Consumer Survival Kit; 424; Video Recorders/Food Processors/Cancer Research

Consumer survival kit program number four to four video recorders. Food Processors. Cancer research. The Maryland Center for Public Broadcasting. We. Are going public right now. This is a demonstration of a video cassette recorder and with one of these electronic marvels you'll get record consumer survival kit. Even when you're not it you can play it back any time you want. These machines could revolutionize our viewing habits. Here's another of the hottest selling appliances on the market today. The food processor over two

million of them will be sold this year alone. The question is do you have to be a gourmet chef to need one in your kitchen. The federal government says that tests indicate Sachar and certain hair dyes can cause cancer. Manufacturers question the methods and conclusions of such tests and the public is stuck somewhere in the middle not knowing who to believe. All this and lots more next on consumer survival kit. Hello I'm Larry Lemon. The video cassette recorder or VCR is one of the fastest growing products on the market. Seven years for color television sales to pass the 200000 mark but this year alone the industry expects to sell over half a

million of these. Even though they've only been on the market since 1975. Why this sudden popularity for a machine that costs close to a thousand dollars is really the answer. Well one reason is what the industry calls time shifting. Video cassette recorders or VCR is let you make your own TV schedule. You can record programs when you're not home. Thanks to a timer all of you can watch one program and record another. You can even tape your own home movies with the addition of a television camera. This is do it yourself scheduling doesn't come cheap though. Prices for VCR start at around $800 for a single unit and for a console unit with a television set attach the price is around $2400. But the high price of VCR doesn't seem to be stopping anybody from buying them. At the moment there are about 20 different brand names on the market. This doesn't mean that there are 20 different systems. They're actually only for the Betamax the VHS the quasar vr 1000 and the V chord to the various brand names are only different

versions of one of these systems. All of them happen to be made in Japan. The RCA select a vision uses the VHS system and if you buy Zenith you're actually buying a Betamax made by Sony. Unfortunately the systems are not interchangeable which means that something recorded on one type of machine can't be played back on another. By far the biggest names are beta and VHS. And most U.S. manufacturers have opted for one of these two systems. The average price these days for one of the beta or VHS brands is around 900 or 1000 dollars blank tapes range from 12 to $25 and you can get anywhere from one to six hours playing time on different sized tapes. So far there haven't been any major service problems with VCR partly because the technology of the machine seems to be good and because they haven't been on the market very long. We see ours more complex than the television set and some people have trouble operating them. So to help you with that problem I'm going to show you how the zenith

Betamax works and is really very simple. The buttons here are very much like the buttons on an audio tape recorder. I'm going to push the one that says record. We have a red light here and that indicates that the machine is an operation. There is a pause button. If you're recording something on television you want to eliminate a part you simply push the button and that will eliminate the portion that you don't want to record. We have a counter over here and inside we have a one hour. Because that however we can push this button and the machine will work more slowly and we can get two hours worth of taping time. And really that's about all there is to working it. We can stop it with this button and rewind it with still another button. That's it I've made my home movie for the death of you while you were doing this and I remember it and we have actually a home video tape which we can now watch now this let me show you this camera before I show you the tape that I made with the camera. There's a black and white cam and it's the kind of camera that you can buy for use at home. These sell for about

$300 and up but you can also buy colored cameras that sell for more than the price of the VCR itself the color cameras itself around $700. But not all manufacturers sell color cameras and you can't use them with all the CRT. OK let's see what kind of a camera mount I turn out to be going to be good to put fire light on the spot. Now obviously the camera goes directly into the tape machine we have a microphone here. Here's the sound of the one who are departing. There's the pause pause where I thought if you want to see that great song and it's not zoom level one hour. That's a good picture in that it's certainly a.. Now that's how we make the home video tapes by throwing the switch. You have to put the machine in contact with the receiver that is inside this console and you can tape directly off the air it's really very simple. This particular unit doesn't have a timer but many do. And that's all there is to it. Very simple very good. Thanks a lot Larry. Now if you don't like home made movies like the one we just did you can buy the Hollywood variety on cassette prices for

prerecorded cassettes are still high and it can cost you up to $75 a movie depending on the length. But there's still not much prerecorded material available even though some people in the industry had hoped that recordings of ballet opera plays and movies would be plentiful. But this doesn't seem to be happening right now. One large electronics dealer told us most people seem to be buying VCR to record sporting events. And there's one more element Music Corporation of America and Walt Disney productions are currently suing the Sony Corporation to stop further manufacture and sale of their VCR and by extension all others too. They claim VC RS violate copyright laws by allowing taping of copyrighted television shows or movies. So naturally things otherwise the case is expected to drag on in the courts for some time. Meanwhile as sales of VCR as increase more and more television programs will be taped off the air it's probably still too early to tell quite how the VCR will affect the television industry in the long run. But

if overall sales are any indication their arrival is exactly what TV addicts have been hungry for. If you've been hungry for consumer information but haven't been lucky enough to make your own video cassettes of CSKA you can satisfy your appetite with 21 of our survival kits. We've got helpful advice on the art of buying anything from an antique to a vacation home. If you want to know more about Ma Bell read through this kit on telephones. It has articles on competition telephone rates and how to get the best service for your money. This kit on Tots has among others articles on nurseries day care centers and how to select the right toys for your child. There are also kids on air travel credit doctors and surgery and energy to name just a few. Well you know consumers about look at library sent twenty one dollars to cover the cost of reproduction postage and handling to consumer survival kit box 1078 Orleans Mills Maryland to want to place around three to three weeks for delivery. Maryland residents please add 5 percent sales

tax. Again that's consumer survival kit box 1078 Arens Mills Maryland to run 1 1 7. Are you having trouble reading but don't feel you need prescription eyeglasses. Well you may want to buy a pair of these non prescription reading glasses or the latest in store bought ready to wear glasses and they cost less than $10. They're intended for people reaching middle age and not able to focus accurately on objects at reading distance. It's a condition called presbyopia but it's not serious and it doesn't usually require prescription glasses or it may require is over-the-counter reading glasses which come in a wide range of styles and 10 different powers. It's important to check with your doctor first to make sure you have no special eye problems and let him or her recommend the right strength. The grasses meet all FDA and state standards and are only suitable for about 25 percent of the population. Over 45 will need glasses for reading or close work. About a million pairs of them are sold a year and they're available at drugstores variety and department stores.

And now here's our conspicuous consumer with another kind of reading problem right before Christmas I had this uncontrollable urge to rush out my windows food processor things I mean I had this monster Christmas dinner coming up and then I just couldn't see all that slicing and dicing and chopping and mixing just for my mother in law assorted relatives I mean I wanted to open some presents to you know what I mean. So anyway I bring this kitchen with home and I drop in a glass now on the cover I plug it in and go to work. I mean you showed us this thing probably three in movement it was the carrots zip out they come in the onions Rouge out they come in you know the cucumbers and squash in a red and a sausage and the Khans and the celery and potatoes in a pastry dough. When I get my hands on before you know what I have is a little bit mess on my hands and you let that thing go for longer than 10 seconds and all you've got to mush everything mush mush for Christmas and I rush for my mother in law mush salad mushy vegetable. The only thing it wasn't much was the turkey and I burned that. You think I ought to read the directions. It might help to buy Onyx speed of a food processor does take a little getting used to. After all you can mince an onion instead with seconds flat. The developer of the home food processor

a man named Carl Sondheim or so as they say 20 percent of the time normally spent in the kitchen. And naturally if you're cooking for a houseful of relatives speed can be of the essence. But what if you're only cooking for one or two people. Do you really need all that speed and efficiency. Well to find out everything you always wanted to know about food processors. Here's Brendan. Thanks Larry. Do you call the food processor the most important invention since the first electric mixer. Quick clay born food editor for The New York Times ranks third right up there with the invention of the printing press the cotton gin and clean next. The object of all this adulation is a machine that will slice in the grind mix shred chop and puree any number of foods in a matter of a few paltry seconds. For sheer speed and proficiently they can't be beat. This was the first food processor on the market. But in art it first appeared in 1973 and got a very chilly reception. After all who would want to pay over $200

for what looks like a super blynde there with a foreign name. But in 1975 the Cuisinart was discovered by Graham made and took off like a bullet. Now there are about a dozen different brand names on the market and you can pick up some of them on sale for as little as four what are you $50. But keep it squeeze in art still sells for around $160 and the deluxe model two hundred twenty five dollars. So what's the difference. Will be expensive models do things the cheaper ones won't. To find out I visited the Cullen air arts cooking school with the help of Bonnie Rappaport in an very proprietors of the school. We decide to do some test of several different models. We use three machine again selling for $50 a mighty chef which sells for under $100 and a plastic basically they're not costing $160. Before the test I asked them to show me how a processor works. Tell me basically how does a food processing work. Basically they operate the same way.

They all have a base and a motor on top of that motor or in front of it you have a removable plastic container where the food goes. You also have four general blades that come with each machine you have a shredder a slice or a plastic blade for simply blending or mixing and a steel blade or chopping or dicing depending on what you're processing. You either put your blade and then your food or you put your disc in and then push the food through a little push or attachment. The only thing that you have to be careful about is the machines have one speed on or off so that you have to be in control you have to operate it according to that. Keeping that in mind. Could a machine be bad or good depending on the operator. Later you might over process the food and you're full. Nothing it's like a knife it's that basic of a tool or not use it now to test. Each processed peanuts to make peanut butter. The processing time was 45 seconds

maybe 10 seconds if you were drunk. Yes let's take a look at it. So the General Electric the mighty ship maybe 10 seconds after the general. Order which again to be a little finer I think this is the new and the question or it's probably needed 20 or 30 more seconds. You know right next we processed meat to make hamburger the processing time was seven or eight seconds and the result just of that some of these might be a little orchard pieces but they were very very I think this is minor. I only once did it that I didn't do it for dear life to this machine it was jumping all over the place and I guess being the least expensive is the lightest. This new engine with all the money and this is perfect. So I guess this would become hamburger but it would take a little while longer for that to happen on your lease. Extensions really varies and this is what you can

do is that it was the best thing comparatively. And the price of the high price justified. The job done. Well it really depends on how much money you have to spend and how much cooking you have to do. I personally will cook a whole lot I'm a cooking teacher here at school we have this we've had it since the very beginning and we're very happy with it we have no complaints. However if you just have a blender a regular wearing blender or whatever and it runs out on you I think you're going to be much happier with a General Electric which maybe cost you $20 more because it will do some things that your blender would not do such as grating cheese chopping hamburgers chopping an onion. So I think it does just talk not blooms I was wondering what this machine replaced my blender and mix in my blender not my mixer. What the food processor is a super heavy duty blender so yes it will do everything that your blender will do and better and again it will do more things than your blender can do

what it will not do is incorporate error into something such as making whip cream out of heavy cream or making them rang out of egg whites. So for this you would need to have a electric mixer in your kitchen to compliment your food processor. OK my next question is. But this is basically what you might consider a luxury item. I mean how essential is a food processor to a kitchen a lot of people have told me that unless you. Do certain types of cooking or you cook for large numbers really don't give that much. Well I think that you find if you are a housewife who has to get three meals on the table every day there are certain little sure is that you've got to do all the time like maybe making bread crumbs to celebrate. Raining cheese These are all boring trivial little tasks that you've got to do yourself I'm going to take a little longer and you may as well have the machine do it for you it doesn't mind and it's going to give you some more time for yourself.

So if you're not willing to spend 100 degrees an hour I think we've determined here that there are other processors You know surprisingly if we are to survive in this technological world we should probably use all the labor and time saving devices we can buy. Speaking of surviving our survivor this week is Chris Hawkins of Modesto California in October. 1076 bought a tape deck made by Teac Unfortunately the tape deck chewed up his tapes since the hungry tape deck was under warranty. Chris took it back to where he bought it to have it repaired. In fact he had it repaired four times in three months. But as Chris says in his letter to us the tape continued to be munged. It goes on. Finally I was so exasperated that I wrote twice to the corporation but I got no answer. Finally the technician told me that the factory had left out a part. It was only after the repair technician had fixed the machine that back offering to extend the warranty. Chris told him he'd rather have his 10 damaged tapes replaced two months later. Great.

After months of hassling Chris now has a trouble free take and has recouped his tapes. Congratulations Chris. Our survivor of the week. If you'd like to share your consumer victory with this write to Survivor consumer survival kit Owings Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7 and April 1977. The Food and Drug Administration proposed banning the use of saccharin as a food additive. The public's reaction to this proposal was considerable. To put it mildly Congress was deluged with mail from angry constituents. And when the National Cancer Institute said that chemicals in certain hair dyes caused cancer in laboratory animals the cosmetics industry was equally outraged. They would attack the government's method of testing and pointed to results of their own tests which apparently refuted the government's findings. This kind of controversy seems to come up again and again when some substance is found to cause cancer. It leaves the public somewhere in the middle not knowing quite who to believe. The concern is whether consumers are able to make reasonable informed buying judgments after hearing the arguments from both

sides. Our staff has been looking into this issue and here is George Allen with a report. Should government pronouncements of Iraq as the public as much as the proposed banning of saccharin Americans are nothing if not wage conscious and the use of saccharin as a starter substitute is widespread saccharin has been around for a long time. It was discovered in 1879 and from the beginning there were questions about its safety. But in many studies done between 19 20 in 1950 there were no findings that questioned the safety of saccharin as it was then used it was in the period between 1970 and 1975 that I meant experiments on saccharin began yielding what the FDA calls notable and troubling results. We're talking about those results which researchers later on today. Saccharin has made in the US by only one manufacturer Sherwin Williams Company of Cleveland. About seven million pounds of the drug was sold in 1976 70 percent of it went into food and beverages and most of that went into soft drinks. The rest went into jams canned food those are topping cookies candies. And I

was cream among other things. It's actually better than cosmetics lipstick and mouthwash aftershave lotions skin cleansers in toothpaste and even bubble baths. It's also used in certain drugs and animal feeds and industrial processes. Obviously the disappearance of saccharin would have a tremendous effect on a great many people. But the FDA is not proposing to ban saccharin altogether. It would still be available as an over-the-counter drug but would be removed as a food additive and from animal feeds and some cosmetics. Their recommendations are mainly based on three studies the most recent being one by Canadian scientists. The FDA says that study confirmed what earlier American tests showed that saccharin poses a significant risk of cancer for humans. So for reasons of public safety the FDA proposed the bend. They also said they were required to do so in a delay because of the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act. This amendment specifically prohibits the use in food of any additive which has been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals. Now this is a

key aspect of cancer testing. Researchers work under the premise that if a substance causes cancer in animals they presume it causes cancer in men to find out more about this we talked with Dr. Judy Taylor about the principles behind cancer testing non-digital Why do you use such large doses of the substance if you're just in the animal test. Large doses are used to intensify or exaggerate the effect of the compound because only a small number of animals can be used in a study compared to the number of humans to which a food additive would be exposed in the lifetime of these animals is only a couple of years compared to a human lifetime of perhaps 70 years itself. What is the basis for presuming that what causes cancer in animals will also cause cancer in humans which are known to cause. Cancer in humans formerly found to be cancer producers in animals when they're tested in animals. There are a few

exceptions but very very few. Could you explain the threshold for a threshold. For a scientific reaction means that you must have a certain of a substance to the effect. That. That effect will not be. Blood to carcinogens. Well we're not sure that it does because we don't know. All there is to know about the induction of cancer. We are not sure whether or not it is one of the. Toxic effects which. Threshold effect. There is some feeling that no matter how low the cancer produce. If the conditions are correct and the best way to prevent possible human cancer is to prevent exposure exposure. The interpretation is that if a large amount produces cancer in animals

there is a possibility of its producing cancer in humans animals. How can you justify taking a product off the market before it's been proved to cause cancer in humans. It's better to be cautious attitude. Better to be cautious because. On the marketplace for 20 years. And you suddenly find that it is a. Carcinogen material. You cannot go back and prevent those cancers that have already been produced. So says that we must be super corny. Congress has now put an 18 month moratorium on the proposed ban of saccharin and set aside a million dollars for more research on newly manufactured products containing saccharin must carry this warning label as well. On the other side of the controversy we spoke with the president of the calorie control Council which is an industry sponsored group who told us that the Canadian read

study has been called questionable by other observers and that over 30 other tests since 1970 have shown no harmful effects. And in January 1978 a joint National Cancer Institute FDA second Working Group said there wasn't enough evidence to accept or reject the premise that using saccharin increases the risk of cancer in humans. Some researchers even say the benefits of using Sagarin could outweigh the risks for some people. So as I was so far cause consumers to stop using products that contain saccharin. I thought. Please. Have a Fresca. The regulations on soft drinks have not stopped me from buying them as from what I've read I would drown before I would be affected by the amount of saccharin in the drinks. Many people say they're not going to stop using saccharin But what about here does the government says they may cause cancer to their Di's situation is similar but there are important differences. For one thing the lady clause does not apply since the suspect

chemicals are not in food. However the test by the National Cancer Institute that showed some hair dye again Michel's cause cancer in animals were done by adding the chemicals to the animal's food. The hair dye industry argues that this is not a valid method for testing these products. One of the basic tenets of toxicology testing in animals is to expose the animals in the same way that humans are exposed to materials and testing had eyes for safety industry did this by applying had eyes to the skins of animals throughout their lifetime and produced no ill effects whatsoever in the NCI studies. Animals are fed large quantities of the diets right throughout their lifetime. And we have evidence that in the case of an PD one of the dyes in question that the quantity Fed was sufficient to upset the thyroid hormone balance no it's not unlikely then that one might find as. This is not the way to test materials and this should not have been used for regulatory decisions. In fact when we turn to human experience there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that had

eyes are in any way dangerous to people. Researchers at the National Cancer Institute said they felt the industry tests didn't expose the animals to enough of the chemicals to make for a true test. They disagree with Dr. Corbridge conclusions regarding the thyroid abnormalities and they say that they've uncovered chemicals which they know are potentially harmful and that they're not trying to scare people. They're just making the results of their animal experiments known. So as with saccharin are people in fact scared off or not. The government has a lot on hair and eyes haven't affected me in any way really because I'm getting my hair tinted for quite a while and continue to do so. And it hasn't affected our business at all in fact it's conversation and people will still continue to get their hair colored. We haven't lost any of our current customers because that ensures that nobody is going to tell some good swimmers whether they should or shouldn't be using certain products. And in fact the public has to make up its own mind regarding the use of some potentially harmful

substances. The bottom line of course is that it cannot hurt you if you don't use it. As yet there is not accurate way to determine any safe levels for something that causes cancer. Nor to tell precisely whether substances that cause cancer in animals will in fact cause cancer in humans. Second and had are just two of the possible hazards present in our environment and as a commissioner of the FDA has said reducing the exposure to weekly carcinogenic substances in our environment may be necessary to reduce the total incidences of cancer. Next week we'll be giving you tips on starting your own business with a franchise company. And Tucker will be here to help us help you plan your time ahead of time. Finally does your house have a smoke detector. National Fire Protection Association estimates that fire fatalities could be cut by 50 percent of every US House had one. We'll help you get the best. Join us next week on consumer survival. Consumer survival kit was produced at the moment Center for Public Broadcasting which is so

responsible for its kind. Sound a good consumer survival kit. Has been provided by the station and by and the public television station.