Page 2 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, February 19, 1986 IIEALTH 4 ]FITNESS 'U'ponders smoking regulations By LAURIE DeLATER Smokers once told co-workers w complained about their habits to "b out." But these days non-smokers a employers are telling cigarette p fers what they can do with their b ts-and they're using written polic to sound the message. "Smoking in the workplace definitely one of the hottest personr issues of the Ws," said James Thii ithe University's personnel direct FOR MORE than a year, a comm tee under Thiry's direction has be working on a policy regulati smoking in University buildings. L month the committee released its fi draft, joining such scattered univ sities as Stanford, Central Michigk and Maryland that already ha outlawed smoke-filled offices and cc ference rooms. Academia is following the lead American industry in addressing a of the worst health problems in 1 workplace. f Nearly 15 percent of American companies already ha set up programs to tackle smokii according to a survey published National Safety News in June 1984. The magazine's survey shows t majority of these firms have( couraged employees to quit smoki or to inform them of the health haz ds their habit poses to co-worker The least common strategy is t direct mandate from managemen "Thou shalt not smoke." BUT that fiat is precisely what I 1 II 1 I.. I I I Flowers 1 1104 S. UNIVERSITY 1 996-1811 I2for 1Carnations VkTH THIS COUPON (Good unfi/3/4/86) One per customer per week ---------------- - University has been pondering. The proposed policy bans smoking in all rho work areas, except where equal and ud separate places exist for smokers and nd non-smokers, or where the smoker is uf- enclosed in a private office. ut- As many as 3,130 University staff ies members may be smokers, based on . employment figures provided by the ns Office of Faculty and Staff Data. niel Prof. Dee Edington, director of the ry, Division of Physical Education and or. the Fitness Research Center, said a it- random survey he conducted shows ,en that about 10 percent of the Univer- ng sity's faculty smokes. Other research, ast he added, indicates that smokers rst compose 30 to 40 percent of the er- nation's clerical, maintenance, and an, support staffs, and 10 percent of the ve administrative staff. the workplace. DONALD Thiel, the University's assistant director of personnel for staff benefits, saw the negative im- pact of smoking long ago. "I think one of the most memorable things I saw when I first started at the University in the '60s was a woman (in her 50s) who came in to apply for long-term disability," he remem- bered. "She could hardly breathe, she had emphysema so bad. But she sat down at my desk and lit up a cigarette." THIEL later convinced his colleagues to stop smoking in the Staff Benefits Office and then at personnel meetings, but it wasn't until the University's top officers examined the cost of health insurance and 'Smoking in the workplace is definitely one of the hottest personnel issues of the '80s.' -James Thiry, University personnel director The University's policy may be broadened to include students and visitors on campus before it is ap- proved, Thiry said. THE proposal may also get a push from the state legislature. Sen. Jack Faxon, (D-Southfield), introduced the latest version of his Michigan Clean Indoor Air Act last week. His measure calls for a ban on smoking in designated areas of public places. Faxon is confident that his fourth attempt in five years to regulate smoking will succeed. Part of the reason for the tur- naround, his aides have said, is public support for smoke-free workplaces. The American Lung Association of Michigan recently released a Gallup poll, conducted late last year, that said 79 percent of those surveyed-in- cluding 76 percent of the smokers-favored policies to separate smokers and non-smokers in KANDAH MICRO SALES ATARI 520/1040 ST and... " IBM COMPATIBLE COMPUTERS * ALL PERIPHERALS " ALL SOFTWARE call 668-4966 SPECIAL STUDENT PRICES productivity losses attributedI smokers that they accepted Thiel's ideas as reasonable for everyone on the University's payroll.r Edington showed Thiry's staff research that indicates the averaget smoker costs his or her employer1 $300-400 every year in lost produc- tivity. "Smokers are absent up to twice as much as non-smokers," he addedI "They have more accidents and take time to light up, go to the water foun- tain more often, and damage fur-I niture."1 THIRY said he doesn't know the1 exact dollar toll on the University.I But he pointed to the University'sf $27.7 million health insurance bill last fiscal year and said, "if this policy hast any impact at all, it won't be chicken1 feed." He also believes mounting evidence which suggests that smoke inhaled Teens babies WASHINGTON (AP) - Teenage childbearing cost the nation $16.6 billion last year, and the 385,000 children who were the firstborn of adolescents in 1985 will receive $6 billion in, welfare benefits over the next 20 years, said a study released yesterday.1 The first baby born to a teen-ager1 last year will receive $15,620 in welfare payments and other gover-1 nment support by the time the child4 reaches age 20, according to the study released by the privately finance Cen- ter for Population Options. By the time these babies reach age 20, the government will have spentt $6.04 billion to support them through1 unwillingly by non-smokers can harm them. "Passive smoking is attached to significant disease, including cancer and heart disease...That's difficult to refute," said Dr. Victor Hawthorne. chair of the epidemiology department at the University's School of Public Health. HAWTHORNE is one of a handful of researchers in the United States who have studied the long-term effects of passive smoking. Between 1972 and 1976, he and a team of assistants documented the respiratory ailments of about 15,000 people between the ages of 45 and 64 who were living in two communities i, Scotland. Four thousand couples were exposed to varying levels of smoke. As the grade of exposure increased, so did the incidence of disease and death, the researchers found. Bon- chitis, angina, abnormal EKG, cancer, and early death-all significantly linked to exposure to tobacco smoke - turned up more frequently in the passive smokers than in non- smokers exposed to no smoke. HAWTHORNEsaid his findings, updated last month, agree with the results of at least two other studies in the United States and with resear- ch in Japan and Greece. "In my mind, smoking is no dif- ferent than an infection," he said. "If you have some illness that you can spread to other people, then that's a public health problem that must be stopped." Legally, smokers don't have any rights in the workplace. They are not a protected class under Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act or Equal Employment Opportunity Com- mission guidelines. YET University administrators who support smoking in the work- place expect that it will be challenged. "There will be people who say, 'Hey, it's my right to smoke, and I'm going to smoke,' " said Edington. He hopes that non-smokers who are bothered will use their grievance procedures to ensure the policy is en- forced. He expects this resistance to go the way of public uproar when airlines began to relegate smokers to the back of their planes: "Smokers aren't complaining on airplanes anymore, and they won't, I imagine, at work either." cost billions Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Medicaid and food stamps, said the report entitled "Estimates of Public Costs for Teen-age Child- bearing." The report said a third of the welfare total-$2.4 billion-could have been saved had teen-age mothers waited until they had reached age 20 to have their first baby. Some 1.1 million teen-age girls become pregnant each year and 513,00 continue their pregnancies to birth, according to health statistics. Half the 385,000 teen-agers who have their first child each year are under age 18. The center, founded in 1980, is dedicated to preventing unwanted teen-age pregnancies. IN BRIEF COMPILED FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS AND UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL REPORTS Israelis push into Lebanon TYRE, Lebanon - Israeli troops and armor swarmed over south Lebanon with air and naval support yesterday searching for two comrades captured by Moslem guerrillas, who threatened to kill one unless Israel withdraws. Helicopter gunships strafed suspected guerrilla hideouts to support the hundreds of troops on the ground. Jet fighters crisscrossed the skies, breaking the sound barrier over Beirut, Tyre and Sidon. Lightly armed guerrillas fought advancing Israelis in the olive groves and tobacco fields. Lebanese radio stations claimed the resistance was stiff, but security forces reported only scattered fighting and said the powerful raiding force overwhelmed pockets of resistance. A statement distributed in Beirut by the Islamic Resistance, an allian- ce of fundamentalist Shiite Moslems that claims to hold the soldiers, said: "We warn the Zionist forces that they must immediately withdraw from all the villages they have targeted in their latest invasion. Other- wise, and within 24 hours, we will execute one of the two prisoners." It said the 24-hour period began at 9 p.m. yesterday, and the men had been moved to a "safe location, well beyond Israel's reach." France sends troops to Chad PARIS - France sent more troops into Chad yesterday as Libyan- backed rebels called for a "final assault" against the pro-Western gover- nment in the central African nation's 20-year-old civil war. The French Defense Ministry said 500 "ground troops" had been sent to Ndjamena, the Chadian capital, since the weekend from their base in the neighboring Central African Republic. A ministry spokesman said 200 soldiers arrived yesterday to join 300 others sent since Saturday to supervise the flow of supplies to Chadian troops and to guard the Ndjamena airport, but he would not say if more troops would be sent. "I can only talk about something that has already been done, not our plans," he said. Reagan lobbies Congress to extend aid to Contras WASHINGTON - Insisting Cuban-flown helicopters cannot be fought "with Band-Aids and mosquito nets," President Reagan began a hard sell yesterday to send $100 million in arms, ammunition and other aid to U.S.-backed Nicaraguan rebels. Meeting with congressional leaders at the White House, Reagan outlined a long-expected plan to extend a current allocation of humanitarian assistance by $30 million and provide another $70 million in "unrestricted" military aid for the Contras battling Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government. Congressional and administration sources said a cornerstone of the - plan - one expected to complicate the outlook for approval - is a request the military aid be "covert" and funneled through the CIA. Thousands evacuated in West after killer storms strike Thousands of people were evacuated in the West yesterday as the heaviest rain in 31 years forced rivers out of their banks, landslides blocked major highways and railroads, and heavy mountain snow triggered killer avalanches. At least seven people were killed and six were missing since the first in a series of storms struck the West a week ago. Since then, more than 18 inches of rain has fallen on parts of California and 8 feet of snow in some mountains. More than 3,000 residents of northern California were in evacuation centers with their homes flooded or threatened by slides. National Guar- dsman were called out to help in California and northwestern Nevada, where more people were out of their homes, and flooding also caused damage in parts of Utah. Nearly 50,000 people were without electricity in various northern California counties, utilities reported. Wind gusting to 50 mph blacked out about 2,000 customers Tuesday in parts of Oregon and earlier had caused millions in damage in Colorado. California Gov. George Deukmejian declared states of emergency Tuesday in Napa, Sonoma and Humboldt counties, a preliminary step toward making them eligible for federal disaster assistance. Navy officer sentenced to life NEWPORT, R.I. - A black sailor yesterday was sentenced to life in prison for fatally stabbing a white lieutenant in the back aboard a Navy frigate at sea. Petty Officer 3rd Class Mitchell Garraway was spared the death penalty by an eight-member military jury that deliberated four hours. The same panel convicted Garraway, of Suitland, Md., on Jan. 30 of premeditated murder in the slaying of Lt. James Sterner with a foot-long Marine survival knife. Garraway showed no emotion as Cmdr. Jean Kendell, president of the jury read the sentence, which includes his dishonorable discharge and the forfeiture of pay. "I'm satisfied with the decision they made today, but I'm very disap- pointed with the decision they made" on the premeditated murder con- viction, Garraway said outside the building. The sailor had testified he "just snapped" when he attacked the 35- year-old officer June 16, 1985, in a dark passageway while the USS Miller cruised off Bermuda. The Navy has not used capital punishment since two 1849 hangings. The last military execution was in 1961, when the Army hanged a private for murder. el2 t Mt{{gan'at $ Vol XCVI - No.99 The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967 X) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms. Subscription rates: September through April-$18 in Ann Arbor; $35 outside the city. One term-$10 in town; $20 outside the city. The Michigan Daily is a member of The Associated Press and subscribes to United Press International, Pacific News Service, Los Angeles Times E I 1E T1 3 PALAX TREE RESTAURANT Authentic Middle Eastern Cuisine Featuring: * hommos, tabouli " lamb shishkebob " falafel * homemade frozen yogurt plus a large variety of other health foods EVERYTHING FRESH MADE (no preservatives) 216 S. Fourth Ave. open: Ann Arbor Mon-Thur. 11 a.m-9 p.m. 662-2642 Fri-sat. 11 arm.-mop.m. 5 minute walk from central campus 14 , '" Learn Ailkdo Beginners classes are taught by Sensei Takashi Kushida, 8th degree black belt from Japan. There are two classes: - Saturdays 10:30-11:30 am (Starts March 1) " Thursdays 6:30-7:30 pm (Starts March 6) Cost: $20 for seven sessions. Classes are heldin the Aikido Yoshinkai Association Genyokan Dojo in Ann rbor. 749 AirportBlvd. (behind the state Rd. K-Mart). For information, call 662-4686. O AIKIDO YOSHINKAI ASSOCIATION Of NORTH AMERICA Sell Advertising for Earn money, get great business experience, build your resume.. . 10 Interviews will be given March 13 and 1 5 Call 764-0662 ASK FOR CINDY a p ( What's Happening * Coke - Diet or Classic * 6 pk. Cans $1.69 plus deposit Columbo Yogurt - Assorted Flavors 8 oz. 2/85 C ----4-- --+i44 * ifi-44----444-+4: Syndicate, and College Press Service. Editor in Chief ............ERIC MATTSON Managing Editor.........RACHEL GOTTLIEb News Editor..............JERRY MARKON Features Editor...........CHRISTY RIEDEL NEWS STAFF: Eve Becker, Melissa Birks, Laura Bischoff, Rebecca Blumenstein, Marc Carrel, Dov Cohen, Laura Coughlin. Tim Daly, Nancy Driscoll, Rob Earle. Amy Goldstein. Susan Grant. Stephen Gregory, Steve Herz, Linda Holler. Mary Chris Jaklevic, Philip Levy, Michael Lustig, Amy Mindell, Caroline Muller, Kery Murakami, Jill Oserowsky, Joe Pigott. Kurt Serbus, Martha Sevet- son, Cheryl Wistrom, Jackie Young. Opinion Page Editor .......... KAREN KLEIN Associate Opinion Page Editor . .. HENRY PARK OPINION PAGE STAFF: Gayle Kirshenbaum, Peter Ephross. David Lewis, Peter Mooney, Susanne Skubik. Arts Editor............... HOBEY ECHLIN Records ................... BETH FERTIG Book ................REBC'CA CUNGMC Sports Editor ..............BARB McQUADE Associate Sports Editors. DAVE ARETHA, MARK BOROWSKY, RICK KAPLAN, ADAM MARTIN, PHIL NUSSEL. SPORTS STAFF: Emily Bridgham, Debbie deFrances, Liam Flaherty, Jon Hartmann, Darren Jasey, Christian Martin, Scott Miller, Greg Molzon, Jerry Muth, Adam Ochlis, Duane Roose, Jeff Rush, Adam Schefter, Scott Shaffer, Pete Steinert, Douglas Voltah. Business Manager........DAWN WILLACKER Display Sales Manger ...CYNTHIA NIXON Assistant Sales Manager.. KATHLEEN O'BRIEN Classified Manager....GAYLA BROCKMAN Finance Manager ......... MIKE BAUGHMAN Marketing Manager..........JAKE GAGNON DISPLAY SALES: Lori Baron, Eda Banjakul, Recreational Sports 1986 MICHIGAN CLASSICS - -% M A: * I #- C m