European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 23, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Tuesday september 23, 1986 the stars and stripes Page 7 Auto accidents More Likely for smokers Boston up smokers Are much More Likely m Speed run red lights and get involved in car accidents than nonsmokers researchers say. A new study found smokers have 50 percent More Auto accidents and receive 46 percent More traffic tickets than non smokers apparently because they Are More willing to take risks and May be distracted by their cigarettes. People who smoke arc taking More risks Wilh their health. So we thought people who Are More Likely to risk their health in one area would be More Likely to risk their health in another that is while said or. Joseph Difranza of the University of Massachusetts medical Center in Worcester. Difranza headed the study. Previous studies had found smokers were involved More frequently in car accidents than non smokers but re searchers found no evidence thai smok ing caused any physiological changes that would make them less Alert. Difranza speculated that smokers May be More Likely to have personalities that made Iceni less concerned in general about their health therefore making them More Likely to be reckless Drivers. For the study researchers questioned 1,715 people who had received traffic citations and had enrolled in a special Drivers education program in Stead of paying their tickets. Even accounting for the younger age of smokers and the fact they generally Are less experienced Drivers and Are heavier drinkers smokers were found to have been involved in so percent More traffic accidents than non smok ers Difranza said. The researchers also questioned 1,999 people at random when they went o a stale registry of motor vehicles office to renew their Drivers licenses. Smokers in the group had received 46 percent More traffic tickets Shannon smokers. In addition to apparently being risk lakers interviews with the smokers found they were often distracted by their smoking. A number of those smokers that we talked to said that they had close Calls or accidents because they dropped a cigarette while driving and tried to re Trieve he burning cigarette said i Frantza an assistant professor of family and Community Medicine. Distraction is definitely one Difranza no cd insurance Compa Nies in some slates charge smokers More than non smokers because of their propensity to he involved in Acci dents. $10 toy robot helps cancer victims speak again Omaha neb. A Paul Werner lost his voice Box because of cancer and a device he used to speak quit working but he remained determined to talk and discovered that a $10 electronic toy robot would k him put his thoughts into words. Speech pathologists at the University of Nebraska medical Center now keep a Supply of the toys originally intended to make a child s voice sound like a robot s. They found that the toys were As Good As More expensive devices for some patients who have had their Laryn xes removed. I remember when he brought it in i just about dropped Over pathologist Marsha Sullivan said. I could t wait to get one. The Quality in t like the special devices but it s something they can use while they re learning esophageal speech or while they re deciding what s appropriate for them Sullivan said. And Lor something that Sells for under $ 10, it can t be Werner 55, of breaking s.d., said some people he works with can understand him better when he use the robot than when he uses special devices. It s just super he said. It s hard to believe it can work so when a lube attached to the toy robot is placed against the Tongue and words Are mouthed the toy makes sounds like a robot talking. After his Larynx was removed Werner stayed with his daughter while he received radiation treatment at the medical Center and Learned to speak with air from his oesophagus. Shortly before his surgery a boy in the neighbor Hood was Given one of the robots for his birthday. Ian Middleton s Mother asked him not to play Wilh the toy around a cmdr because she was afraid he would be self conscious about the Way he sounded when he used a $300 prosthetic device that makes Paul Werner Speaks with the help of a toy robot. Vibrations against the Throat thai can be shaped int words. But when the device stopped working the robot look Center stage. We went through and found it in the Bottom of the toy Boa said Werner s daughter. Deb Harriett. Everyone else was surprised Haw Well it worked but Ian said he knew it was just what he it was a Lifesaver for my father she said. You natural impulse is you want to talk and after what he d been through he needed to Nasta industries of new York introduced the elec tronic voice synthesizer toy this year. Company officials Learned about its new use in a letter from Werner s wife. Donna said a spokeswoman for the Public relations company that represents Nasta. It Iusi was almost n Fluke Jodi Heimler said. "1 Don t know of any plans to use it As anything other than a toy even though they say it s belter than the expensive prosthetic devices. Sullivan plans o show other therapists at a slate convention in october How the toy can be used. She usually sees from 20 to 30 patients a year and has recommended the toy to about 10 people since Werner s discovery this summer. Clyde Welch who had a Larynx Ecloy five years ago said it s important for people to be Able to communicate As soon As possible after the surgery it s a trauma very upsetting very confusing and very depressing he said. Welch said he cried during his first therapy be Sion. If 1 would have had this i would never have had the frustration 1 had he said. "1 would like to Sec this incorporated in All the hospitals to have them Avail Able for the mra. Werner said discovering the toy was a turning Point for the family. The word cancer is enough to scare you in the first place. You feel like you want to no but this helped us face it she said. Report finds drug abuse by air Crew Mexico protests Pittsburgh a airline flight Crew members including a ustar Pilot who nearly died of an overdose have been treated at Pittsburgh hospitals for abuse of cocaine and other drugs a newspaper reported sunday. The Pittsburgh press said in obtained its information from physicians and nurses who say patient confidentiality Laws Block hem from reporting he Abus ers to authorities. The press said in a copyright report that although it interviewed doctors and nurses at Only six of the Pittsburgh area s 36 Hospi tals emergency room staffers recalled at Leas 23 cases of flight Crew drug abuse. Of Hose cases 12 involved cockpit Crew members including pilots co pilots and engineers. The other 11 were Cabin Crow the newspaper said. In 18 of the 19 cases in which medical personnel could recall the patient s employer the airline was us air the news paper said. The report conies As a Pitts Burti based Federal grand jury to reportedly investigating allegations of cocaine use by us air employees. Twenty of the incidents cited by the press involved cocaine overdoses two were heroin reactions and one involved valium and alcohol. A passavant Hospital nurse said that in spite of the confidentiality Laws she told ustar officials about a Pilot who was treated for an overdose. I could t sleep for three nights worrying whether the cok head we treated would drive his plane into the of Mountain Wilh 300 people aboard. Finally i just called the airline and told them and it became their problem said the nurse who spoke on condition her name not be published. I d do it again she said. The press reported that one us air Pilot Blue faced and near death from a cocaine overdose was taken boyfriends to mercy Hospital on sept. 10. He was t breathing and was far More dead than alive said a doctor whom the newspaper did not name. Doctors and nurses were amazed when the Pilot lived despite ingesting a level and collection of drugs that i thought nobody could live through a doctor sail the Pilot Over the objections of his doctors left the Hospital less than two Days after being admitted. A us air official would not discuss the Case other than to Tell the newspaper thai that Pilot has not flown since sept. 7. It does t make any sense at All said Karen Coniclio clinical supervisor of mercy Hospital s emergency depart ment. We Are required by state Law to report Ait gunshots Stab wounds and child abuse to the police and seizures and a dozen other problems to the department of motor vehicles but when we have a Pilot carrying a deadly level of cocaine we be got no one we can legally notify to decide whether this Guy should be in the old Days booze was the biggest problem in the cockpit and while it presented some personality problems and led to some Good brawls 1 never had to worry about the co Pilot flipping out an unidentified Pilot said. Now. On some of my flights i m so worried about what the cok head sitting next to me might do at 34,000 feet that i m Terri fied to leave the flight deck even logo Lothe restroom personnel at All six hospitals contacted by the press said they also have treated cases of drug abuse or dependence among non flight personnel such As bag Gage handlers mechanics and Reser vation clerks. . News Story Washington not the mexi can embassy has made Public a formal diplomatic protest to be delivered to the United states government Over a news paper article that linked Mexico sense minister to drug trafficking. On sept. 15, the san Diego Union quoting Anonymous . Officials said the mexican defense minister Gen. Juan Arevalo Gardoqui was one of at least 45present or former mexican officials that . Investigators had identified As pos sible drug traffickers. The mexican protest note said the news article offered no proof or Evi Dence and was an offence to the de sense minister who runs Mexico s drag crop eradication program. The article so angered the government that president Miguel do la Madrid at Torney general Sergio Garcia Ramirez and Bernardo Sepulveda Amor the for eign minister met last week to decide on a response. They decided to Send the director of Mexico s narcotics control office to Washington this week to deliver a formal protest letter to attorney general Edwin Meese Iii
