Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 82

immmmm tt'i 'wrrTrwr Wednesday July 27, '77 DETROIT FREE PRESS I mm m-'r Food Detectives Find Poison Patterns Austin Catholic Prep died from the epidemic. First reports came from a 6 New Jersey hospital, and oth APPLICATIONS Now Being Accepted FOR GRADES 9th 12th ers began to pour in. As the similar reports accumulated, Swansosn and Brand assigned field investigators, looking for something each case had in -ROCKVILLE. Md. (AP) -4 In a tiny cluttered office in the Food and Drug Administration's giant complex here, two men keep watch over government efforts to protect you from products that can injure or; kill.

In a corner of the office is a chart, and on tl. particular day there is a notation scribbled at the right side: "Confirmed: Botulism." The chart shows the site of trie "outbreak and the suspected cause. The botulism entry is the first for the day but only one of thousands of similar entries that send federal Investigators scrambling to track down and eliminate the source of poisonings or injury. The two men who run the FDA's epidemiological investigations section, Richard Swan-son and Dan Brand, situate their desks so they can look up and read the board at any time to see similar developments and monitor the discoveries of more than 800 investigators around the country. It is the job of Swanson and Brand to size up the act promptly when an epidemic of sickness or injuries occurs or appears likely, caused by a product regulated by the FDA.

Although they cover a variety of problems, their work is probably best known ia cases involving outbreaks of botulism and salmonella poisoning from food. FOR EXAMPLE, Brand received a call at home at 8 p.m. March 31 with a report of apparent botulism poisoning. There followed a flurry of similar reports, and the section swung Into action, assigning investigators to the scene and tracing the cause of what f.New Jersey City Is Miffed By Census 'Undercountf turned out to be the largest botulism outbreak ever recorded in the United States. More than 45 persons became ill over a period of 10 days, and detailed reports of field investigators led to a restaurant in Pontlac, Mich.

The problem turned out to be jalapeno peppers canned at home and served in the restaurant, which specializes in Mexican foods. In the past, large botulism outbreaks often have resulted in deaths and officials credit the absence of fatalities in this case to fast work by Michigan officials, the FDA team and the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta. That mid-evening call to Brand came from the Atlanta center, which had been called by Michigan officials. Brand assigned investigators from Detroit, who determined that the suspect peppers had been canned six months earlier. The Rockville offices of the unit are jammed with file cabinets in which reports of injuries and illnesses are classified according to products.

When a new case comes in, Swanson and Brand can instantly determine if they have similar cases and if there is a pattern. There are no computers here because Swanson says they simply aren't fast enough. "When they can give me one-minute response time, then I'll be willing to go to a computer," he said. PROUDLY displayed on a bookshelf in Swanson's office is a little bag of chocolate balls wrapped in shiny foil. They represent one of the unit's most complicated and detailed cases.

common. And, eventually, suspicion was cast on the chocolates. The victims were mostly women and children. Some victims did not eat the candy but contracted the infection from someone else in the household who did. The probe led finally to a Canadian firm, which manufactured the chocolates.

The candy was recalled, and the company stopped production and altered its methods, following recommendations from Canadian health officials. The contamination is believed to have originated in one of several African countries from which the firm was Importing cocoa beans at the time. Swanson noted one instance in which his unit may even have performed a bit of social work. Two portions of a large family had been feuding for many years but finally managed a reconciliation and had a dinner to celebrate "burying the hatchet." Later, several who attended the dinner became ill and began of suspect foul play connected with the feud. The FDA investigators traced the cause of the illness to a commercial product, Swanson said.

The family members A TRADITION OF EXCELLENCE OFFERING: New York Timti Servict I N.J. The Census Bureau, -which estimates that it missed about five people in 1970, including 1.9 percent 'j)f the nation's whites and 7.7 percent of its -blacks, has developed some new techniques land is trying them out in three places as a test. The test areas are here, in Travis County, and in Oakland, Calif. I Camden, however, says that the bureau has tuition $390 per semester (100 yearly registration Fees full activities athletic program individualized scheduling attention honors developmental courses 'botched the test, and the city is suing the bureau in U.S. District Court, charging a an outstanding college prep curriculum art and music programs indoor hockey arena tennis house accreditation by the North Central Association and the University of Michigan undercount" that could damage the city financially.

Theodore Clemence, chief of the program, 1 said in an interview that minority slum areas have proved most difficult to count. He said many residents do not keep 9-to-5 hours, might not go home for days at a time, sleep at more than one place and avoid census taKers Austin Catholic Prep I out of distrust for government agencies. ment Training Act, the Department of Labor provides funds for job-training programs only in cities of more than 100,000 population. McKernon said the city would lose $2 million in this program alone. The rest of the loss would be in reduced funds from the federal revenue sharing and other programs.

According to a Library of Congress count, 103 federal programs dispense $70 billion annually to states, counties and cities, using population as a factor in determining how much each local government gets. Travis County was not affronted by the results of its census early last year, and the Oakland census is not completed. But when the results of last September's Camden were relayed to Mayor Angelo J. Erri-chetti in January, he sprang into action to check on how well the counters counted. "We do not accept their figures, absolutely not," McKernan said.

"Their whole report is replete with errors. Curbstone estimating was rampant. How can our school population be up over 1970 and the total population down so sharply?" He said the bureau missed several blocks altogether because it contended the blocks were outside of Camden. McKernon said that they are in Camden and that Camden is a better authority than the bureau on Camden's boundaries. "On the block where I grew up," McKernon said, "they found only five houses.

There are substantially more. They listed the five they found as 'vacant' but also as having 10 people living in them." Porter Rickly, regional census bureau director in Philadelphia, said the vacant housing units were the nub of the situation. "There were 1,964 vacant units in 1970," he said, "and 5,315 in 1976, indicating that people have been moving out of Camden." In the tests, he said, the bureau has sougnt became friendly again. 1 to develop better communication with minor ity neighborhoods, to hire more interviewers from the areas and to acquire better lists of home addresses before starting a count. 18300 East Warren Avenue Detroit, Michigan 48224 (313) 881-5531 Clemence saia tne iu unaercount prooa- Starting Dec.

4, 1973, and continuing for 10 weeks, there were 80 cases of salmonella poisoning reported In 23 states, plus 39 cases in nine Canadian provinces. One person was so severly ill that transfusions of eight units of blood were needed. No one GRABER W0VEN-W00DS 20 OFF at ALL H0MEMAKER SHOPS bly was higher in Camden than nationally because the New Jersey city is aoout 4D 1 percent black. It was selected for a pre-1980 test, he said, because "we wanted a place we knew would be difficult to enumerate. "Their test produced a gross undercount, a real joke," the city attorney, Martin F.

McKe-rnan said in an interview. He thought it was a bad joke, one that would cost Camden at least $4 million in federal funds unless the new count is successfully challenged in Congress or the courts. THE PROBLEM for Camden is that the new count is 87,305, compared with 102,551 in 1970. Under the Comprehensive Employ iferS wva UPI Phoi a A Curious Couple Not likely to win a beauty contest, these two green moray eels pop up from the rocky bottom to see what's disturbing the water in their aquarium at Sea World in Orlando, Fla. It's No Bus, It's 'Oughtamobile' need it.

Thar right seven days FREE-now ain't that a sorvof-a-1776! Your 14.92 Want Ad SAVES you more 4 than $5 over the two-week deal in the other paper! And, your ad 14.92 WANT ADS A whole new world of low-cost classified advertising available now in the Free Press. You get 2 lines for 7days for only $14.92. If you need fewer than four pay even less. And additional lines, if you want them, are just $746 each. PLUS The 2nd week is FREE if you reaches more than 1500,000 adult readers.

14 00 Annt Arte nra The Salt Lake City bus system has boosted ridership 273 percent to 1 1 million in six years. Fares are among the lowest in the country: 15 cents basic and 10 cents for students and elderly. A 25-mile trip from downtown to the Alta ski resort is 50 cents. SIXTY PERCENT of the Minneapolis-St. Paul bus operating budget of $52 million is tax-supported.

Building ridership not breaking even is the transit commission's mandate. Mass transit in the Twin Cities used to mean streetcars; at one time 220 million people rode the trolleys every year. But the automotive age after World War II led to buses, which could maneuver among cars, and eventually to a viscious cycle of ridership decline and service cuts by the private bus line. With the zest of Madison Avenue selling a bar of soap, the commission and Lynch's ad agency began selling the joys of bus riding. They polled, researched, wrote demographics and targeted.

They went after the affluent adult male, telling him it cost $1,900 to drive a car to work each year compared to $300 on the bus. "We tried to persuade him that the bus was similar to a car, dependable and cost efficient," said Greg Fern, the commission's marketing director. The secret, he said, was getting someone to try, a bus once. "Ridership is built upon a first trial. If the impression is favorable there is a likelihood of returning," said Fern.

To make a good impression, the commission poured money into equipment. It bought 900 new buses with comfortable seats and air conditioning and built 343 shelters, half of them heated. Telephone operators were hired to answer route questions from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m., the buses were washed every day, fares were reduced and the media campaign was begun. The current advertising calls the bus the "Oughtamobile." An owner's manual tells riders where to catch it, how to read a schedule and how to get off the bus: "You should pull the cord about three-fourths of a block from your stop.

One pull is enough. No, people won't point and stare." "Set your jaw with firm determination," the manual says. "Walk right past that car of yours and down to the corner bus stop." EDINA. Minn. (AP) Briefcases bump Hunch pails, and three-piece suits sit beside blue eans.

Residents of this moneyed Minneapolis suburb, thousands of them, are taking the bus work. They're leaving their cars at home for an air-conditioned "Oughtamobile" ride costing 30 to ,60 cents. Half the people who enter downtown Minneapolis during peak computer hours are on buses, the Metropolitan Transit Commission Tsays. The clean, red vehicles carry 63 million 'people a year, an increase of 40 percent since -the commission took over a rundown private Lbus line seven years ago. Using a savvy advertising and marketing Iprogram, the commission has made bus riding the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St.

Paul the thing to do almost fun and has Icertainly changed the image of the bus rider. "In 1 969 the person on the street would say -the buses were for the poor and the infirm. In 11973 they looked at buses as being kind of a smart alternative for some people. And now a lot of people say, i wish I could ride a "said Lee Lynch, president of the firm that bandies the commission's advertising. It's not uncommon for real estate ads to boast of proximity to bus routes in the same line with oak woodwork, two fireplaces and a pool.

Bus ridership Is on the upswing throughout the country, but only a few cities have matched the success of Minneapolis-St. Paul. And all of them rely heavily on taxpayer support to maintain low fares. I In Atlanta, a bus ride costs 15 cents. The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority has increased ridership by 20 million in five years, to 77 million.

A one percent sales tax in Atlanta and its suburbs provided nearly $53 million in subsidies last year, and half the Subsidy went for the buses, the other half for construction of a rapid rail system. In Seattle, the 30-50-cent fares support only I 30 percent of the $120 million annual budget, the taxpayers pay the rest. New buses, new signs and shelters, a park-and-ride commuter I program, free rides in the downtown area, and an extensive advertising campaign have boosted ridership 40 percent, to 42 million, in four years. wm mm vm 11 individuals only, a AW The Great Discovery. A- Call the FREE PRESS at 222-6800 Of to free 800-572-3670 Hrlroil Jfxtt Press Itm action paper wyy.