The Michigan Daily-Saturday, December 2, 197--Poge 7
ire code needed for day care to stay
(Continued from Page 1)
through the local Child Care Referral
Service, and have been working
through the state legislature and com-
mittees to accelerate the promulgation
of inspectionlaws.
ACCORDING TO Smiley, the
problems began when the state took
over the local inspections. Smiley said
the nine-year-old CCAC had not been'
cited for fire code violations until the
DDS' interpretation of the codes were
applied to the Ann Arbor day care cen-
ters.
In May of 1977, the Department of
Social' Services contracted the State
Fire Marshal's office to either conduct
the fire inspections on its own or
delegate local marshals to conduct
them.
A conflict had already occurred
between state and local officials in
March, when city fire chief Chuck
Osborn had written a letter to the D SS
stating he felt the Department's
regulations conflicted with the State
Building and Safety's codes and those
of the city. The State Fire Marshal took
over the city's inspections in May 1977,
fallowing the signing of the DSS con-
tract.
ACCORDING TO Ronald Kenyon of
the State Fire Marshal's office, the
state inspections were intended to
provide "a more central and controlled
procedure" and to create "efficiency
and better consistency."
Local centers, however, soon found
themselves cited for violations of a code
they had never before been subject to,
because -the D.SS enforced different
regulations than the city did.
The state inspectors had disturbed
the local center employees by using
"gestapo kind of techniques," Clark
said. The teams would often appear
without appointments - in one instance
arriving to inspect Clark's center as the
employees were cleaning up the
remains of an 80-adult dinner that had
been held in the building, she said.
CLARK complains the state was en-
forcing its rules arbitrarily, exempting
local nurseries from certain
regulations, while citing them for
others. Clark also said the state has still
not informed local centers of all the
rules applicable to them. "They have a
whole book (of guidelines) they will not
make public to us," the director
declared. "We do object to being cited
for regulations we never heard of."
Day care center directors such as
Clark and Smiley, who was concerned
about the state's citation of the 32 "fire
hazard" doors, met with Osborne and
state officials to discuss the situation.
Six months ago, the city was finally
granted the right to resume its own in-
spections. This was partly due to the
nursery directors' pleas and prompted
by the fact that the state team's
workload was weighing it down.
City Council last month passed an or-
dinance saying the city need only abide
by its licensing bureau's inspection
codes. The city's codes, as well as the
state of Michigan's, are more stringent
than the DDS regulations. Although this
allows city inspectors to ignore the
discrepancies in codes, therefore
eliminating much of the former con-
fusion, there is still the problem of ar-
bitrariness in the DDS guidelines and
the fact local centers are still being
cited for violations they did not realize
existed.
Lowe said he expects new and com-
prehensive guidelines will be com-
pleted and "will become rules with the
force of law" by next spring.
"We will obey a law, but we won't
obey a regulation that is subject to in-
terpretation and that we're not allowed
to appeal," Clark declared, adding that
the problem will "be over once the
guidelines are promulgated and
become law."
"Tev ('state officials)
hate a whole book (of
guiidetines) they tril make
public to its. We do object
to being citedl for regela-
tions tre neree heard oft. 2
-Kate (la rk,
DaY (;are &eler
lirector
I
Timed birth control
shot found
State's income limit
for ed. loans stays put
United Press International
An injectable, time-release con-
traceptive for women that could
replace birth control pills, and is effec-
tive for six months, has been suc-
cessfully developed and tested in
baboons at the University of Alabama
in Birmingham, medical researchers
reported yesterday.
researchers also said the technique
cduld be used in the future for ad-
ministering other drugs needed every
day, such as insulin for diabetics.
CLINICAL TRIALS for human use of
the contraceptive will be conducted in
Mexico by the same Mexico City in-
vestigators who first tested oral con-
traceptives.,
Dr. Lee Beck of the university's
Department of Obstetrics and
Gynecology said researchers suc-
cessfully combined a. contraceptive
steroid and a biodegradable plastic to
form microscopic beads that release
the steroid over a period of time.
The beads, which are harmlessly
absorbed by the body, are suspended in
a sterile saline fluid that can be injected
over a determined period of time. Beck
said the system offers advantages over
the pill and could replace it in the
future.
"WE ARE particularly pleased that
the injectable contraceptive does not
contain estrogen, an element in the pill
which has been linked to such side ef-
fects as thrombophlebitis (blood clots)
and hypertension (high blood
pressure)," Beck said.
In another development in the birth
control field reported Friday, a study
by Boston researchers said older
women who smoke and take the pill
face a greater chance of being stricken
by a nonfatal heart attack. Oral cop-
traceptive users of all ages, smokers
and nonsmokers, also risk suffering
from nonfatal blood clots.
The Boston University School of
Medicine study examined oral con-
traceptive and noncontraceptive
estrogens and their relationship to
heart attacks, strokes and blood clots.
The study was published in the Journal
of the American Medical Association in
Chicago.
The objective of the Alabama resear-
chers' 3/2-year study was to achieve a
controlled-release delivery of the
steroid norethisterone.
LANSING (UPI)-State officials
have declined to lift a $25,000 family in-
come ceiling on eligibility for direct
higher education loans, even though the
federal government recently discarded
the limit.
The Michigan Higher Education
Student Loan Authority voted to retain
the eligibility limit at least tem-
porarily, Ronald Jursa, director of
student financial assistance programs
in the Michigan Department of
Education, said yesterday.
The decision will be reviewed by the
authority in May when it has beeri
determined if large numbers of middle=:y
income Michigan residents are being
denied loans.
For years the state has operated a
guaranteed loan program underwriting
loans,from banks and other private len-
ding institutions to college students.