European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 19, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday july 19, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 3bungee fever has America jumping by Kelley Shannon the associated press new braunfels Texas bungee jumping the free fall craze rooted in South Pacific rituals of manhood is springing up in High places All across the country. Still some people think those Whir strap giant rubber bands to their bodies and jump off Bridges platforms and Cliffs have More bravery than brains. A it feels like you re going to lose your life for a second but you come Back up and you re Happy again a said Rico Gonzales. A a in a hooked. I think this is going to be my life a to be a bungee  companies with names such As bungee fever total rebound and vertigo bungee Hope More and More people Start feeling the same Way. They re organizing jumping trips erecting towers and cranes and charging by the leap. In the South Pacific male islanders once attached vines to their Ankles and jumped off towers to symbolize becoming men. The modern Day version uses elastic bungee cords similar to the ones the military uses to drop heavy cargo from helicopters. The sport caught on in the United states in the late 1980s with forbidden plunges from Bridges and other platforms. Now entrepreneurs in Texas California Colorado and elsewhere Are cashing in on its growing popularity. Susie Simpson manages Bungy Over Texas a jumping site that opened july 4 on the Guadalupe River near new braunfels. She said she supervises about 100 jumps a Day at $35 each. Bungee fever operates a 120-foot jumping platform in the Southern California resort town of Lake Elsinore. Total rebound has a 320-foot platform in Dixon calif., North of san Francisco. In Idaho Springs colo., Clear Creek county commissioners in february approved a 140-foot bungee Tower in a secluded Canyon. The jumper is tethered to a Cord several feet Shorter than the distance from the top of the platform to the ground so that the jumper is pulled Back up just moments before he or she would hit the ground. Several bouncy rebounds follow before the thrill is Over. The cords usually Are attached to harnesses but some advanced jumpers Are strapped by their Ankles and dive head first. One fatality and one serious injury have been reported in new zealand where the activity got its commercial Start two years ago. After three deaths in 1989, France introduced regulations on bungee jumping last year. No deaths from bungee jumping have apparently been recorded in the United states. In Orlando fla., Orange county commissioners voted this month to ban scan group partners from organizing bungee jumps from a 230-foot Crane. A was a 50-year-old Mother frankly in a afraid two Home boys will drink a couple of Beers and do it on a dare a said commissioner fran Pignone. Bungy Over Texas also has critics. A a in a in an absolute state of rage a said Dan Moore a Retiree who lives next door to the 120-foot Tower. A a it a made me  Alee Ross takes the plunge sunday at a Beach in Galveston Texas.�?�. /. Report targets workplace cigarette smoking new York a cigarette smoke causes cancer and possibly heart disease in non smokers according to the governments first official report on the dangers of cigarettes in the workplace. The report which was issued on wednesday by the National Institute for occupational safety and health added that a fall available preventive measures should be used to minimize occupational  those measures include Banning smoking outright or restricting it to enclosed separately ventilated areas the Agency said. The report is Likely to persuade Many employers to toughen their restrictions on smoking said Bryan Hardin who supervised the nosh reports preparation. It also will help the occupational safety and health administration establish regulations for smoking in the workplace he said. A the official course of events is for Osha to take the recommendations and incorporate them into a Rule making a Hardin said. A but on a More personal level one would Hope that individual employers would go ahead and read it and act on their own without waiting for  the Agency recommended that employers and unions should cooperate to eliminate smoking establish smoking cessation programs and offer workers incentives to Stop smoking. In the absence of a ban employers should establish separately ventilated smoking areas and the a air from this area should be exhausted directly outside and not recirculated within the building a the report said. Brennan Dawson a spokeswoman for the tobacco Institute in Washington criticized the research linking secondhand smoke to cancer and said that studies show workers Are not exposed to substantial amounts of cigarette smoke on the Job. A the House of cards to try to climb to this conclusion is missing a lot of pieces a she said. A it is unfortunate that people Are getting a very skewed View of this. Studies continue to be published that done to show increases in risk. No one writes about  John Banzhaf of action on smoking and health in Washington said he believed the report would persuade Many employers to ban smoking. A i think this is very important because Many employers have assumed that simply setting aside separate smoking areas is sufficient a he said. A this report very clearly says that it is  Banzhaf said he has two lawsuits pending against Osha aiming to Force the Agency to ban smoking in the work place. He said he would use the nosh report As the basis of a petition that Osha classify secondhand cigarette smoke As a known cause of cancer. A if they fail to do so that will provide the basis for still another lawsuit a he said. The report a environmental tobacco smoke in the workplace a is an 18-Page review and analysis of existing research on secondhand cigarette smoke. It said the weight of the evidence a is sufficient to conclude that ets environmental tobacco smoke poses an increased risk of lung cancer and possibly heart disease to occupationally exposed  Roy Clason jr., Oshay a director of policy said the nosh report had just been received and was under review. A we take Niosha a projects and data very seriously when we move Forward on any potential areas of Rule making a he  fatalities in Germany Rise 13 percent by de Reavis staff writer Meckenheim Germany a amps More than 11,000 people died in car accidents last year which is 13 percent More than the previous year on both sides of the divided Germany the German traffic patrol office said thursday. The report said the number of people killed in car crashes in Eastern Germany soared by 76 percent to 3,139, while in the West it dropped slightly by 1.1 percent to 7,906. Officials put the blame on Eastern germans being cooped up for 40 years and restricted to driving slow plastic cars. The number of automobile accidents with injuries also shot up in former East Germany by 46 percent to almost 50,000 in 1990, the report said. In Western Germany about 340,000. Car accidents resulted in bodily injuries 1 percent lower than the previous year it said. The report said the number of car Drivers killed in crashes Rose by 5 percent while the number of pedestrians and bicyclists killed in accidents fell by 12 percent in Western Germany last year. On the German autobahn the number of fatalities jumped by 20 percent the report said. The report called the number of Young car Drivers killed in accidents particularly shocking. The number of people aged 18 to 21, soared by 675 percent and that of people aged 21 to 25 by 300 percent. Sections of Western German highways do not have a Speed limit but Eastern German highways have a Speed limit of 60 Mph because of their poor condition. But German politicians have already announced that when Eastern German highways Are renovated and expanded the Speed limit will be lifted