LOCAL/S TATE

The Michigan Daily - Thursday, October 11, 2001 - 3A

RESEARCH

Multiple wellness
a programs lead to
healthier lifestyle
Participation in multiple well-
ness programs may be the key to
improve personal health, according
to research at the Health Manage-
ment Research Center.
By examining the lifestyles of
12,984 General Motors Corp.
employees participating in the
UAW-GM LifeSteps Health Pro-
motion program, researchers found
the program helped to reduce
health risks in high-risk employees
and helped low-risk employees
remain healthy.
Risk factors, including physical
inactivity, smoking, not wearing
safety belts, excessive drinking,
high blood pressure, obesity and
poor psychological status, defined
whether a person was at high or
low risk.
To be high risk, an employee
must have three or more risk fac-
tors.
The program assesses people
over a two year period, and offers
employees a nurse advising phone
service, a self-care book, audiotape
health information and a web page
for the program.
Researchers found that people
involved in the program and other
healthy lifestyle endeavors dropped
from high risk to low risk over the
course of a year or two.
Other participants only traded
off certain risk factors for others.
Accuracy of store-
bought pregnancy
tests in question
Ten percent of pregnancies in
221 women went undetected by
sensitive methods on the first days
following a missed period, leading
researchers at the University of
North Carolina Chapel Hill to con-
clude that commercial pregnancy
test kits may not be accurate.
The naturalvariability in ovula-
tion and the time in which an
embryo attaches to the lining of the
womb causes pregnancies to go
unnoticed.
To prove effective, the tests must
be taken approximately nine days
after fertilization, which typically
takes six to 12 days.
Researchers found that if women
wait an extra week to take a preg-
nancy, the number of false readings
decreased to three or less percent
versus 10 percent without waiting.
With American women spending
a total of $230 million in 1999
alone on 19 million commercial
pregnancy kits, researchers hope
their findings will save women
money and help them take neces-
sary precautions if they are preg-
nant.
AIDS vaccination
undergoes tests
p in Washington
One year after the National Insti-
tute of Allergy and Infectious Dis-
eases opened their Betty Bumpers
Vaccine Research Center,
researchers have begun clinical tri-
als on the first AIDS vaccine.
Each day, 7,000 people die from
the AIDS virus and 15,000 con-
tract the disease, causing
researchers to speed up the clinical
implementation of the vaccine.
Unlike normal vaccines, which

contain weakened or killed forms
of the disease they protect against;
the DNA vaccine only contains
genetic material.
The genetic material contains
part of the HIV protein core and
three enzymes necessary for repli-
cation of the HIV virus.
The vaccine doesn't contain
genetic material for the entire
virus, so recipients cannot contract
the disease, but researchers want to
ensure that the body will produce
an immune response to the pro-
teins.
The vaccine is currently being
tested on 21 healthy men and
women between the ages of 18 to
60, who have little to no risk of
contracting the virus.
- Compiled by Daily StafReporter
Lisa Hoffman.

Man assaults
woman In
Arboretum
By Jacquelyn Nixon
Daily Staff Reporter
The Department of Public Safety issued a crime alert
yesterday after a female student reported assault and
battery by a white male while she was running on a
trail near the railroad tracks by Nichols Arboretum
Tuesday afternoon.
At approximately 1 p.m. the woman reported she
was intentionally tripped by a man who ran up behind
her on the path.
DPS Sgt. Rob Soichet said the student was knocked
down by the suspect. He leaned very close to her and
offered to help her up. After she pushed him away, she
fled the scene.
"It's more of a stealthful kind of assault, rather than
a brutal kind of assault," DPS Sgt. Rob Soichet said.
The suspect was wearing a pink fluorescent coat,
dark jogging shorts and dark blue or black suede ath-
letic shoes. The man is approximately 40 to 50, 5'10",
150 pounds with a thin build, gray hair and brown
eyes.
Assault and battery is defined as assault coupled
with an unlawful touching or striking, DPS spokes-
woman Diane Brown said. It does not require actual
physical pain and the touching does not have to be
direct.
Anyone with information is asked to contact DPS at
(734) 763-1131.

Finishing touches

I

DAVID ROCHKIND/Daily
Workers in Regents Plaza repaint the Cube yesterday. The Cube, a fixture on Maynard Street since 1968, was one of three designed by
University alum Bernard Rosenthal.

Anthrax producer cancels community meeting

LANSJNG (AP) - The only U.S. manufacturer
of an anthrax vaccine canceled a public meeting
yesterday, saying it would answer neighbors' ques-
tions about safety in writing instead.
The neighborhood association for the north
Lansing community that surrounds BioPort Corp.
scheduled the meeting several weeks ago and
reserved space at an elementary school so residents
could question BioPort officials.
Many residents had become uneasy after the
U.S. Department of Defense asked Michigan
National Guard troops to begin guarding the labo-
ratory, which has an exclusive contract to supply
the anthrax vaccine to the Pentagon.
Tom Powers, president of the neighborhood
association, said he has received more than 200
calls from residents concerned about the armed
National Guard troops or worried if they could be
affected by anthrax if BioPort is attacked.
BioPort keeps some live anthrax bacteria on its
Lansing campus, but the company has said that the
amount is too small and isn't in a form that would

"In the last few days, it had taken on too big of a a
proportion for what we were prepared to handle."
- Rob Kramer
president of BioPort Corp.

be of use to terrorists. Company spokeswoman
Kim Brennen Root said there have been no specific
threats against BioPort.
BioPort officials and the neighborhood
association said they called off the 'meeting
because of the intense media scrutiny sur-
rounding the company right now. Anthrax
and BioPort gained attention this week after a
Florida man died Friday from anthrax and
two of his co-workers were found to have
spores of the disease.
Government officials have warned that biologi-
cal attacks are one possibility as the United States
and its allies strike back at terrorists after the Sept.

11 attacks.
State and national media have been flooding the
company with questions. On Tuesday, Barbara
Walters interviewed BioPort President Bob Kramer
for ABC's newsmagazine "20-20." Yesterday's
meeting was expected to draw not just neighbors,
but large numbers of reporters and TV crews.
"In the last few days, it had taken on too big of a
proportion for what we were prepared to handle,"
Powers said.
Powers is compiling neighbors' questions and
giving them to BioPort. Root says the company
could have answers to its neighbors as early as
today.

Powers said BioPort has been very cooperative
so far, and that he believes neighbors' concerns
will be alleviated.
"(We) are confident that this procedure will
accomplish the goal of answering our neighbors'
questions without being unnecessarily alarmed by
inaccuracies and misstatements," Powers and
Kramer of BioPort said yesterday in a joint letter.
In the three years since BioPort bought the lab
from the state, it has not been allowed to ship a sin-
gle dose of anthrax vaccine because it has been
unable to get U.S. Food and Drug Administration
approval.
BioPort on Monday plans to submit new infor-
mation to FDA showing it has made the changes
necessary to be allowed to ship the vaccine it has
produced.
Anthrax produces a toxin that can cause fatal
damage to the respiratory system and brain, killing
untreated patients within days. Treatment with
antibiotics is often successful if the infection is
caught in time.

0
High court: School
OK to fire prof. who
swore in classroom


LANSING (AP) - The U.S.
Supreme Court will not hear the
appeal of an English professor who
was suspended from Macomb Com-
munity College for using obsceni-
ties in class.
In a March opinion, the 6th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincin-
nati ruled that the college's right to
protect its students against a "hos-
tile learning environment" out-
weighed John Bonnell's free speech
rights.
Bonnell appealed that decision to
the Supreme Court, which declined
to hear his appeal without comment
on Tuesday.
Bonnell's attorney, James
Howarth, was not immediately
available for comment yesterday.
Bonnell didn't return a message
left at his office yesterday after-
noon.
Hunter Wendt, the lead attorney
for Macomb Community College,
said the college was pleased with
the Supreme Court's action.
"They feel the case is an impor-
tant milestone in fulfilling their
responsibility for their students," he
said.
Wendt said Bonnell remains sus-
pended without pay but with bene-
fits.
He will be eligible to return this
spring, Wendt said. Bonnell has
taught at Macomb Community Col-
lege since 1967.
A female student first com-
plained about Bonnell in November

1998. She said she felt degraded
and sexually harassed because of
the language he used in his class-
room.
Howarth has argued that none of
Bonnell's profanity was directed at
the woman who complained, or at
any specific student, but merely
reflected language used in litera-
ture.
Bonnell was originally suspended
for three days. That suspension was
extended after Bonnell wrote a
mocking apology, spoke to students
about the suspension and allegedly
ridiculed the student who had com-
plained.
Bonnell filed a federal lawsuit in
March 1999. In August of that
year, U.S. District Judge Paul Bor-
man ordered the college to rein-
state Bonnell, saying his language
was protected by the First Amend-
ment.
But the appeals court overruled
Borman in its opinion this spring.
"Speech that rises to the level of
harassment (and) which creates a
hostile learning environment that
ultimately thwarts the academic
process, is speech that a learning
institution has a strong interest in
preventing," the appeals court said
in its decision.
"Although this balance is a deli-
cate one, we believe that the col-
lege's interests prevail under the
facts and circumstances presented
here."

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