Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 28, 1995 TAG: 9509280057
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
CHICAGO - Researchers sampled the air in workplaces that allow smoking and found that contrary to the tobacco industry's claims, workers are exposed to dangerous levels of secondhand smoke.
Nicotine levels in the offices, cafeterias and other workplaces were more than triple the amount considered hazardous by U.S. regulatory standards, the researchers found in what is believed to be the largest study on secondhand smoke in the workplace.
``The tobacco industry says work exposures are trivial compared to home exposures,'' said lead researcher S. Katharine Hammond, an associate professor in public health at the University of California, Berkeley. ``And this paper says that's clearly not true.''
A spokesman for the tobacco industry said the study's methods were faulty and its conclusions contradict other research.
The findings appear in this week's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
- Associated Press
Bishops decry abortion, euthanasia
NEW YORK - In a strongly worded pastoral letter, U.S. Catholic bishops condemned euthanasia and accused abortion rights advocates of making the practice of assisted suicide socially acceptable.
``As bishops, as Catholics, as citizens, we speak against the injustice of destroying children by abortion and eliminating elderly or impaired people by euthanasia. And we speak against the ultimate disgrace of doing these deeds under the sanction of law,'' the bishops said in ``Faithful for Life: A Moral Reflection.''
The nation's bishops approved the statement at their annual spring meeting in June. But the document received little public attention then, and church officials announced they were releasing it again today, just days before Pope John Paul II is scheduled to visit the United States.
In the statement, the bishops said abortion, and now euthanasia, have become socially acceptable because many have adopted an ``abortion mentality'' that puts their own needs ahead of those of others.
``The prescribed social remedy has been to put an end to the baby's life before he or she can make a claim on yours,'' the bishops said.
The bishops also decried those who believe that helpless, aging or ailing parents and spouses should be helped to die.
``It is cruelly ironic that the thought of eliminating one's child or one's parent could be considered an acceptable, even altruistic, action,'' the statement said.
- Associated Press
Tests begin in probe of fatal USAir crash
POMONA, N.J. - The crew of a Boeing 737 flew into the wake of another jet Tuesday in a daring test of the theory that air turbulence contributed to last year's deadly crash of USAir Flight 427.
Flying 4.2 miles behind a Boeing 727 at 16,000 feet, the crew attempted to recreate the conditions the USAir crew faced before their plane nosedived into a ravine in Aliquippa, Pa., killing all 132 people aboard.
Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board wouldn't say what the first of 20 hours of tests indicated. In video footage shot from a chase plane, the Boeing 737 appeared to have no trouble flying as smoke marking the lead jet's wake washed over its wings and fuselage.
The results of the airborne tests, a $1 million effort, will be made public at a hearing in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 15.
- Associated Press
by CNB