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     Transportation Problems in Massachusetts, Water Pollution Issues, and Brain
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This is Commonwealth Journal weekly magazine a feature news and information brought to you as a public service of the University of Massachusetts at Boston and WM B. I'm Bob Murray BN and this week I look at transportation problems in Massachusetts and what is polluting our waters. Also some interesting research into the human brain that's coming up next on Commonwealth Journal. I don't know whether you realize it or not but sometimes it takes a long time to go from Boston to New York or from hard for dinner York or from Amherst New York whatever the case might be or to Washington D.C. I can remember when when I was a wee one I used to take the boat to New York out of what is now rows of wharf and around Provincetown and down to New York City which took all night and part of the day. Well we're still working on a better way to get from here to there from point A to Point B. My guest on this portion of the program is in Menzies. Oh that
name sounds familiar you say of course. Twenty eight years with the Boston Globe Ian and now a senior fellow at the John McCormick Institute of Public Affairs here at UMass Boston. And it is good to have you up and about. Nice to be here. I thought you retired sure you did. You retired to do three or four other things that seems to be the way it's working out. But it's fun that you need the discipline. Keep everything working. Absolutely. One of the problems I have I guess we have now and I guess we most of us travel between Boston New York the Northeast Corridor as it's called. So for the last few weeks of course everybody's saying well what we ought to do is make Logan Airport the main airport but let's have one blister Let's have one in Lawrence let's have one in here Ralitsa. Now wherever the case might be out in the western part of the state it's not really feasible Ian. I think it not only do I think it's feasible I think it really has to come because
the situation at Logan is more than just congestion. It's dangerous it's dangerous I mean we're hearing that more and more and there is absolutely no reason why people who could probably drive five miles let's say go west or provenance to when plane should be driving 20 miles to come into Logan. So that we have to you it was no question that we have to use it. Well isn't the Green Airport in Providence doing fairly well it is doing some fairly well. Yeah absolutely. It is doing well and you can pretty well service get service to anywhere in the United States from from green. Which means that businessmen really have there's no drawback to businessmen getting around the country from these more suburban airports. And of course a lot of the people from the western part of the state Springfield Holyoke and so forth go down to Bradley field in Hartford. Absolutely and as you and I know in a way
sometimes we get into a tough situation and you know we're going to let down a Bradley to as the only airport that's open. Now you've been doing some some research as far as being with the McCormick Institute on this particular subject. And one of the things that has been pointed out the governor just recently said Well Logan Airport could work fairly well if we can relieve some of the pressure by having a high speed train service between New York and Boston and vice versa. That that to me is the only way to go I have as you mentioned my 28 years in the globe in the last 15 as a columnist. I've been trying to push that idea for years. There is no other way this is the way that people can and you can and avoid avoid congestion at the airport. It's also the quickest way outside of Fear Itself and fact could be faster than air for people especially living in the south shore and boarding a train station to twenty one twenty eight
you know one of the things that I've suffered through and I think a lot of other people too in taking the shuttle for example out of New York City out of LaGuardia and being 11th in line for takeoff and that kills an hour right there and you're flying time is 35 40 minutes. Absolutely you go out sometimes in New York you can see actually I have been in the line of 38 30 planes waiting to take off. It's you can see two hours whereas if we could get three our rail service between downtown Boston and downtown New York City it would be faster actually than in most cases taking the. Flying and also cheaper in the long run because you have to take a taxi to the airport for the most part. And then in actually from LaGuardia or kind of into downtown Manhattan. Absolutely and there's another 17 to 20 dollars these days. Absolutely it's. What worries me sometimes is that the mayor of Montreal has been trying to get direct rail service between montréal in New York and it looks like he may
beat us to getting direct rail service between Boston and New York. Of course as you well know there are problems as the problems of straightening out the line is the problems of electrification continuing electrification from New Haven to Boston. But I don't know whether you noticed it or not but the other day they were talking about years ago we in fact experimented here was what they called the tell GO train which was a train that really took at SK took the curves by just tipping slightly and in other words adjusting to the angle of the curve. The Canadians now are running a similar type of train and this may be an answer and a quicker answer to getting faster service between New York and Boston instead of waiting for the tremendous time and cost it would be flying straightening. Having gone down the short road the short route I guess it's very scenic and it's very
pleasant and it would be nicer of were alot faster. Yeah yeah that's right the comedy we always forget it's really it's a very pleasant relaxation that it's really this is the same difference as I often say is between the MBT and writing communal rail. The people who come in from the concourse Lexington's and so forth by communal rail have it made and you can read their paper they can do some more. If you go on the ferries you can even go one step. Better you can have a quick drink on the way back. I hear people talking about train service for example in other parts of the world Canada as an example a friend of mine just took a trip from eastern Canada over toward Toronto and said it was absolutely magnificent loved every minute of it totally relaxing and probably not quite as fast as going by air. But then again this particular guy hates the flight anyways so it worked out very nicely for him.
What about some of the other areas Now you mentioned commuter rail here in the metropolitan Boston area. Considering the fact that we're going to be going through all this massive construction over the next 10 years probably that's one way to eliminate some of the traffic congestion is it not by by additional trains. Absolutely and the MBT which also runs commuter rail as you know have trains on route. I mean we should have new new equipment coming in fairly shortly beginning and that is that has to be the end so I mean so state transportation secretary knows perfectly well that even the depression of the Central Artery and building the third Harbor Tunnel is not going to make it a piece of cake to go through Boston all it's going to do is prevent eventual and ultimate gridlock which we're almost on anyway so that you still have to use mass transport and this is the this is the only way we're going to do it so that people enjoy it in fact it's quite simple if you want to get
people in mass transit. And the American people generally don't want to get on mass transit if they have a private car. You've got to offer them something good fast and reliable It's that simple and clean and clean. Good point. Some of the problems that I hear about and some of the commuter rail lines where the trains are cold in the winter hot in the summer and dusty and dirty for the most part. Absolutely I used to ride the old Colleen believe it or not the one that went down to Hingham Scituate Greenbush. The air conditioning there was a great big ice block that was put in the middle of the of the care of the particular car and all you got sort of after about two hours was a drip drip drip but it did cool a little bit. What do you look for in the future say in the next five to 10 years as far as mass transit is concerned. I really think because I think the artery the pressing of the Central Artery will force people to try mass transit. I think the MBT is improving the
redline is still a bit of a horror story and so is the green line. But the thing is they are doing positive things and I think taking you a period of five years that within that period the MBT A should be meaning the red green and orange lines should be running well. Commuter Rail they are expanding they know it works the ferries are expanding we are now running more commuters in Boston and ferries than San Francisco which has often talked about its wonderful ferry system which is good but we're learning fast and it's a competitive system which is also good in thank you nice to have you here. Nice to have been here and good to see you again. Thank you. Ian Menzies senior fellow of the McCormick Institute of Public Affairs. We're going to talk about some of the problems that we have as far as water is concerned.
Our guest is John looney who is a professor of geography and earth science he's also a member of the state pesticide board UMass Boston and we do have a problem or two and maybe a solution or two John. Well hopefully we'd like to think so. Whether or not everybody can agree to what is probably another issue but there are a couple of problems in the environment. As we look at this as I look at this I look at the problem as an asher and geographer and what I are interested in what our interest is is within the relationship the physical estuary of man's impact on the estuary and also. The location and this is what makes it geography the location of certain factors certain problems certain pollutants and how they impact upon us as we try to get along in this environment.
It seems to me half having studied geography in school as everyone must do I suppose. I found it extremely interesting although a lot of people couldn't even find out where Washington D.C. Was that part of geography. But it seems to me now you are specializing in only a certain portion of what I used to call in high school and a grammar school geography. The entire globe and you're narrowing it down into just rivers streams the ocean. I find that fascinating. While I think this is probably this is part of the big debate that's going on in professional geography right now. As a matter of fact the National Governor's Conference is suggesting that we should get back to geography to maybe a traditional approach to geography and maybe that's true but. What we're doing is looking at this environment this is traditional geography what we would call the man land tradition. And there's been a big impact on that recently. The biggest impact has been in the urban environment.
Central place the area movement that was happening in the central business district. We see this for example in downtown Boston the geography geography is of been very much active in this central business district. The high rise the towers the planning the land use. And we're just taking a little bit. Smaller part of this region actually one. When I look at the estuary we're looking at estuaries not only here in Boston Harbor. Noah would identify for example 90 to pasture and environments in the United States so we're going from Washington Oregon California on the West Coast here not only no one going but the mid-Atlantic states South Atlantic states and gulf. So there is a very very broad scope that would transcend all of our climates that would trans and both of our coasts and then of course in Hawaii the big issue there
is merit culture. And in Hawaii they're doing a very very. Great investigation practical investigation with shrimp and oysters and so on. And they're doing that kind of culture in their restaurant environments and environment here is somewhat at risk. For example we found pesticides DDT. In Boston Harbor. And DDT hasn't been manufactured in the United States since 1972. And it still hangs and it still hangs in. But this is not the decomposition product of DDT but is DDT in its let's say pure state for want of a better word. So that would mean that somebody recently has dumped. A goodly amount of DDT in this environment and of course that puts humans at risk. It's a known carcinogen. It puts the sea birds at risk
because of the job it does on the fish eggs. So there's a real strong environmental strain or stress placed by having that pollutant in the environment. One of the big questions that we're taking a look at now and which some investigators here at the University looking at also is the organic 10 residue which is beginning to build up and some of the harbors again No.10 is a pigment that's added to paints. And we do that because we found it again No 10 is a very good biocide. What we're trying to do is to keep the hulls of boats. From falling. And in doing that we used to use lead paint if you think back a few years you saw every boat that was in the harbor had a red waterline read
below the plumb saw a line in the hall below water hole was read. And the reason for that was the red lead paint. And we went to copper bronze paints and so on. And those paints now are selling all probably 35 to 50 dollars a gallon. And the reason they spend that kind of money is to prevent the boat from falling so that in effect the boat would handle better. In effect the boat would move through the water at a lower price. For example the QE 2 in 1986 1985 1986 sailing season the QE 2 paid about 17 million dollars for fuel. And on a 17 million dollar fuel bill if you could save 1 percent of that it would be a substantial dollar value. And of course if you take all the Cunard Line boats if you take United States shipping fleet. Military fleet 600 vessels if you took a merchant fleet
tanker fleet you could save an awful lot of money in terms of fuel not to mention the amount of conservation that you do in terms of your bunker fuels and so on. So the use of our get out tens has been. On the rise not only in the United States but also in Europe. But with the use of that type of pain anti fouling paint. Comes other problems because it is a biocide because it is a fungicide and by the way we've used tens in in land uses in land use pesticide. In the past and now we've done this in the see the without. What we're beginning to see is that the again no 10 depending upon the nature of the paint is leeching out into the environment. And then it's being picked up. By a filter feeders. You
clams your mussels your oysters. And it's showing up in a cumulative effect as other as fishes would consume those and it's coming back through the food web. It's interesting because when problems were first seen was in France. And in France. Up until 1982 especially in the Riviera Italian Riviera French Riviera. Many of the bivalves was showing abnormalities. The clams the oysters had improperly deformed shells and so on and it was associated with the again the tans. So France does not allow any longer the use of again no tan paints and vessels under 75 feet. Actually it's 24 meters but it's what they're saying it's only the larger vessels can have a 10 based paint. And your question probably would
be well. If we have these large boats that come in like a tankers and freighters that come into Boston Harbor why are you saying we can paint them with an organic paint and not paying the smaller vessels. And the answer very simply is that what they found is that 95 percent of pleasure vehicles time spell is spent at anchor. And less than 1 percent of the time. The larger ships would be. So it would be you'd have less of an impact. Interesting points. John thank you very much nice to have you here. Thank you. My guest John Loney professor of geography and earth science UMass Boston. We hear so many stories about so many people who. And this is no joke can't make up their minds. Having problems. Schizophrenia I believe
it's called. This is going to be an interesting into 10 minutes because I'm going to learn about some things that I never knew before. And you hopefully along with me. My guest is Dr. Iris and Marshall she is a Ph.D. She's a lecturer on psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School and she is the assistant director of the brain tissue research center at the McLean Hospital which is part of Harvard Medical School and. Ira some of these things that I read about in the packet of information that you sent me. Absolutely fascinating. And sometimes I think that people are frightened to death you'll pardon the pun about donating parts of their body but we hear of so many good things that are happening with those people who can continue to live a normal life or as close to normal as possible. And there isn't this basically what your research is all about. Absolutely. I think we were all uncomfortable a number of years ago about donating our
organs for things like heart transplants. Now that's something that's commonly. Accepted and talked about over coffee. I think when we talk about the brain we're talking about again a very vital organ. Some people consider the sum total of themselves and it's not used for transplantation it's donated after death for solely research purposes. So the end result is not quite as dramatic we need to wait a long time until we see results from the use of the tissue. So basically what we learned about from the science fiction movie was pain so certainly not to my no that's a no no no at least not yet. The kind of research that is being done. Yes. Research. Basically you know you can use animal models such as rats for example if to do certain studies basically neuro chemical when it comes to looking at a disease entity
such as Alzheimer's disease Huntington's disease. You actually at some point need to look at the human tissue. To our knowledge rats do not have anything that mirror the disease entity itself. So for example the genetic marker that was found recently for all timers disease the genetic marker that was found a number of years ago for Huntington's disease more recently again for manic depression at some point in time all of these researchers needed to look at human brain tissue. Itself to come to their conclusions and actually find that marker. So basically what you're looking for in the way of donations. Not diseased brains as such but yes you will take them because they give you information about what caused the problem. Also what we would call I suppose normal or healthy tissue. Well you always you don't know what abnormal is unless you know what normal is. So you need to collect normal tissue so that researchers can have both a disease
population and a normal population the normal population is used as a comparison group so that it's a baseline. Let's say so that if anything turns up in the disease group we can say it's due to that disease we try to carefully match the tissue in terms of the age of the donors. The race and sex of the donors so that all those variables if you will are can are controlled and are taken care of so that any differences can be attributed to the disease itself. Do you have a problem. With donations. Yes absolutely. There is never enough. It's very the concept itself is difficult to understand. We need to be able to reach people through all the media channels for example to explain the connection between brain donation research and the cures for devastating brain disease. In
order to reduce stigma from things like mental illness itself or from the ghoulish aspects of brain donation you need to become educated so we like to encourage anybody anybody who's even interested not necessarily in donating their own brain but just in having the information available because they're curious to give us a call all right so that we can provide them with as much material as we can so they can be informed as to those connections. This then is a bank. I have such correct. And as a result of it being a bank people are. People researchers are withdrawing. The sections correct in order to continue their research. Absolutely. Neuroscientists across the country put in specific requests those were each request is screened very carefully as to the quality of the research that's being done because brain tissue is such a scarce resource we can't afford to distribute it to
anybody. We have to be very careful. But yes we distribute tissue to researchers not only in the United States but also overseas occasionally. And the other organizations such as yours and the other brain banks yes the states or the world. Yes they are. Well Dr. Bird who began our brain bank in 1978 also began of the brain bank in Cambridge England nine years before that the other brain bank that is similar to our facility is a hooked up with UCLA in California. And there's a third brain bank that's connected with the National Institute of Mental Health. But they were tain their own tissue for their own research purposes they do not distribute it. So really our bank. Mess that's connected with McLean and the UCLA brain bank of the only two that distribute issue nationwide. One of the things that we are proudest of I think you're in Boston is the fact that we do so much medical
research and I triple the Boston area so much so that I guess a lot of these things are really needed that we never have enough. Of this kind of material if I may use that term in order to further. The research. And in order to get to the bottom line so to speak and find a cure. Absolutely. I think that's very true. You know the I consider Boston to be the health care hub of the nation. We can look at the transplant centers for example. We know I know of for the right here in close proximity in the Boston area and there are so few organs for transplant for those centers that they're constantly in need. So you know we are aware that going from all ends it's not just the Boston area it's the entire country but I think it's focused here because there are so many as you identified so many centers for transplantation for research that you can actually see the problem magnified. How does one go about donating.
To your organization. Well the first step is to contact us and identify yourself as a potential donor so that we can give you all the information you need to make an informed decision. Then beyond that you sign an intent to donate card and put it in your wallet. And we have you on file and it's about as simple as that we need some very basic information about your physician. I think one of the most important aspects of beyond that is that you discuss your intent to donate with your entire family so they will be the ones upon your death that will have to actually have to go through the donation process. Now the telephone number to call should you want to call it is 8 5 5 0 6 1 7 8 5 5 2 400 and that's 24 hours a day. Correct. Iris thank you very much for being with me. It was my pleasure thank you. My guest Dr. Iris and Marshall who was assistant director of the brain tissue research center at McLean Hospital.
You've been listening to Commonwealth Journal weekly magazine a feature news and information. He was a public service of the University of Massachusetts at Boston and WNBA FM. This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Executive producer Tom Callahan producer Ellen engineered by Tonya Warren. Your letters are important to us. Write to us at Commonwealth Journal WNBA radio University of Massachusetts Boston 0 2 1 2 5 3 3 9 3. This is Bob Murray. Thank you for joining us.
Series
Commonwealth Journal
Episode
Transportation Problems in Massachusetts, Water Pollution Issues, and Brain Donation
Producing Organization
WUMB
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WUMB (Boston, Massachusetts)
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cpb-aacip/345-18dfn4rv
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Description
Episode Description
Guest Ian Menzies, senior fellow, McCormack Institute of Public Affairs, UMass/Boston, discusses transportation issues in Massachusetts, including the benefits of regional airports and high-speed rail to alleviate congestion; the expansion of the commuter rail and ferry system, and the need for further improvement to mass transit and the MBTA. Guest John Looney, professor of geography and earth science at UMass/Boston and member of the state pesticide board, discusses the impact of pollutants in Boston Harbor--the pesticide DDT and organotin, a chemical compound in anti-fouling paint. Guest Iris Ann Marshall, assistant director of the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center at McLean Hospital, discusses the importance of human brain tissue to understanding/curing neurological diseases like Alzheimer's and Huntington's diseases, the scarcity of brain tissue, and the need to recruit more brain donors.
Description
Commonwealth Journal is a public and cultural affairs talk show that explores a wide range of issues of inte
Broadcast Date
1989-01-15
Asset type
Episode
Genres
Talk Show
Topics
Environment
Public Affairs
Science
Travel
Geography
Transportation
Rights
c. 1989 WUMB-FM
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Media type
Sound
Duration
00:30:46
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Credits
Engineer: Warren, Tanya
Executive Producer: Callahan, Tom
Guest: Menzies, Ian
Guest: Looney, John F., Jr.
Guest: Marshall, Iris Ann
Host: Mehrman, Bob
Producer: Giurleo, Ellen
Producing Organization: WUMB
Publisher: WUMB-FM
AAPB Contributor Holdings
WUMB-FM
Identifier: CJ_MA_1989_90_A (WUMB-FM)
Format: 1/4 inch audio tape
Generation: Master
Duration: 00:09:32
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Citations
Chicago: “Commonwealth Journal; Transportation Problems in Massachusetts, Water Pollution Issues, and Brain Donation ,” 1989-01-15, WUMB, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 28, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-345-18dfn4rv.
MLA: “Commonwealth Journal; Transportation Problems in Massachusetts, Water Pollution Issues, and Brain Donation .” 1989-01-15. WUMB, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 28, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-345-18dfn4rv>.
APA: Commonwealth Journal; Transportation Problems in Massachusetts, Water Pollution Issues, and Brain Donation . Boston, MA: WUMB, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-345-18dfn4rv