The Michigan Daily-Thursday, July 29, 1982-Page 5
AP Photo
REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRATIC candidates line up yesterday for a public Brickley; on the lower right, left to right, are Democrats James Blanchard, John
television debate in Lansing. On the upper left and from left to right they are: Saffron, Zolton Ferency, Dave Plawecki, Kerry Kammer, Ed Pierce, and William
Republicans Jack Welborn, L. Brooks Patterson, Richard Headlee, and James Fitzgerald.
Smoking linked to new cancers
BOSTON (AP) - Minute radioactive
particles in cigarette smoke - already
linked to lung cancer - may also be the
source of malignant tumors throughout
the bodies of heavy smokers,
reseachers say.
The radioactive material collected in
the mucous lining of the bronchial tubes
is passed from the lungs to the entire
body, Dr. R. T. Ravenholt of the Cen-
ters for Disease Control, wrote in a let-
ter published in last week's New
England Journal of Medicine.
"THE AMERICAN public is exposed
to far more radiation from the smoking
of tobacco than they are from any
other source or indeed from any other
sources combined," he said in an inter-
view.
Ravenholt said the radioactivity
causes "accelerated aging, and early
death ... reminiscent of the disease and
mortality patterns afflicting early
radiologists and others with long-term
exposure to X-rays and other forms of
ionizing radiation."
Ravenholt's letter was among
several published in response to
'The American public is exposed to far more
radiation from the smoking of tobacco than from
... any other sources combined. '
-Dr. R. T. Ravenholt
Centers for Disease Control
research conducted by Joseph Di Fran-
za and Thomas Winters of the Univer-
sity of Massachusetts Medical Center.
DI FRANZA and Winters wrote to the
journal in February, saying polonium,
a radioactive element found in
phosphate fertilizers, is concentrated in
cigarette smoke.
The researchers said a 1 pack-a-
day smoker receives a yearly dose of
alpha radiation equivalent to 300 chest
X-rays.
Alpha emitters in cigarette smoke
result in appreciable radiation ex-
posure to the bronchial epithelium of
smokers and probably second-hand
smokers," the two doctors wrote.
RAVENHOLT, director of world
health surveys for the CDC, said
polonium has been found in the blood
and urine of smokers, indicating the
material passes from the lungs to the
bloodstream where it is carried "to
every tissue and cell."
Ravenholt, said research be conduc-
ted in the '50s and '60s led him to believe
that smoking, "would have the same
kind of action on the body as standing in
front of an X-ray machine."
Ravenhold cited statistical surveys
that showed smokers had a higher-
than-expected rate of cancer
throughout the body. Dr. Jeffrey Cohen
of the Duke University Medical Center
said radioactive levels in cigarettes may
explain why researchers found a higher
incident of lung cancer among those
who smoke more low tar and nicotine
cigarettes than those who smoke fewer
cigarettes with higher tar and nicotine
levels.
"Thus the number of cigarettes
smoked may be more important than
their tar and nicotine content," he
wrote.
Anne Browder, a spokeswoman for
the Tobacco Institute, disputed the
comments, saying that recent Surgeon
General reports have noted there is in-
sufficient evidence to link polonium to
lung cancer.
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Feds crack down on defaulting colleges
(Continued from Page 1) involves roughly $2.2 million. Until last year, the rate was 3 percent.
More than 1500 other institutions, A loan is considered defaulted when The program is separate from the
however, with default rates below 10 any one payment is 120 days overdue. Guaranteed Student Loan program,
percent will be rewarded with larger Some 1.2 million borrowers have under which students get loans directly
shares of the $178 million. defaulted on $896 million in NDSL fund from banks or state lending agencies at
THE UNIVERSITY'S NDSL default loans, or 16 percent, since the program 7 percent to 9 percent interest.
rate was almost seven percent for the began in 1958, Bell said. BELL ALSO said that the institutions
1980-81loan year, according to Richard The program is run by the colleges which were cut off could regain NDSL
Taepke, collection supervisor for the with a revolving loan fund composed funds for the upcoming school year "if
University's Student Loan Office. The largely of federal money. Students are . they'll merely refer the paper to us for
University's current NDSL program charged 5 percent interest on the loans. collection."