patient safety.

“While recognizing you are can-

celling and moving surgeries to 
ensure no veterans are being put at 
risk, this situation is still concern-
ing and raises questions about the 
source of this particulate matter 
and what actions are being taken 
to correct the problem,” she wrote.

Dingell told the Daily she does 

believe the hospital both cares 
about its patients and is trying to 
handle the situation appropriately, 
but at the same time, it is her job to 
investigate the concerns of her con-
stituents.

She is currently awaiting a 

response to the questions she 
posed in her letter Monday.

“I have an obligation to make 

sure that the veterans are being 
taken care of and that the hospital 
has the resources they need,” she 
said.

Atkinson said patient safety is 

the hospital’s utmost priority, and 
it is currently operating on a lim-
ited surgery schedule while work-
ing to resolve the issue. He said 
any patient currently scheduled for 
surgery is being given the option to 
have their procedures done with 
any of the Healthcare System’s 
community partners, such as the 
University, though the stand-down 
period is over.

During the stand-down period, 

the Healthcare System invited 
national and regional experts to 
help identify what could be causing 
the particulate matter to appear 
on sterilized equipment. Atkinson 
said they concluded the particu-
late matter likely originated from a 

water main break in the area.

However, Dingell said Tuesday 

afternoon the hospital had not 
identified a specific cause of the 
problem when she last spoke with 
the director on Monday. In the let-
ter, she probes the hospital to deter-
mine the cause of the problem.

“As of (Monday) at 12:30, they 

didn’t know what was causing it,” 
she said. “We just need to find out 
the problem, we’ve got to make 
sure they’ve got the resources … 
and it’s our responsibility to raise 
awareness.”

If the complication was in fact 

caused by a water issue, Dingell 
discussed looking into whether 
there is a problem with the hos-
pital’s pipes. She also mentioned 
constituents were wondering if the 
presence of the particulates could 
be related to construction on site.

In the letter, Dingell also specifi-

cally asked what steps the hospital 
has taken to protect patient safety.

Atkinson said since Monday the 

system has replaced some pieces of 
equipment and installed more fil-
ters in the water system that serves 
the sterilizers.

He also stressed that no veter-

ans have been put in harm’s way: 
whenever a nurse would spot par-
ticulate matter near equipment, 
the Healthcare System would use a 
different set of equipment and send 
the potentially contaminated case 
back to be re-sterilized.

“I think we (have) made a lot of 

progress, but we’re still working to 
completely resolve the situation,” 
he said. “We see this as a proac-
tive measure, and we applaud our 
nurses — they do a diligent job of 
inspecting the cases to make sure 
they are prepped and ready to go 
for surgery.”

3A — Wednesday, November 25, 2015
News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

VA
From Page 1A

restrictions on smoking traditional 
cigarettes, would include labeling 
these cigarettes with warning signs 
of potential health hazards, and 
would also include some restric-
tions on the advertising and mar-
keting of e-cigarettes,” Davis said.

Results from the 2014 National 

Youth Tobacco Survey indicated 
that more than 4.6 million students 
under the age of 18 reported being 
current tobacco users, and of those, 
2.4 million reported using e-ciga-
rettes.

They survey also revealed that 

e-cigarette use is trending steep-
ly upward. From 2011 to 2014, 
e-cigarette use among high school 
students increased by nearly 800 
percent, and e-cigarette use among 
young adults has increased as well.

Data released in October of this 

year by the National Center for 
Health Statistics National Health 
Interview Survey indicated that 
nearly 22 percent of adults ages 18 
to 24 years old have tried an e-ciga-
rette at least once.

Davis said many states are 

considering additional e-ciga-
rette restrictions, though every 
U.S. state except Michigan and 
Pennsylvania already prohibits 
the sale of e-cigarretes to minors. 
Davis was specifically interested 
in what the level of public sup-
port would be for those addition-
al restrictions or — in the case of 
e-cigarettes — taxes.

Despite the Ann Arbor City 

Council’s April 2014 ordinance to 
restrict outdoor smoking — includ-
ing with e-cigarettes — in certain 
locations, a complete ban on e-cig-
arette use on campus has not yet 
followed suit.

According to the Tobacco Free 

College Campus Initiative, as of 
October, 769 college campuses 

across America prohibit the use 
of e-cigarettes anywhere on their 
campus. However, only the Uni-
versity of Michigan Health System 
and the School of Dentistry have 
banned the use of e-cigarettes so 
far. 

Though teens and parents noto-

riously disagree on many topics, 
Davis said when it comes to e-cig-
arettes, it seems that teens and 
parents agree about what should 
be done.

“I’m impressed by the high 

level of support for restrictions on 
e-cigarettes among these younger 
teens today, and even if that sup-
port decreased somewhat (when 
students go off to college), the level 
of support for restriction would still 
be quite high,” he said.

Along with support for restric-

tions, Davis’ research also found 
that upwards of 80 percent of teens 
and parents believe allowing the 
use of e-cigarettes could instigate 
use of other tobacco products. He 
also noted that, despite popular 
belief, using an e-cigarette is not 
necessarily less harmful than using 
other tobacco products.

Though potential long-term 

risks associated with e-cigarette 
use are unknown, exposure to 
nicotine at a young age can harm 
brain development, encourage 
addiction and lead to further use 
of tobacco products, according to 
the Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention.

“The manufacturers of e-ciga-

rettes say that their products are 
safer than traditional cigarettes 
because they have fewer different 
types of chemicals that traditional 
cigarettes have,” Davis said. “How-
ever, no long term testing on health 
is available for e-cigarettes because 
they are still a fairly new product 
and we don’t know what long term 
use may do in terms of any health 
problems.”

E-CIG
From Page 1A

coming to the University, said 
she thinks the setup of the res-
taurant will appeal to college 
students.

“I love the setup of Piada 

because it is similar to Chipotle 
in the sense that people call it the 
‘Italian Chipotle’ when you stand 
in line and order, the ingredients 
are right in front of you and the 
team members walk you down 
the line and make the food fresh 
in front of you,” Ngo said. “I 
think people would enjoy Piada 
a lot because it’s like wraps, sal-
ads and pasta bowls to go and it 
is relatively cheaper than other 
casual 
fast-food 
restaurants. 

Piada is also one of those res-
taurants you can never have too 
much of, so I think it’ll fare well 
with the budget-conscious col-

lege students here in Ann Arbor.”

Several 
other 
fast-casual 

restaurants have also opened 
in Ann Arbor recently, such as 
Pieology and Salads Up on East 
Liberty Street.

For students interested in 

working at the new Piada, the 
company offers a tuition assis-
tance program for employees.

“For supervisors and above — 

there’s three levels that we have 
of supervision here at our res-
taurants — we offer $1,000 back 
per quarter with a maximum of 
$2,000 per year,” Eisenacher 
said.

Though the opening is months 

away, people can sign up as a 
pre-opening VIP member by fol-
lowing the restaurant on social 
media or signing up on their 
website. Piada will choose about 
1,500 people to eat for free the 
week before the opening.

ITALIAN
From Page 1A

vas Ann Arbor looking for cans 
and bottles that they can recycle 
for a 10-cent deposit. They call 
themselves “canners,” and prac-
tice “canning.” Each game day, 
the cycle takes place — thousands 
of cans are discarded by fans and 
canners pick them up, clean them 
off and collect their deposit. For 
a whole season’s worth of home 
games, I followed canners around 
Ann Arbor. All have their own 
reason for canning, their own suc-
cesses and strategies, their own 
struggles with the system, their 
own story. 

I met 73-year-old Jerry Quig-

ley, an Ann Arbor resident, out-
side the Big House during the 
Michigan State game on Oct. 17. 
As clouds loomed overhead, he 
dragged a folding shopping cart 
behind him as he picked through 
the recycling bins, sometimes 
waiting for a fan to chuck a can 
into the bin before removing it. 
Short and lumbering, his wide 
smile shone through a dense gray 
beard and black stumps where 
several teeth had once been. He 
wore a crushed baseball cap bear-
ing the name of the ship he fought 
on during the Vietnam War and 
yellow-tinted sunglasses. Born 
and raised in Chelsea, Mich., after 
the war he returned to Ann Arbor 
and hasn’t left.

Quigley now just cans for the 

exercise and to help pay the rent 
for his small apartment — he 
makes the rest of the payment by 
doing odd-jobs for his landlord. 
I strolled along with him as he 
made his rounds of the bright blue 
bins. Fans occasionally glanced 
at him, but no one intervened. I 
asked a poncho-clad usher if he 
cared that Quigley was canning 
right in front of the entrance.

“Hey, it’s a public space, you 

know,” he replied with a shrug.

Michigan has an unusually 

generous deposit system. Since 
the Michigan Beverage Container 
Act was enacted in 1978, Michi-
gan has charged a 10-cent deposit 
on carbonated beverage contain-
ers, compared to the usual 5-cent 
deposit in the 10 other states with 
bottle bills. The containers can 
then be exchanged for the deposit 
at many grocery and liquor stores. 
The only catch is that the contain-
ers must be purchased in state.

“I’ve had times when I col-

lected a bunch of cans from Ohio 
State fans and then had them 
rejected when I tried to return 
them,” Quigley said. 

Some people do “can” simply 

as a hobby. I met Ann Arbor resi-
dents Tim, Brian and Pat as they 
were scavenging the sidewalks 
of East University Avenue during 
the Northwestern game Oct. 10, 
all of them 40-something men, 
scruffy, dressed in dirty T-shirts, 
jeans, sturdy work boots and can-
vas gloves. All three declined to 
give their last names.

“We’re just in it for some ciga-

rette and sandwich money,” Pat 
said.

“It’s just about good company 

and some extra money in the 
pocket,” Tim added.

I was not expecting this. I had 

assumed that all canners must 
be homeless or desperate. But 

these guys are just friends out 
for a jaunt. They all have day jobs 
doing construction and carpentry. 
They’re all from the city — Tim’s 
house is actually just about a mile 
down Packard Street. They clear-
ly regard themselves as a different 
breed of canner

“None of us drink,” Pat said. 
While there are some small 

timers, for sure, many canners are 
also, by necessity, after larger pay-
checks. I met Ann Arbor resident 
Anthony Taylor after he drove 
past me in a beat-up sedan during 
the Northwestern game. Strapped 
to every square inch of the car’s 
exterior were bulging bags of 
cans. The trunk was propped 
open to accommodate more bags.

Thin, with a close-cropped 

beard, Taylor is decked out in 
Michigan gear: blue sweatpants, 
Wolverine zip up, block ‘M’ hat. 
He is 46 years old. He has a regular 
job at a chain restaurant in town, 
but regularly cans for money to 
support his seven children. His 
strategy is to raid various frater-
nity pregames after everyone has 
left and haul away hundreds of 
cans and bottles. In the hierarchy 
of “canners,” he considers himself 
a notch above guys like Tim and 
Pat, who can only carry a light 
load.

“I’ll let guys on foot clean up 

the cans — aluminum is lighter 
than glass, you know?” he said 
with a slight smirk. “I’m in it to 
win it.”

I walked with him into back-

yard of the house, through a giant 
blue tarp acting as a curtain. It’s a 
swamp — the ground has turned 
to mud from so much spilled alco-
hol and crushed cans float on it 
like lilypads. Taylor was trying 
to break his record of $245. He 
always starts by gathering any 
intact cans and bottles that he can 
find, ones that the foot soldiers 
haven’t scavenged yet.

He digs through the trash bins 

the fraternity had set out, picking 
out half-full cans and pouring out 
the contents before stuffing them 
in his bag. These will get depos-
ited at Lucky’s Market on South 
Industrial Highway, where he can 
deposit $25 worth of containers 
per day, per the store’s policy. He 
claimed that he’ll get hassled if he 
hauls this much into Meijer.

I asked him whether this is, 

technically, stealing.

“Students aren’t going to go get 

the deposit — they’re too busy,” he 
replied. He notes that he leaves 
behind any unopened beers he 
finds.

As a canner with a vehicle, 

Taylor can not only deposit more 
intact cans, but also make money 
off scrap aluminum. Crushed cans 
are not redeemable for deposit. 
However, many local junk yards 
will pay for scrap aluminum by 
the pound. Anthony picks out 
the good cans from the bins, and 
then takes the whole garbage bag, 
which now contains mangled 
cans and bits of trash that he’ll 
have to pick out later.

Sometimes, he said, he gets 

hassled by residents for pick-
ing through their garbage, even 
though sidewalk bins are techni-
cally in the public domain.

“Everyone has their own crim-

inals,” he said.

I help him drag a few grimy 

bags out to his car and ask if he’s 

OK with me including him in the 
story. He replies that he’s fine 
with it as long as it won’t prevent 
him from canning.

“This is a good hustle,” he said. 

“A legitimate hustle.”

That same day, I met one of the 

on-foot canners. Brian, 50 years 
old, has been canning on and off 
for four years. He asked that his 
last name not be used.

For most of his adult life, he 

worked a string of odd jobs. He 
has been plagued with health 
problems for much of that time: 
peripheral artery disease, diabe-
tes, glaucoma and, most recently, 
right forearm and left shoulder 
injuries from a slip on an icy side-
walk in Ann Arbor. 

“I don’t want to have to collect 

disability, but there’s a limit to 
what I can do,” he tells me.

The problem, Brian said, is that 

he’s been rejected for disability 
support multiple times. He’s too 
ill to work a normal job, so he has 
to make do with canning.

“This is my sole source of 

income,” he said.

He lives in subsidized housing 

on North Main Street and cans 
most days and every football game 
day. He needs $300 per month to 
pay for rent and food. He has no 
car, so he needs to make regular 
bus trips to Meijer and Kroger 
every evening to drop off his cans.

Through the getDowntown 

Program, the Ann Arbor Transit 
Authority offers something called 
a “go!pass,” which employers in 
downtown Ann Arbor can buy 
in bulk and distribute to their 
employees. According to the get-
Downtown website, the pass 
gives holders unlimited access to 
fixed bus routes and discounts on 
other commuting services, as well 
as many downtown stores. 

But Brian, being unemployed, 

isn’t eligible for a go!pass, which 
he said frustrates him. Later on, 
I would explain his situation to 
getDowntown program director 
Nancy Shore. She said though he 
couldn’t get a go!pass, he might 
be eligible for “Fare Deal,” which 
cuts the normal $1.50 bus fare in 
half for low-income individuals.

Until then, he must pay $3 

every day for a pass — an equiva-
lent to 30 cans Brian has to find 
and lug around before he can 
make any money that day.

He spotted a can in my garbage, 

lifted it out, and looked disap-
pointed.

“All these Arizona Iced Tea 

cans lying around — it drives me 
crazy,” he says.

In Michigan, only carbonated 

beverage containers — beer cans, 
soda bottles, etc. — have a deposit 
on it. Every day, Brian finds hun-
dreds of wine bottles, iced tea 
cans and milk cartons, but can’t 
use them.

Brian said he was anxiously 

following a bill introduced in the 
Michigan Legislature in March 
by state Sen. Rebekah Warren 
(D–Ann Arbor), currently await-
ing hearing in the Senate Natural 
Resources Committee. The bill, 
Senate Bill 199, would amend the 
original bottle bill to include non-
carbonated beverage containers 
eligible for deposit as well.

In a interview, Warren said 

the bill has received consider-
able support from environmental 
groups, but also some opposition 

from smaller retailers who lack 
the resources to handle and clean 
more containers.

“Our bottle bill is almost 40 

years old now, so we’re just trying 
to modernize,” Warren said. “The 
original bill only included car-
bonated beverages because that’s 
what people were drinking back 
then. Now, people drink lots of 
bottled water and energy drinks, 
and I wanted to find a way to get 
those recycled.”

Warren said she did not intro-

duce the bill with canners in mind. 
However, she added that she was 
happy to learn that it could have a 
positive effect on them.

“If there are folks out there 

who can supplement or make 
an income by returning more of 
these containers and getting them 
out of landfills, that’s wonderful,” 
she said.

But there are also some can-

ners, unlike Brian, who just need 
to make some quick money. I met 
Ann Arbor residents Amanda 
James and Felicia Hamilton dur-
ing the Michigan State game Oct. 
17. They had a shopping cart filled 
with cans, and were weaving in 
and out of pregamers like run-
ning backs, picking up any can 
that someone dropped. Occasion-
ally, the students would just hand 
the cans, freshly drained, to the 
women. Electro-soul blasted from 
the speakers, and Felicia occa-
sionally stopped canning to dance 
along to the music. They asked me 
if they could bum a cigarette, and 
we got to talking. Both women 
grew up in the city.

“Born and raised!” James 

shouted.

They paused to gently heckle 

a few MSU fans who passed by, 
and then explained their motives. 
Neither of them is a habitual can-
ner, but they said they needed 
money to help Hamilton rent a 
U-Haul and pay a $1,350 secu-
rity deposit. She has to move to a 
cheaper house in Ann Arbor, she 
said, because she was expecting to 
receive a Section 8 voucher from 
the city that fell through.

“Housing access, and you can 

print this, is full of shit,” Hamil-
ton said.

I spoke with Weneshia Brand, a 

manager at the Ann Arbor Hous-
ing Commission, about that issue. 
She said the city issues Section 8 
vouchers to help low-income resi-
dents pay rent with money comes 
from the federal government.

Funding is scarce right now, 

and the voucher waitlist is about 
five years. Until then, James and 
Hamilton said, they have to make 
ends meet in whatever way they 
can.

“And this is free money,” James 

added of canning. “The best free 
money.” 

Most of the canners I met 

had a scrappy pride in what they 
were doing, even if it often seems 
tedious and grimy. But their work 
is simultaneously a symptom of 
economic and political shortcom-
ings and a cure for the massive 
amount of waste Ann Arbor pro-
duces on football game days. It is 
“free money” for those without 
more conventional means. But 
given the amount of recycling and 
cleaning that gets done by can-
ners, we should at least ask our-
selves: Who is it really “free” for?

CANNING
From Page 1A

for your fellow students, many of 
you are part of student organiza-
tions that support amazing causes 
here at U-M and beyond.”

Last year, the University sur-

passed its goal of raising $1 mil-
lion from at least 1,000 donors 
— amassing about $3.2 million 
from 5,437 donors, half of whom 
were new. Judy Malcolm, senior 
director of executive communi-
cations in the Office of University 
Development, said the goal this 
year is to surpass that amount.

“We went way beyond it in 

terms of dollars and donors,” she 
said. “Introducing new donors 
was really fabulous … many of 

them students, and that was really 
fantastic.”

The outstanding support from 

donors, Malcolm said, means that 
they understand the spirit of phi-
lanthropy.

“We are often surprised by how 

many people don’t realize that the 
University is a public institution,” 
she said. “It is nonprofit. Often, 
the students ask why the Univer-
sity would raise money and we 
really take our great success to 
mean that people understand the 
power of philanthropy and sup-
port the University and what it’s 
doing.”

To increase donations this 

year,Malcolm said the University 
is working closely with student 
groups to help them with fun-
draising tactics and spreading 

awareness about the event. The 
University is currently collabo-
rating with 108 student organiza-
tions for Giving Blueday.

“One thing we found in the 

past we’re delighted with is that 
students get a better idea of phi-
lanthropy,” Malcolm said. “We 
think it’s important that they 
understand that fundraising isn’t 
just throwing money mindlessly 
in a bucket. They learn by being 
donors on Giving Blueday or by 
fundraising. They learn that they 
can accomplish things, make an 
impact by fundraising or by being 
a donor with a gift of any size.”

Last year, students donors 

raised $157,000 out of the $3.2 mil-
lion total. In her e-mail, Harper 
encouraged even greater student 
participation this year, noting 

that each student donation will be 
matched through a $40,000 dona-
tion made by alumni and parents.

Any area of the University, such 

as the health system, or programs 
like Semester in Detroit, are eli-
gable to recieve donations. 

Organizers are also encourag-

ing students to promote the fund-
raiser and thank donors for their 
contributions via social media.

Leading up to the event, the 

University and student organiza-
tions have sent out regular e-mail 
blasts to notify potential donors 
about Giving Blueday, as well as 
used social media challenges to 
encourage student participation.

“We’ve really put the word out 

all over campus,” Malcolm said. 
“All the colleges at the University 
are participating.” 

GIVING BLUE
From Page 1A

RITA MORRIS/Daily

“I’m originally form Ohio, but since coming 
to U of M I’m a total convert to Michigan 
sports and I love the school. My parents 
are coming up to visit. My dad has never 
been to a football game and I’m going to 

take him to the Ohio State game.” 

—School of Education Ph.D. candidate 

Katie Shoemaker

THOUGHT BUBBLE