longstanding controversy whether some alcoholics can become moderate As was reported in several studies during the 30 the study defined Lon term moderate distilled spirits consumption in millions of Gal 1980 81 82 83 84 tilt jew graphic source distilled spirits Council of the states drinking As drinking in at least 30 of the previous 36 months no More than six drinks a Day on four or More Days a month and Freedom from any or Legal problem due to alcohol during the previous three the definition of moderate drinking that we used does not seem Overly said the in in terms of the daily consumption of alcohol allowed up to six drinks a it might be consid ered the study found Only three factors that increased the chances an alcoholic would revert to social drinking the severity of and when the patient became an women were four times More Likely to become moderate or controlled Al though the percentages were still very alcoholics who became controlled or mod Erate drinkers usually had less serious drinking problems and developed a drinking problem at a later who is a professor of psychiatry at the Washington University school of Medicine in said the study did not examine alcoholics who entered pro Grams specifically designed to produce so Cial one cannot infer from our findings that treatment aimed specifically at moderate drinking would be doomed to said the tests May Lead to identification of alcoholics los Angeles a new tests to measure strik ing individual variations in sensitivity to alcohol May allow Early identification of people Likely to become alcoholics and help efforts to prevent the researchers two studies show it is possible to identify individuals with Low sensitivity to alcohol through physical one of the studies found that Low sensitivity to alcohol requiring More alcohol than others to feel its effects is common in families with a history of a third study found that differences in brain Waves can be used to identify sensitivity to Gene author of one of the studies and co director of the alcohol research Center at the University of Colo said researchers cannot yet predict whether a particular individual will become an but that they May be Able to do so we have All of the tools and the people to be Able to identify behavioural and biochemical markers for he he was one of five researchers describing their work at the annual meeting of the american association for the advancement of Erwin said surveys have shown that 5 percent to 10 percent of adult americans who drink have alcohol related he calculates a persons alcohol sensitivity by measuring a variety of psychological and physiological indicators before giving the person a specific amount of the test has revealed dramatic differences in individual sensitivity to he he is studying other pairs of siblings and adopted he plans to follow them for 10 years to see which of them become alcoholics and to determine How strongly sensitivity to alcohol is the hypothesis is that those least sensitive to alcohol Are most Likely to become evidence for that hypothesis was provided by Marc Schuckit of the san Diego veterans administration medi Cal he measured alcohol sensitivity using a similar test in two groups of men one group with a family history of alcoholism and another group with no such he found that those with a family history of alcoholism were indeed less sensitive to Erwin said researchers have known that alcoholism was in part the children of alcoholics for exam three or four times As Likely As others to become alcoholics the new studies suggest that Low sensitivity to alcohol is what is being Erwin Henri Begleiter of downstate medical Center in Brook reported that alcoholics have a certain brain wave abnormality that is passed on to their sons even before their sons Are exposed to that raises the possibility that brain wave measurements might also be used to identify those at risk of becoming Begleiter Erwin envisions that an alcohol tolerance test might eventually be developed to predict alcohol in much the same Way that a glucose tolerance test in now used to identify in the glucose tolerance a person is Given a measured amount of glucose a form of sugar and several blood samples Are taken to Monitor the body use of the those with diabetes use sugar blood samples could be taken after giving a person Erwin abnormal use of the alcohol could then be used to calculate the individuals risk of