European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 15, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Paga 6 the stars and stripes tuesday july 1s. 1986 radon Gas in Many Homes is cancer threat testers say stateside Washington a Twenty percent of Ameri Ca single family Homes could contain More cancer causing radon Gas than some experts think is healthy according to a disputed estimate by a California firm thai has tested thousands of Homes. Radon i a colourless odourless radioactive Gas that concentrates indoors. Several scientific groups have said in could be causing 5,000 to 20,000 deaths a year from lung cancer. Thai would be 4 percent 10 17 per cent of All lung cancer deaths. However some government scientists question the firm s landings saying they believe bal the proportion of Homes with unhealthy amounts of radon is about 7 percent. Up to now nobody has known How Many Homes might be affected by the Gas. Although radon changes into other elements in a few Days some of those daughter products have Long radioactive lives and can remain to the lungs. In Addi Tion daughter atoms can be carried into the lungs and lodged there by Dull particles. Radon is one of the radioactive decay products of uranium which occurs naturally in almost All soils. It rites into Homes through cracks in basement floors an Walls and in drinking water and can even Rise through the hollows in Concrete Block Walls. Experts say houses can even draw in in from the soil because of the slightly lower air pressure in most basements com pared with the outside. The Epa has been studying various radon reduction measures in 18 Pennsylvania Homes Over the Reading prong geological formation. This formation which sex lends to parts of new Jersey and new York has Man High radon Homes because of High uranium co Centre Lions in the soil. The Agency is expected 10 recommend that Home owners try to reduce radon concentrations if they Are above four Pic curies per liter of air. The Agency said that As is the Case with All causes of cancer h does no believe there is any Safe level. But below this level reduction measures such As pressurizing a basement get increasingly Complex and Chancy. Four Pic curies per liter is the concentration that will increase a resident s Chance of lung cancer by i percent i that person lives in the House for 70 years and spends 75 Percento Fth time indoors the Epa says. A Genera accounting office report to the Pennsyl Vania congressional delegation on the Epa s efforts made available last week gave figures from Terrades corp., a Walnut Creek Calif., testing firm on radon contamination in other states. H. Ward alter presi Dent of the company provided updated figures in a Telephone interview. Alter said Terrades has measured radon concentrations in almost 55,000 Homes since 1980. From his data it is hard to gauge the extent of the radon problem because his customers make up a non random Sample. People who already know they have a High concentration of radon Are overrepresented they want a measurement to know where they stand. Alter used a simple method to try to get a random Sample discarding the seven states with More than 1,000 readings on the grounds that those states Are Likely to be untypical. That leaves about 8,000 measurements made on Homes that he believes were randomly selected by individual owners responding to news stories about radon contamination. These Homes he said average a Little More than 4 Pic curies per liter. The distribution of these measurements is not Normal but highly skewed and so Only 20 percent exceed this average. Alter said. But Aller s method is unreliable according to Rich Ard Sextro head of the radon Section of the indoor environmental program at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley Calif. I m not sure there s anything he can do to Rando Mize his Sample. They re solely at the mercy of what people write on Lite lags. They Don t know what they be got maybe it was put out in the Yard for a soil  s group examined 22 Small scale local1 surveys from around he country. Although this method is not fully satisfactory either we come up with a number More like 7 percent. Seven percent is still a lot  the average radon concentration was 1.6 Pic curies per liter about twice what was assumed in arriving at the estimate of 5,000 to 20,000 deaths. Even outdoors there is measurable radon in the air in Colorado for instance there Are about 0.8 Pico curies per liter according to Sextro. 3 divers get first look at wreck of titanic in Atlantic s icy deep Woods Hole mass. Up the first glimpses of he fabled titanic since it Sank 74 years ago revealed huge Black Wall More than 2 Miles below the sur face of the North Atlantic scientists say. Robert Ballard the Leader of an expedition to the sunken liner s watery grave nude a six hour recon Naissance dive with two Crew members sunday in preparation for a photographic probe of the ship which Sank in j 912, Ballard described seeing a huge Black Wall with his own eyes said Shelley a Zoa a spokeswoman for the Woods Hole oceanographic institution. Everything looked Fine. The weather there is very  Ballard and scientists of the Navy financed 56-manexpedition arrived at the secret site saturday night after a four Day 850-mile nip from Woods Hole Board the research vessel Atlantis ii. Ballard also led the group of scientists who in con Junction with a French research team discovered the titanic last september and used the submersible Angus to take More than 3,000 photographs of the Long Tost wreck. Those photographs appear to show the ship s Exten Sive Woodwork in remarkably Good condition after 74 years in 13,000 feet of icy cold water. Ballard said. During the next 11 Days scientists plan to take an other 100,000 photographs to document the ship s condition. They also plan to Send Jason jr., a self propelled robot with to eyes inside the titanic s grand Salon. The researchers said they will leave two Bronze plaques on the ship asking that any who May come hereafter leave undisturbed this ship and her contents a a memorial to deep water  the titanic heralded As unsinkable " Sank on its Maiden voyage from England to the United state after it struck an iceberg on april 14, 1912. Of approx i Matey 2,200 passenger Only 704 survived mostly women and children who were allowed to Board the too few lifeboats. Mountain of books traps quake victim san Diego Calif. Up an elderly Man pinned for 12 hours under a Mountain of books that Tell on him during sunday s earthquake was saved by Small air pocket under Bis bed authorities said. Anthony p. Cina 86, was found buried under a Large pile of books by neighbors who became concerned when they had not seen him All Day. Firefighters said Cina lined his one room apartment with books magazines and newspaper clippings that were piled to the ceiling and left him Little More than a 7-foot-Long aisle in which he lived. He sleeps on the books. You can t even see his bed for the books said Barney Attisha the owner of the Logan Heights District apartment and the Small Market underneath. Firefighter Sam Campbell said Cina Laved himself by rolling on his stomach to that his head was hanging Over the Side of Bis bed which itself was covered wifi books. Cina was Able to breath the air that was under the bed. That s what saved his life Campbell said. Firefighters dug Cina out by throwing the Book out the window and door he was taken to the University of California san Diego medical Center where he was listed in critical condition a Hospital spokesman said. An earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale hit Southern California at 6 46 . Powell changed mind on sodomy Low paper says Washington Dpi supreme court Justice Lewis Powell changed his mind after tentatively deciding to throw out a controversial anti sodomy Law instead providing the crucial vote to uphold the statute a published report said. The Washington Post reported sunday that the court s 5-4 decision june 30 upholding a Georgia Law that punishes sodomy with 20 Yearsin prison almost went the other Way. Powell the Post said agreed at one Point to provide the needed vote against the Law in Bow ers is. Hardwick but changed his mind and Al Lowed the court to leave unscathed the anti so Domy Laws in 24 states and the District of Columbia. The newspaper said Powell did not agree with the reasoning of the court minority led by jus Tice Harry Blackmun that a constitutional right to privacy protects homosexuals from prosecution yet he disliked the Georgia Law and was ready to overturn  within several Days of a conference held after hearing the March 31 arguments in therase he sent a memo to the eight other justices saying he was switching his Vole and would up hold the Georgia Law. The Post said sources were unable to pinpoint when and Why Powell changed his mind. Tutu s daughter encourages apartheid protests at Yale new Haven Cono. Up the daughter of South african Bishop Desmond Tutu urged Yale University demonstrators sunday to persist in pressuring the school to divest Ana to ignore arguments that they should instead protesting Washington. Vale argues that divestment of their Stock portfolio is insignificant and students should be marching in Washington not on  Naomi Tutu seavers said in remarks prepare for delivery to several dozen people gathered at a Campus Shanly Lown. Bomb explodes in mall where is. Rambo killed 3 Springfield pupi a erode Home made bomb exploded sunday in the tame suburban Philadelphia shopping mall where a woman known Asmi rambo went on a shooting rampage and killed three people officials said. The Springfield mall was evacuated immediately after the 3 30 . Explosion. No serious Hama a or injuries were reported. Saw the Flash and heard a loud noise and people started running Down the ban said fran Emmett who works in a store several feet front where the explosion occurred. After the experience of the shooting list year a lot of people Wen very Wared he said. Police refused to say whether any suspects had been arrested in connection with the incident. Three people were killed and seven others were wounded oct 30 when Sylvia Sec grist known As is. Rambo stormed into the Springfield mall and randomly opened fire on shoppers with a .22-caliber Semi automatic Rifle. A jury last month found Selgrat guilty of three counts of murder but it also bund her insane. Poisonous Gas injures 4 at University lab Rochester . A a Small amount of deadly Hydrogen cyanide Gas escaped in University of Rochester Laboratory injuring fou people one seriously authorities said. A 34-year-old researcher. Wafaa Fawzy we in guarded condition in. An intensive cart if1 monday morning As a result of sunday afternoon s Accident cont bag to off Ida at Strong memorial Hospital two graduate Stu dents and a Security guard Wen treated and re leased. Fawzy was mixing chemicals in a special protective chamber in the basement Bontor when a tapered fitting on a Glass Container apparently ruptured allowing Hydrogen cyanide to escape said Robert h. Huson the University s chief of environmental health and safety