10 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, April 12, 1995
a 9o:s?
Smoking may cause
miscarriages, study finds
m The Washington Post
k s Smoking may cause as many as 7.5 percent of
all miscarriages - most of them occurring before
:hrf the woman knows that she is pregnant, researchers
y \ said yesterday.
Between 19,000 and 141,000 miscarriages in
America can be linked to smoking annually, and as
(Leapin' many as 26,000 newborn babies are admitted to
4. ard intensive-care units each year because of low
EinELUU ~ birthweight caused by smoking, the researchers
l A~t: ':estimated. In addition, as many as 2,200 cases of
'~When Ann Arbor Sudden Infant Death Syndrome may be caused by
resient cottmaternal tobacco use, the researchers said. The
~ Mc~llar gotinto evidence of smoking's heavy toll "is a poignant
.'.""~.,...".........
an accident, he reminder that use of tobacco products affects many
received insurance innocent individuals who have not chosen to as-
mnY t ixhssume the risks involved," wrote researchers Jo-
bumper.JYThis se ph R. DiFranza and Robert A. Lew in the April
trange ecaiiseufemaaie
.., . ,.i~~l ,., " . ten,;ance .technique The article provides a "imeta-analysis" of about
. <..: . .+4" soon":lead: to a whole: 100 studies related to smoking and prenatal and
'::"s:,<;;:. ' :.''',- ': -0 ,new look:::for::his: car.t>neonatal health. In a meta-analysis, researchers
\~": °Er~;' ::2.::r t ? rYCi:::::y::l.,., ,;..: :: :.t3 review all available studies on a particular topic
Photo bynd ty to draw overall conclusions.
"''~JOE WESTRATE/Daily Tobacco use during pregnancy has long been
associated with miscarriage, low birthweight and
other complications in newborns. In this case, the
researchers went a step further than many metal
analyses by attempting to estimate the number of
miscarriages, infant deaths and life-threaten ing
complications that could be attributed to smoking",
Meta-analysis is sometimes controversial be-
cause it attempts to draw comparisons between
studies of differing designs. But the new report is
"an outstanding article" that is the first to bring
together so many threads of research on the sub-
ject, said Michael Siegel, an epidemiologist with
the Office on Smoking and Health at the Centers.
for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
"Clearly, women have to take responsibility for
the life that they are carrying," said DiFranza, af
doctor in the Fitchburg Family Practice Residency
Program at the University of Massachusetts.
DiFranza added that since nicotine is highly
addictive, many women find it difficult to quit.
When polled, some 39 percent of smokers who'
become pregnant say they quit during their preg-
nancies, but studies that subjected the women to~
blood tests found that just 14 percent of women'
offered a variety of cessation aids actually quit.
Ito to meet with dismissed juror today; Fung testimony continues'
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The dis-
missed O.J. Simpson juror who pre-
dicted a hung jury and charged that
black panelists were treated differ-
ently by sheriffs deputies was or-
dered to appear in Judge Lance Ito's
private chambers today, a court
spokeswoman said Monday. '
Jeanette Harris was served with a
subpoena on Saturday from Ito, who
began an investigation into alleged
juror misconduct after Harris' explo-
sive live TV interview on April 5, the
day she was dismissed from the jury.
Harris was ordered to appear this
afternoon in the judge's chambers for
aprivate session. Court spokeswoman
Susan Yan declined to elaborate.
Yesterday, Los Angeles Police
Department criminalist Dennis Fung
returned for Day 4 of his testimony,
which was interrupted when three
jurors fell ill with the flu.
When the jury last saw Fung on
Wednesday, he was enduring a line of
cross-examination designed to show
that detectives and criminalists in the
case were borderline incompetents
who contaminated and moved critical
evidence.
Fung began his testimony last
week by dramatically unwrapping
from an evidence bag the bloody glove
found behind Simpson's house the
morning after the June 12 murders of
Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald
Goldman. Prosecutors have said stains
on the glove match the blood of
Simpson and the victims.
But defense attorney Barry Scheck
poked holes in many key aspects of
the investigation.
Under cross-examination, Fung
acknowledged that:
He took credit for collecting a
crime-scene glove, a hat and blood
drops, when most of the work actu-
ally was done by rookie criminalist
Andrea Mazzola.
At the direction of a detective,
he carried in a bag the glove found at
Simpson's estate into the middle of
the crime scene.
A detective erred in throwing a
white blanket from Ms. Simpson's
home over her bloody body. The blan-
ket was discarded, Fung said, before
it was checked for hair or fiber evi-
dence that could have ended up on
other pieces of evidence.
The trial has been beset by prob-
lems with the jury panel, which has
lost six members, leaving just six
alternates for a proceeding expected
to last for several more months.
Harris was ousted April 5 for with-
holding information about a domestic
violence incident involving her hus-
band.
During an interview, she denied
that she ever said jurors spoke among
themselves about the case, discus-
sions that would have violated the
judge's order. She saidjurors did form
cliques, but not because of the way
they felt about the case.
"I've never said that I personally
heard any of thejurors talking about the
case," she said during a live interview
Friday on KCAL-TV, which she con-
ducted to clarify remarks she made two
days earlier. "I have no knowledge of
any jurors talking about the case. The
only things that I said were possibili-
ties, that the possibilities did exist."
She said deputies did not always
monitor conjugal visits and telephone
calls.
Harris, who is Black, said the
Sheriff's Department had not acted in
an overtly racist manner toward the
jurors they are charged with guard-
ing, but she did complain of a "lack of
professionalism in some of the sher-
iffs." She also said some deputies
promoted racial tensions.
"We got treated different," Harris
said of Black jurors. "It wasn't that
slurs were being thrown around. The
treatment was different."
The jury now has eight Blacks,
three whites and one Hispanic. Of the
remaining alternates, four are Black,
one is white and one is Hispanic.
Simpson defense attorney Barry Scheck questions police criminologist
Dennis Fung. Scheck poked holes in several key aspects of Fung's
testimony, including details on the collection of drops of blood.
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We can
make the
difference
while you wait.
Sprial & velo binds
professionally
finish your
report instead
of leaving
- . . - ... It dangling.
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MEXICO
Continued from page 1
romance of the guerilla effort, not all
Mexicans are so quick to believe that
the Zapatistas are true promoters of
democracy and champions of the poor.
"I think they are run and supported by a
group of frustrated old politicians who
have been denied power under the
present government. Government posi-
tions are aware the money is, while the
pueblos are starving and being pushed
off their lands the politicians have sea
side ranches to live on and travel to
Miami or Houston every week," said
Francisco Nava, the owner of a small
restaurant in Yucatan.
Some Mexicans said the amount of
money that has been funneled to the
Zapatistas in weaponry and supplies
seems beyond even the resources of the
elite. Others express the more radical
idea that the government itself is be-
hind the Zapatistas.
"The people are being fooled again,"
said Miguel Sanchez, a computer op-
erator in Puebla. "Their hopes have
been raised that there is actually a strong
force fighting for them, for their land
and their rights, but I think the govern-
ment has planned the whole situation to
avoid widespread protest and an upris-
ing of the people. When the people
think that the Zapatistas are going to
fight for them they no longer have a
reason to rise up. By creating a pretend
uprising the government prevents a real
one.",
Still others fear that the external
actors are directing and funding
Zapatista movement.
"I think they are foreigners," said
Raul Eminez, a Chiapaneco tourism pro-
moter,. "Many of us believe that Marcos
and the other leaders are from Cuba or the
United States. Thesecountries either want
more power in the Mexican government,
or they want Chiapas. This is a rich state
with oil and minerals, it is so isolated
from the rest of Mexico it would be easy
to break off."
Even the people who do have confi-
dence in the philanthropic nature of the
Zapatista movement question its finan-
cial sources.
"I think it is from the drug trade,"
said a medical student from the state of
Campeche.
"I have heard that Ross Perot was
financing the guerrilla army because he
hates the ideaof NAFTA," said Eugenio
Alonzo, a business man from the capi-
tal of Chiapas, Tuxla-Gutierrez.
"They kidnap government officials
and members of their families to raise
the money," said a government histo-
rian in Yucatan.
"I think there are businesses and
organizations all over Mexico that send
the Zapatistas money and supplies. They
probably house the Zapatistas who have
come out of the jungle to work and
organize in other areas," said Lufs, a
fisherman in Quintana Roo. It has even
been suggested that the Zapatistas are
trying to get a hold of large industries
such as electricity, telephones, and the
government oil company PEMEX,
should it privatize."
"If the Zapatistas had control of the
major industries they would be more
powerful than the government," said
Julio, a civil engineer from Mexico
City. "If the government sent troops
into the jungles, the Zapatistas could
shut off services to the entire country.
The government would have a time
dealing with that."
As Mexicans continue to guess at
the true intentions of the Zapatista move-
ment, there is a general hope that while
the motives of the Zapatista are unclear,
the doubts of organization's sincerity
are unjustified.
"It's just an idea," said Miguel
Sanchez, a proponent of the government
backed insurrection theory. "I hope I'm*
wrong, and they are really fighting for the
people. I just question it because they
haven't really done that much. There has
been a lot of talk of fighting in the news-
papers but in reality there have been few
actual military confrontations."
Besides the Jan. 1, 1994 uprising in
San Cristobal de las Casas and the tem-
porary occupation of 32 pueblos in
December, the Zapatistas have made@
few aggressive movements.
"They are not stupid," Marfa Solfs,
a student advocate from Guadalajara,
said in defense of the Zapatista army.
"They know they can't fight the Mexi-
can military so they withdraw before
the troops arrive."
However, many feel that the Mexi-
can population is losing confidence,
and that the Zapatistas should make a
move soon to preserve the movement's*
momentum.
"I think they will have another up-
rising soon, maybe this summer or fall,"
Solfs said.
The recent economic crisis has un-
doubtedly effected the movement's fi-
nances. "The situation is hard," said a;
Zapatista supporter. "There are no jobs;
for the people (Zapatistas) and more
and more people are going without food.;
We are trying to think of new ways to
make money, but it is a difficult situa-
tion for everyone."
While many argue that the increas-
ing economic difficulties will prompt
more people to demand change, others,
counter that the people are working for
subsistence and do not have the time or
energy to organizc.
Some Mexican people are increas
ingly organizing to demand change.
With the Zapatista leadership still
largely intact despite recent govern
ment crackdowns, it seems that the
Zapatistas may emerge from this time
of economic strive stronger than ever.
- Denson is an LSA senior
pursuing a concentration in
Latin American studies.
Columbia Review
INTENSIVE MCAT PREPARATION
Group claims Border Patrol abuses
WASHINGTON (AP) - Border
Patrol agents routinely abuse people
seeking to enter the United States from
Mexico-legally and illegally -and
earlier reports by the group as a string
of unfounded allegations.
The study is the third in a series of
highly critical reports of U.S. immi-