The Michigan Daily - Thursday, April 14, 1994 - 5
. Archer calls
for cutting
waste in city
budget
* DETROIT (AP) - Mayor Dennis
Archer proposed a streamlined city
budgetyesterday aimed atcutting waste
without sacrificing social services to
tackle an expected $63.3 million defi-
cit.
"This budget can be a new begin-
ning," Archer told the City Council.
"With dedication, effort and time, we
will restore Detroit to greatness."
Archer's $2.2 billion budget plan
got rid of a 10 percent pay cut for city
workers initiated under his predeces-
sor, while wiping out 270 city posi-
tions, including 50 high-level jobs.
But his recommendation of a $3 per
vehicle entry fee for Belle Isle Park, the
city's major public park, immediately
prompted protest from the council.
The fees, expected to bring in $1.5
million, will apply only to cars, not
0walk-ons and bikers.
"I just don't think that we should
balance our budget on the backs of the
poor,"council member BrendaM. Scott
told Archer.
She said in an interview after his
presentation that she planned to "zero
in" on two proposals - the park fee
and the increase of bus transfer costs
from 10 cents to 25 cents - during the
upcoming discussions in the council.
The council plans to finalize a bud-
get plan by the end of next month.
Council members praised the mayor
as forthright, areputation he has earned
since taking office in January.
Council member Clyde Cleveland
said Archer's openness struck a con-
trast to the secretive, autocratic style of
Coleman Young, the former mayor.
Archer's proposal to end the so-
called "doo-wop" arrangement, in
which city workers agreed to stay home
some days of the week without pay,
was welcomed with good-natured
laughter.
Archer also suggested some invest-
ments that he said would pay off in the
long run. Those included 20 new posi-
tions in the city's legal department, a
14 percent increase, and $90,000 in
new computer systems to grapple with
"the paperwork jungle."
He also restored a department to
oversee youth programs and set up a
new task force on the homeless. It
allotted $2 million for home repair
financing and $9.8 million for neigh-
borhood development projects.
But the thrust of his proposal was
trimming the fat.
The cuts in city jobs alone, he said,
would save $10 million. The mayor's
office, with a staff of 78, would be the
smallest since 1980.
The Detroit police was asked to sell
two helicopters and two planes, adding
$1.1 million to the city's coffers.
He urged bus drivers, police and
firefighters to begin making conces-
sions on wage negotiations. He chided
the way city funds were now being
managed as "haphazard."
"Productivity is dismal and em-
ployee morale is worse," Archer told
the council.
Council member Gil Hill said he
backed Archer's plan to trim waste.
"We're living in such times that
we're going to have to take a real good
look at this. And we've got to suffer,"
he said. "When you're $63 million in
the hole, everybody is going to get hurt,
if you do it right."
GOT THE WHOLE WORLD IN MY HANDS
Tobacco industry
reveals additives
used in cigarettes
MARY KOUKHAB/Daily
Kindergartner Ivanna Candido plays with the Cube yesterday during a brief respite from two days of rain.
1-ear, $4 ilontd on beta
caoeneyelsConflicting results
WASHINGTON (AP) - Under
intense pressure from Congress, the
nation's biggest tobacco companies re-
leased a top-secret list of chemicals in
cigarettes yesterday.
"We really don't know the health
effects of smoking a cigarette with a
very specific quantity of chemicals
added in a specific combination," said
Rep. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
"It's disingenuous at best to con-
tend the absence or presence of certain
chemicals means that cigarettes are
safe," said Victor Zonana, spokesper-
son for the Department of Health and
Human Services.
"We've been misunderstood, mis-
represented and we want the American
public to know there is not any misrep-
resentation," said Robert Suber, a toxi-
cologist for R.J. Reynolds, which spear-
headed the unveiling.
The release came one day before a
congressional hearing on the content of
cigarettes and whether the Food and
Drug Administration should regulate
them as drugs.
Key to FDA's decision is proving
whether cigarette companies manipu-
late nicotine levels. Yesterday's list of
additives is tobacco extract, which con-
tains a small amount of nicotine.
Suber contended the amount is too
tiny to justify FDA action.
Also yesterday, Rep. Henry
Waxman (D-Calif.) released a 1981
article written by a tobacco executive
stating that companies specially blend
tobacco to maintain high nicotine while
reducing tar. The executive, Alexander
Spears of Lorillard Tobacco Co., last
month testified before Waxman's
health subcommittee that companies
don't do that, saying nicotine levels
naturally drop when tar drops.
"Once again tobacco industry rep-
resentatives have not only withheld
information, but they have misrepre-
sented the truth," Waxman said.
Tobacco is the biggest ingredient in
cigarettes, and scientists have shown
that tobacco itself and chemicals in
cigarette smoke are lethal.
The government estimates that
400,000 Americans die from cigarettes
every year.
There is growing uproar over a fed-
eral law that makes companies list for
the government the more than 700 ad-
ditives that go into different brands.
The law forces that list to be kept secret
under penalty of jail.
The list contained 599 additives
used by domestic cigarette companies.
Foreign companies use an additional
100 chemicals, which remain secret.
Among the more common addi-
tives: chocolate, wine and coconut oil.
Government officials have said 13
cigarette additives aren't allowed in
food. Domestic cigarettes contain only
eight of those, and Reynolds contended
they're not harmful in the trace amounts
used. Among them:
0 Methoprene, an insecticide
sprayed onto tobacco leaves to prevent
beetle pupae from maturing. Reynolds
said FDA allows methoprene to be
used on dried fruits, but FDA officials
couldn't confirm that Wednesday.
Ammonia, which can be toxic
but is allowed in food in certain forms.
BOSTON (AP) - Wait. Clean up
your plate. Mom's advice is still cor-
rect: You really should eat your car-
rots.
The release of astudy casting doubt
on the seemingly awesome powers of
beta carotene has led to some under-
standable confusion. The research
found that not only did mega-doses of
this vitamin found in carrots fail to
protect smokers from lung cancer, it
actually seemed to increase the risk.
At DeLuca's Market on Boston's
Beacon Hill, produce manager Paul
Sousa was as puzzled as anyone.
"This is something that's been good
forpeople for so long. Then they change
their story in midstream. It's hard to
understand," he said.
Not even the people who conducted
the 10-year, $43 million study are sure
what to make of it. But one thing seems
clear: carrots, broccoli and other foods
rich in beta carotene are surely good for
you.
And while vitamin pills are not
provendto be harmful, the study pub-
lished in yesterday's New England Jour-
nal does nothing to support the exuber-
ant claims made about them, either.
"This is very specific to pills. All of
the studies thatpreceded this thatlooked
at foods showed no suggestion of harm,"
saidKaraSmigel, adietician and spokes-
woman for the National Cancer Insti-
tute..
"We are worried about headlines
that say, 'Carrots Are Bad for You,"'
she said. "That's exactly what we do
not want people to hear from us."
Inrecentyears, though, many people
have turned to vitamin pills to boost
their daily intake of beta carotene and
other nutrients found in much smaller
levels in a healthy diet.
The Council for Responsible Nutri-
tion, a vitamin maker trade group, says
use of beta carotene pills has doubled in
the past three years. Now about 5 per-
cent of U.S. adults take the supple-
ments.
The latest study - though not con-
clusive proof of harm - is certainly
noteworthy. It is the first in a well-fed
Western country to look at the long-
term effects of high doses of beta caro-
tene. In this project, 29,133 older male
smokers who lived in Finland took beta
carotene capsules, vitamin Eordummy
pills for five to eight years.
When it was done, the beta carotene
users had 18 percent more lung cancer
than did the others.
It is possible that the finding was a
statistical fluke, even though the odds
of this were calculated to be one in 100.
Furthermore, it could turn out that the
results would be different in nonsmok-
ers, or that somewhat lower doses could
have an effect on other types of cancer.
"When the study began, we wanted
nothing more than to prevent cancer.
It's a good example of the idea that
science is not always highly predict-
able," said the cancer institute's Dr.
Demetrius Albanes, the study's princi-
pal author.
Many foods contain beta carotene,
the vegetable form of vitamin A. It is
especially common in deep yellow,
orange and dark green vegetables and
fruits, such as peaches, spinach and
yams. Typically, Americans consume
2 or 3 milligrams of it daily.
Until now, there has been no hint
that beta carotene is harmful, either
consumed in the relatively low amounts
contained in food or when taken in
capsule form.
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Donald S. Lopez, Jr.
Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, Dept. of Asian Languages and Cultures
Then Life of the
DalaiLama(ls)
A special background presentation in
advance of the visit of the Dalai Lama
Featuring a brief lecture, video, and Q&A on the history of the
institution of the Dalai Lama and biographical information about
His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the current Dalai Lama of Tibet
Presented twice
Tuesday, April 19 at 4:39 p.m.
Wednesday, April 20 at 7:30 p.m.
in Angell Hall, Auditorium D
Free and open to the public. Sponsored by LS&A.
Rackham School of Graduate Studies & College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Welcome
His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso
the Fourteenth
Dli L f Tibet
to the University of Michigan " April 21-23,1994
call 998-6245 for more information
The Dalai lama's visit is funded jointly by the University Wallenberg Endowment and the Warner-Lambert Corporation.
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