The Michigan Daily-Wednesday, September 24, 1980-Page 7
ELECTION KEEPS PLANT OPEN
Maine votes for nukeS

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP)-Residents
of Maine voted last night to keep open
the controversial Maine Yankee
i'-.nuclear power plant. It was the first
time the issue of closing an existing
nuclear plant was put to voters in the
United States.
With 368 of 665 precincts, or 55 per-
cent, reporting, there were 56,207
"Yes" votes in favor of closing the
plant, to 79, 543 "No" votes, or against
closure.
Turnout for the single-issue referen-
dum was reported unusually high in
many cities and towns. In Portland,
Maine's largest city, officials said tur-
nout rivaled that of the 1976 presidential
election.

PRO-NUCLEAR ADVOCATES had
hoped the big turnout would swing the
vote their way.
"We tend to be optimistic that a large
turnout will mean a lot of people are
taking the matter seriously," said
Peter Thompson, spokesman for Cen-
tral Maine Power Co., major
stockholder of the Maine Yankee
nuclear plant.
"The larger the turnout, at least we
hope, means a greater number of
people voting to keep the plant from
being shut down," Thompson said.
THE SINGLE-ISSUE proposal before
Maine voters called for immediate
shutdown of the Maine Yankee plant at
Wiscasset, the state's only nuclear

facility which began operation in 1972
and supplies} one-third of the state's
power.
Leaders of the anti-nuclear
movement stockpiled champagne in
their Augusta headquarters and
declared a victory even before any
returns had been counted.
If the nuclear ban questioned suc-
ceeded, a protracted court battle was
expected over the question of whether
a state law can pre-empt federal
jurisdiction over nuclear plants.
THE MAINE referendum was a
crucial ballot-box test for the nuclear-

power°industry.
The referendum drew strong interest
from out-of-state utility companies, in-
vestment groups and bankers. The
Save Maine Yankee Committee said 55
percent of the $790,000 it spent trying to
defeat the nuclear-ban referendum was
donated from big-business interests
across the nation.

LEARN A NEW NON-WESTERN AND NON-INDO-EURO-
PEAN LANGUAGE, TAMIL, WITH ITS RICH LITERALY
TRADITION AND CULTURE.
Spoken by approximately 60 million people, Tamil is the ONLY modern Ion-
guage of India with a literary history of over 2000 years.
This fall, elementary Tamil is being offered in the Department of Lin-
guistics. If you already know the language, you can register for higher levels
of Tamil like classical, medieval, or modern Tamil.
Those who are interested in knowin what earthly good it is to study
Tamil are requested to contact Rajam Ramamuorti at the Department of
Linguistics (764-0353).
NOTE THAT TAMIL COURSES SATISFY THE FLAS REQUIREMENTS AS WELL
AS OTHER LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY.

Class action suit brought
'against Rely producer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP)-A multi-
million-dollar class-action suit was
filed yesterday in federal court against
Procter & Gamble Co.-manufacturers
of the Rely tampon which has been
linked by federal studies to toxic shock
O syndrome.
The suit was described by attorney
David Gold as the first of its kind.
Procter & Gamble took the Rely tam-
pon off the market on Monday.
THE LAWSUIT CONTENDS Rely is
unsafe and that all women who use it
face "lacerations and toxic reactions."
The action, filed by Gold on behalf of
all women, was brought by Carol
Thompson of nearby Union City and
Barbara Lee of Woodland, near
Sacramento. Both women are in their
early 30s.
Thompson claimed in the suit that she
used Rely tampons for about six mon-
ths, and that during the first month she
experienced "shivering, a high tem-
perature, a rash on her shoulders,
nausea;, and diarrhea."

LEE SAID SHE had used Rely for a
year, and had suffered various sym-
ptoms and had to be hospitalized twice.
The suit did not put a specific dollar
figure on the amount of damages
Symptoms of a former
Rely tampon user in-
cluded 'shivering, a high
temperature, a rash on
her shoulders, nausea,
and diarrhea.'
sought.
However, Gold said feminine hygiene
product sales in the United States
totaled $700 million during 1979, and
Procter & Gamble had a "substantial
share" of that business.

ROBERT NORRISH, a spokesman
for Procter & Gamble, said in a
telephone interview from the firm's
Cincinnati headquarters that the com-
pany was unaware of the suit and
declined further comment.
The lawsuit seeks to recover all the
revenue Procter & Gamble has
received from Rely, as well as a court
ruling that the tampon is unsafe to
women.
Rely has been linked in recent mon-
ths to "toxic shock syndrome," a
disease which can be fatal to women
who use tampons. According to the suit,
women using Rely may experience
damage to their vaginal walls and
dangerous reactions.
TOXIC SHOCK syndrome has been
linked to 29 deaths since 1975, said Dr.
Arthur Reingold of the national Center
for Disease Control in Atlanta. The
illness is caused by a bacteria called
staphylocccus auerus, and tampons
may create an environment in which
the germ can go to work, he said.

11 CONTRACT MEDIEVAL DISEASE:

Plagu(
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -
Bibonic plague-the ancient scourge
that littered the lanes of medieval
Etkrope" with bodies-has struck 11
people in New Mexico this year-killing
three of them.
Bubonic plague is a rare disease, but
it hits New Mexico harder than any
* other state. "There is no question that
the disease is endemic in the rodent
population in New Mexico," said Dr."
Jonathan Mann, assistant state direc-
tor for health promotion and disease
prevention.
Fleas transmit the disease from
animals to humans-a pet dog or cat
might kill an infected rodent, a flea
might hop from the rodent to the dog
and the dog might carry it home.
THE DISEASE CAN be transmitted
between humans when it reaches the
pneumonic stage, the victim's coughs
spewing the virulent plague organism
into the air to infect other humans.
However, New Mexico has never
registered a human-to-human plague
case.
"The risk of plague is higher in
adolescents and children," Mann said.

kills 3 in N.M.

"This probably has to do with their
relationship with dogs and cats-they
maybe are more likely to have close
contact with the dogs and cats."
Plague symptoms include a high
fever, a general feeling of sickness
usually accompanied by painful
swelling of the lymph glands in the
neck, underarm and groin areas.
IN THE 30 YEARS since 1949, when a
Taos physician who had seen plague
cases in California diagnosed the first
one in New Mexico, 97 people have con-
tracted the disease. Seventeen of them
died.
Forty-four of the cases occurred in
the first 25 years of that span. But in the
past five years, there have been 53.
"Clearly, the number of cases is in-
creasing significantly," Mann said.
"This is the first century of our ex-
perience with plague in the United
States and it's too early to know how it's
going to behave.
IN PAST YEARS, the plague has
rarely deteriorated into the pneumoic
stage because of prompt diagnosis.
From 1949 to 1974, only 5 per cent of the
cases of plague involved the pneumonic

form, Mann said.
But the pneumonic form is on the up-
swing-25 percent of the cases in the
last five years were of the pneumonic
form, Mann said.

m

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