European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 11, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 8 a the stars and stripes Friday october 11,1991mr. Baby roofer answers cry for safety new York apr they listen to whale sounds at birth they eat special delivery baby food they ride around in $1,000 european prams. And now the babies of yuppies can take their first Steps in Homes baby proofed by a professional a or. Baby roofer. A a there a no place like Home a says or. Baby roofer a for things that Are dangerous to the  or. Baby roofer is Anthony Simnowski a Young father and contractor who was spending a lot of time adapting apartments and houses for children. So last year he branched out and formed new York baby proofing co. For a fee he will rid a Home of the myriad threats to Young life and limb. Most of his clients Are Young professional couples who Are Security conscious a or Security obsessed a but Lack the time or the know How to baby proof their own places. For $45, Simnowski will evaluate a Home and explain what must be done to make it Safe for creeping crawling and toddling. The work itself can Cost thousands but most apartments can be baby proofed for about $300 a a less than a stroller a said Simnowski a wife and partner Mary Ann. Although some prudent souls retain the Simnowski before the children Are ambulatory and sometimes even before they Are born most Call for help Only when the need has become All too apparent. When Simnowski arrives there s often been what he describes As a an incident a a fall a Burn an electrical Shock. Quot generally the child is crawling around and the parents Are pulling their hair out a parents such As Neil Ochsner and Janine Golding Ochsner whose son Joseph crawled at 5 months and is walking at 9 months. In his Short but Active life Joseph has pulled a Telephone answering machine Down on his head yanked a stereo speaker off the Wall and sampled the dogs food. A a he a a Little menace Quot said his adoring Mother. Simnowski is often dismayed by what he sees. A there Are a lot of common sense things people Are oblivious to. Its amazing what you  you find potentially poisonous plants on the floor heavy lamps on tables with Long easy to grab tablecloths Ming vases on Coffee tables. You find a chair near a window or Extension cords spreading out like Jungle vines or an electrical outlet without socket covers or even a plate. Although some clients believe they have substantially Mary Ann and Anthony Simnowski demonstrate a safety product with the help of their 814-month-old son Perry. Baby proofed their Homes a most have done a Quarter of what they should a Simnowski said. A there Are a thousand things they never thought  things like velcro snaps for stereo Cabinet doors Var covers and toilet seat locks. Toilet seat locks Quot children like to play in water a he explained. Some apartments have dangerously hot water so Simnowski installs Bathtub faucet handle covers to prevent a child from turning on the water and sometimes a thermostat to limit water temperature. Simnowski also installs the obvious window guards Radiator enclosures Cabinet locks and Gates. He tacks electrical cords to the Bottom of tables and covers doorknobs with a fitting that makes them difficult to turn. Homes should be safer a More than 2 million children a year Are injured there a but Why hire someone to do what generations of parents did themselves Janine Golding Ochsner an investment banker managed to survive childhood even though she grew up in a Home that had never been visited by a pro baby roofer. But her House had lots of space and relatively few appliances. Now she lives in a two bedroom Manhattan apartment jammed with electrical devices and other potential hazards. And she is pregnant. Quot i thought of everything that could go wrong a she said a but i could t do anything about it  so she called Simnowski. Jennifer Strabley Brown a Manhattan apartment Dweller whose infant son William has yet to crawl agrees. Or. Baby roofer a gives you a level of Comfort that you done to have if its your first child and you done to know what you re doing a she  oks substance tests for transport workers Washington a the House on wednesday overwhelmingly approved mandatory drug and alcohol testing that could involve More than 6.3 million transportation workers As lawmakers responded to Augustus deadly subway crash in new York. The legislation would require random tests for Many workers in the airline Railroad truck and bus industries As Well As for employees of local mass transit systems. Air traffic controllers and other Federal aviation administration workers also would be covered. A people have a right to know that those to whom they re consigned in the area of mass transportation Are free of substance abuse and sober a said rep. William j. Hughes . Hughes helped write the testing provisions along with rep. Lawrence Coughlin a a. Sen. John c. Danforth a to and several other lawmakers. The drug testing language on which there was no separate vote was part of a $35.2 billion measure financing Federal transportation programs for fiscal 1992, which began oct. 1. The House approved the spending legislation with a 374-49 vote. The measure is expected to be approved by the Senate As Early As next week and quickly signed into Law by president Bush. The Overall Bill contains about $600 million for Road projects in lawmakers Home districts $3.8 billion for mass Tran sit programs and $2.4 billion to modernize aviation equipment throughout the country. A dozen drug testing Bills similar to the measure debated wednesday have been approved by the Senate since 1987, Only to die in the House. Labor unions have vehemently fought the legislation in the past and some a such As the air line pilots association a still oppose it. The pilots group contends that the tests Are an invasion of privacy and that no crash involving a scheduled airline has been caused by drug or alcohol abuse. Nonetheless Union opposition has slackened since a speeding new York City subway train derailed aug. 29, killing five people. Authorities said the Driver had been drinking before reporting to work. Since last year government regulations have required random drug tests for aviation trucking and bus Industry workers whose jobs directly affect the Public a safety. For example airline pilots Are subject to the tests but clerical workers employed by an airline Are not. The rules also require drug tests in those industries before a person is hired after an Accident and when any person is suspected of drug or alcohol abuse. The legislation would for the first time require alcohol testing As Well extend All of the tests to commuter bus and rail lines and give the existing regulations the Force of Law. A Ian accused of wife s slow death Santa Ana Calif. A a Man accused of killing his wife in retaliation for an extramarital affair put her through a slow painful death by tainting her eyeliner with a toxic chemical authorities charged. Richard Overton 63, a computer consultant and College lecturer was indicted by a grand jury last week for the murder of Janet Overton who died in 1988. Her death had been attributed to cyanide possibly slipped into her Coffee the Day she died. But in documents unsealed monday investigators charged that Overton slowly poisoned his Wile with selenium. Her body sustained lesions and skin rashes according to an affidavit by Orange county sheriffs deputies. Overton who pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial also is linked in the documents to an attempted poisoning of his first wife in the Early 1970s after she angered him by suing for divorce. Dorothy Boyers beverages and shampoo were laced with selenium causing her to suffer the same symptoms that later afflicted Janet Overton the affidavit said. Boyer 56, suffers from cancer that she suspects was caused by the selenium poisoning years ago her attorney said last week. Boyer did not push for prosecution of her former husband and he was referred to county mental health services the document said. After Janet Overton died investigators re examined the Boyer Case. They also interviewed a married Man who said that he had been Janet overtones Lover and that her husband became suspicious in 1984. The Man who was identified Only As a confidential informant in the affidavit said Richard Overton tried to publicly humiliate his wife by distributing a flier about the  bites Model at photo session Manchester . A a Model posing for an and with a lion was injured when the beast suddenly clan Ped its jaws on her. Head during a photo session. Shannon Audley 23, was hospitalized in stable condition. Photographer Bill Melton said Audley and the 6-year-old lion were moving their Heads to the same Side when the lion snapped at her. A Trainer jammed his Arm into the animals Mouth to protect the woman Melton said