Ch 17 Reports

And the symptoms in the even in the manuals training the applicator training manual list symptoms of pesticide poisoning and we were shocked to find out that our symptoms that we had been having after coming in contact with the neighborhood sprays were indeed the symptoms listed as pesticide poisoning. We were horrified. I think the bottom line is there is public awareness hearings that will be held and probably will continue to be held where all sides of this issue will have a chance to. Bring forth data which is sort of of their claims not just statements not just accusations and not just hysteria. For more than 40 years professional lawn care companies have seen to it that one can have a beautiful green lawn free of unsightly weeds and destructive pests. The companies claim that because of modern technology they use low concentration of chemicals that must meet various state and federal standards.

However a flap has arisen over alleged reactions to the law on chemicals which prompted Erie County Legislator Mary Lou RAF to investigate those claims. There were three resolutions that asked for information and for a hearing in the legislature and it was prompted by a letter from the Environmental Management Council of Erie County which is chaired by Councilman Hoch collier from Amherst and they have been looking at the issue for a year or longer. This particular issue that we have raised. Comes to us from a number of residents who have contacted our members because of the fact that they feel that the lawn spraying has caused some environmental problems to them and to others in Erie County. In no way are we looking to interfere with business man or anything like that. We would like some research done by the county legislature to find out what the regulations are if they have to be improved.

We want to work directly with the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Erie County Health Department. We regulate the chemical we regulate the availability of the chemical and we regulate the user on how it's applied. So the issue now is that the public are becoming very educated western New York's publics are extremely well educated in toxics. The questions that were accepted were hidden in the back of your mind of being asked and the individual next door saying why do I have to be subjected to a pesticide that I'm not paying for. It's my neighbor who's getting it I don't want to be impacted Lawn Care Specialist Richard Steadman heads up the western New York Lawn Care Association comprised of 16 professional lawn care companies in the Buffalo area. Its primary mission is to inform and educate the public and provide them with a reliable source of information on the safe use of lawn care products.

Now the company is abiding by the various state and federal regulations. Yes they are. You know I feel very good about that I feel good about the industry that we're in the job that we're doing. There are regulations in place now and I would say that as a whole the industry is I certainly cannot speak for every lawn care company but there is a whole yes I think the industry is abiding by the rules and regulations that are presently in place. We have had a check by DC at our company and we have come through that very clean. Karen Blake of the town of Tonawanda is the co-founder of help H E L P which stands for help eliminate lawn pesticides. I believe the laws that are now on the books as far as regulation are inadequate. With the amount of usage in a suburban area I believe these guidelines and regulations were originally formed for use in agriculture. When you get involved with

100 acres or whatever you want to say in a suburban area the amount of people is astronomical. And with our it's a 50 foot wide yards there is no way that a company can five trees and bushes and not have other people exposed legislator Rascoff for an informational hearing on the issue and the town hall. Two hundred seventy five people showed up to testify on chemical and spraying practically all of them property owners and most of the testimony was highly emotional. As my son rode by on his bicycle he was directly hit with the spray the applicator made no attempt to stop spraying as he passed by his clothes and skin were wet with the mist. You were right to home with red source small an ice chest pain a sore throat and was extremely irritable. Some folks would call and say their dog or cat was seriously ill and had to be taken to the vet. The diagnosis from the vet was that the animal was affected by the chemicals sprayed by

the lawn care company. Some animals unfortunately died. He had been commissioned to spray the ones and I asked him to stop because it was coming in on the children's food and was in white gods and their sandwiches from the drift near the school window. He refused. Once you were sensitized to a chemical It is not uncommon. From then on to you be and for that person to be sensitive to the slightest amount of innumerable chemicals. Are you aware of any specific health claims against any spraying companies. No I'm not. No not at all. We heard talk of drifting. I really don't think that in the lawn care applications of the nozzles on the on the handguns that were using the volumes of the water the particle size. I really don't think the drift as it is a is a serious problem. Not that it hasn't on occasion in the past but I don't think that we should get drift and volatility

mixed up. Fran I think there is a valid concern. I'm not saying that is a problem I'm saying right now that there is valid concern about the weed and the spraying for weeds in the lawn spraying and that I'm willing to bet that there is. Spring that's going on right now that is harmful to the environment. On the other hand I'm probably willing to also say that there may be some spring or a reasonable amount of spray that's probably done in an innocuous in a reasonable matter with the right concentration in the right chemical. Personally and I'm not speaking for the industry I'm speaking for myself. If there is a problem with with a particular industry particular applicator I think that we have an obligation to notify the state regulatory people that we feel there is indeed an infraction and let them take it from there because they have the legal means to do so. What is the bottom line on this issue as far as you're concerned.

Well I would like them to stop using these poisonous pasta sides in residential areas. I don't think it can be done safely. No matter what they say. There are too many people all over the country getting sacked. What do you tell your constituents enquiring about professional lawn care. I am telling them that if they have been confortable with that and if they if not of their neighbors has suggested to them that they've had any discomfort that they continue along as they have been and just keep an eye on this issue. There's no reason for a knee jerk reaction. What do you Charlie consumer who may want to have this service but is confused and frightened over this volatile issue. Well Fran at the present time we're very heavily regulated industry by both federal and state regulatory agencies and rightly so I think is longer applicators we have no problem with that. We have the expertise to diagnose a particular problem and

recommend the right compounds for that and make the application in a very professional manner. Is it time to shut them down. I don't know yet but is it time to ask questions on their practices and even ask questions of ourselves as the regulator. If we see a major problem I think you're going to see action on our part. On the other hand if we see no problem then I think we're going to have to come out as reasonable government and say we've done a study. We're not in agreement but environmentally hears our facts and hears our findings if somebody wants to challenge it so be it. The only result of an attempt to deploy Star Wars weapons will be to get the United

States into a nuclear war a war which as President Reagan says cannot be won and must not be fought. Oh we know more and more that defense is possible and votes must avoid book. We know for certain that the US is developing the feds. If somebody without authorization are accidentally shot off a few missiles on either side we could shoot those down and prevent World War 3 from happening. That that alone would justify Star Wars in my opinion. Voices of dissent over the Strategic Defense Initiative or Star Wars. It is a debate that will continue to grow. One touched off March 23rd 1903 in a speech by the president. What if free people could live secure in the knowledge that their security did not rest upon the threat of instant U.S. retaliation to deter a Soviet attack that we could intercept and destroy strategic ballistic missiles before they reached our own soil or that of our allies.

Just what Star Wars will it work. High front here a Washington based organization that supports SDI produced this film to illustrate how it might function to protect people and our nuclear strike back capability. It consists of three elements two levels of orbiting satellites Plus a ground based missile defense. When the network detects the launch of a Soviet ICBM computers acquire the missile track and send a satellite to destroy the missile during its initial boost phase. Missiles that survived the boost phase encounter the more sophisticated second offense this system has a more advanced tracking and targeting ability which allows it to destroy a missiles multiple warheads. Finally if any enemy warhead survive the two satellite systems the ground based missile defense fires a high velocity salvo of Swan's jets to detonate the warheads at a distance sufficient to protect our Minuteman silos

prominent scientists and leaders of equal stature come down on both sides of the question of whether we should push ahead and create a new defense technology. A retired Air Force colonel who later played a prominent role in space research projects is committed to stopping Star Wars development. Dr. Robert Bowman who came to Buffalo to address 150 scientists and educators at State U B sees Star Wars not as a defense of survival shield against Russian missiles but as a system of great often civ capability. The fact is if you try to get a defensive system with Star Wars weapon technology you are automatically going to get off and see the awesome office of weapons whether you propose to do so or not and the fact is that the Soviets are well aware of these office and capabilities will not allow us to deploy such weapons without a fight. I don't think the Russians are about to just capitulate. Just turn over and die. I think that they go to

war. One reason I suspect that's the case is because I know it has been our military doctrine for at least a decade to go to war if necessary rather than allow the Russians to put up such weapons. But others see the Strategic Defense Initiative as purely defensive and a way of breaking free of the mutually assured destruction or MAD concept which guarantees destruction of both sides. Some experts say this theory is collapsing anyway because of the Soviet missile build up. Retired Army General Daniel Graham is a former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency advisor to the president on Star Wars and director of the high frontier. I have seven children. I have seven grandchildren. And if nothing happens if we stick with what we've been doing then those children and grandchildren will live out their whole lives with this specter hanging over them in their heads of total nuclear destruction within 35 minutes of a decision by somebody I don't trust in the Kremlin. Now I want to

change that. Is Star Wars something much more than just a change in strategy on our part. Yes. Star Wars is a blatant attempt to regain absolute military superiority it has by the way nothing whatsoever to do with doing away with MAD Mutual Assured Destruction. If anything its intention is to make it just a little bit matter how far along are the Soviets on an SGI program. It said that they've spent a good deal of money on it for many years. We knew they were doing it they knew we were doing it. Neither of us crossed the line that the United States clearly established when we signed the ABM Treaty that line between research and development where we said you do something a laboratory and we can't see it it's OK. It's research. If you get outside and begin field testing of bits and pieces of a system where we can spot it with our national technical means of verification then it's development and therefore prohibited. It was a

very commonsense approach to a treaty it makes the treaty absolutely verifiable. But unfortunately it's been the United States that crossed that line and now we're field testing bits and pieces of prohibited starwars systems. They have been putting as much money. More money really into strategic defense of the Soviet Union than they put into strategic coffers. So the Saudis never bought this mutual assured destruction idea and they just pursued the technical possibilities that they had for defense and even violated the ABM Treaty were gotten away where we have actually behaved as if mutual assured destruction is now legislated it's mandated by the treaty and have allowed our our entire nation to become a nation of nuclear nudists. Absolutely vulnerable to a long range attack with Soviet ballistic missiles. There was a period from 1945 to about 1950 when the Soviet Union did not have an atomic bomb. So we had in that period

they blockaded Berlin they fomented the Korean War there were other provocations. Yet we never threatened them with nuclear retaliation. Do you believe that the Soviet Union seriously thinks we would ever strike them first. Sure I don't see how we can convince the Russians that if we had that kind of superiority we wouldn't use it and the people who are now in the administration even those who say they don't want to do a first strike on the Soviet Union still say they want the capability to do it because they want to threaten the Soviets with this theory already and be able to dictate their say their behavior. They want to be able to tell the Russians to get out of Afghanistan and to get out of Poland and to get out of Latvia and to do all of these wonderful things we would like them to do. It might be nice to have that kind of power but the fact is that the Russians are not going to let us have it. And the attempt to regain that kind of power is only going to get us into a nuclear war and lead to the

destruction of the United States. Ronald Reagan back in 1976 when I first became an advisor was already saying. I don't. There's got to be some better way as you describe is like two man pointing Nokia pistols at each other's head and one man's finger Frenchie both get their brains blown out he says they've got to be a better way. Than they should. But what the head injured patient at least three quarters of them the primary

disability is mental areas. Changes in personality behavior memory difficulties all contribute to this being a more disabling injury in the long run. And some of the other physical traumas that we see do you know who I am or what I do. Yeah OK my name is Kearney and I'm a nurse. Do you know what month it is. Right now it is me. Can you tell me what day. What's this. Do you know I am 21 and it is just a generation ago nine out of 10 patients with severe head injuries die. Today 50 percent survive. But 50000 people each year in this country survive with disabling brain injuries. Car and motorcycle accidents account for about half of all brain injuries. For the

survivors it's a long long road back. To meet the multiple needs of the brain injured patients. Erie County Medical Center has a head trauma program. One of the few in the nation. Rehabilitation means often before the patient is even conscious. But we like to start right about the time they come into the ICU and if they're in coma for example the program starts with different attempts at sensory stimulation giving visual stimuli auditory simulate stimuli or sensory stimuli all in an attempt to get the brain to start processing information at the same time we start physical therapy to put the joints the range of motion in attempt to facilitate motion in an extremity for example that may be paralyzed. So we try to get in right at the beginning when they come in the ICU. Most of our patients when they come to us are quite disoriented so they don't know what they it is where they are. They have no recollection of their accident or injury. They may have indeed lost three or four years of time of

their lives so they may not remember that they are married or have children. And we've had many examples of that where a person has. So I graduated from high school a year or two ago our on our floor at the hospital here they're talking about what they're doing their junior senior year of school and graduation is now an upcoming thing. So all that period of time has been temporarily blotted out of their consciousness. The maestro always a sensitive indicator that helps assess damage to the brain that massive nerve tissue. The center of thought the control unit of what we are and what we do. We can look at how the brain processes sensory stimulation that supply at the level of the wrist and then follow that. So you know all the way through the peripheral nervous system to the spinal cord to the lower parts of the brain stem and then all the way up to the cortex itself which is the area responsible for the higher cognitive processes that gives us an idea of

how severely damaged the brain is. And Ed is using this as one of the means of assessing the head in your patient. It is a set idea of what the course of recovery will be. Early on after they were admitted within the first week and they may be in a coma at the time the test is done. But if the results are very good there will be putting a lot of effort into rehabilitating that individual if they're not so good then that may be somebody that eventually would require nursing home placement. For the patient it is a period of retraining re learning sometimes how to walk how to dress. So I must also deal with physical handicaps. I want you to try to come up and bring your knee up to here. And back down. From this one up here. OK let's get that shot. Right here what we're going to do this morning is to try to cut the onion using the stainless steel nails is this as of securing device so that you can use primarily your right hand.

Then Carol if you want to make a sandwich this cutting this particular cutting board has an edge on it so that a sandwich a piece of bread can be secured into the corner of the board and it then can be buttered and called cuts or whatever you like can be layered on top of it and then it can be cut by bracing the bread up into the corner of the board. In speech there are day computers are helpful in teaching and memory stimulation. Drain the patient in awareness and thinking skills how to organize information. I remember OK now Kathy when you see the yellow one press the button. Only yellow. One here with that yellow light that was blue. Thank you.

That was you know the team approach and the head drama unit also involves a full range of occupational vocational and rehabilitation counseling services to get the patient functioning again. But for some patients and their families there are harsh realities. Now they're faced with this severe disability. They realize they can't become the person they used to be. Everything they try now is a mixture of all the aspirations and hopes that with. Current. Reality showing them that they can't achieve those things any longer. Part of it is trouble with the person understanding this and I just think taught and the other part is the family's reaction to that. But the head trauma unit has its success stories. Jerry Sloan high school honor student and football player was hurt in a car accident in January 1985. He was in a coma for a week once and was cognizant of what was going on around me. I say remembering things like this

I walk. Yeah I can really say I think I can get out of bed now I want to just type thing all over again. I know you have been physically there but I had something to do with reading and comprehending what I'm reading and then writing about what I just read and summarizing everything I read was help me on school because it's thundering now. Well you're back in school you've been back for a while how are you doing. I'm through having student which is not what I was before but I still work up to what I was before. It's going to take time. Gary diem is vice president of an insurance agency. He was injured in a collision in a baseball game. I couldn't walk. That's when I really realized that I was hurt I couldn't walk. And then when they started ask me certain questions I can call thing answers. I realized there had to be something more wrong with me that I thought there was. I filled up better start

times and as time goes and I get better and better and I reach a plateau. But I'm still out of her present. Now almost two years. Does the brain with time help prepare itself or perhaps help compensate for injury. Yes we are all born with all the neurons or nerve cells that we have or will have. So it's not capable of regenerating nerve cells the way the skin would be if you cut yourself. And what we think happens there are two processes. One is called collateral sprouting by which nerve cells that didn't communicate with other nerve cells can somehow send off shoots to those nerve cells. The other process is a technique whereby an area of the brain that is damaged can no longer carry out a specific function. So by training in other areas of the brain to carry on that function that the brain can cap and say for the last function the family is really the

lock terrible critical helpmates of our patient we can do so much in the hospital and so much as an outpatient and our therapies. But it's the family and the person themself. We have to kind of pull together and develop a new life. First never goes six full or three night think four three four to an elbow and a damn good jab. 1940 you thought you were signing up for one year. That's right. That's right.

Did you know that you know less than when you're in the business. Let me hold the Christmas. Say what you're what they say they're a job like what the shit back in 1940 with the war raging in Europe. President Roosevelt was making plans for the draft. However on the local scene some fourteen hundred young men from Buffalo in Rochester decided not to wait for the draft. Sign up for a year and get their military service out of the way. What better way than to join the National Guard. They form the 200 and ninth Coast artillery anti-aircraft regiment became federalized and shoved off for camp Stewart in Georgia. I wonder before their year was up. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor changed their destiny. Some would not return home for five years. And these are some of the surviving members of the 2 0 9. Forty five years later and a happy reunion here in western New York. They

renewed acquaintances shared photographs and swap war stories. The Pentagon right. Yeah we just got to get here and you stand there for a look at the ground. Right. Didn't make it till you make it if it was right here are mostly

something you did behind my back I was a bit too commander telling you now yeah I'm finding a lot of something didn't I didn't know about. I can imagine. Was there anybody in your outfit that you wanted us. Maybe you're right if I ever see you once a million like you're going to get it. I was the other way around the other way. They were looking at the officers and now when they see it they probably embrace it. No problem with Charles Pierce was a supply sergeant with the battery and over the years has acted as a story of the two and I. He tells us I was unit got its color. It was given to us by the Buffalo Evening News he had it on your list and the American flag which we carried at Camp Stuart Georgia. Right after that it went with us into Africa Italy into Southern France Germany and we really started in September of 1940. And then

1941 we were federalized here in the Harvard the sixth floor. Well of course in Rochester they were federalized at the same day. I myself a hundred seventy four some other men came from one hundred and six. Men rushed to the camp. But there. So you see we have quite a variety of them Northern France at a place called suburbia. My guns were taken away from us and we became them pay for the patch of American military government or and that was what we polluted with the extent of our tour. Many of the volunteers are joined into our nights prior to World War Two were from well-known Buffalo and western New York family man like the late George Herbert shown here was the late Harlan Swift. Was Captain Harlan swift back in 1041. And there was shell call it was just prior to the time that President Roosevelt was going to sign the draft no one would join up with the

200 night company to force a group of 15 men and Buffalo to join up private your commission for human Tenet we had quite a group. We all thought that we were going to defend my. One year never dreaming that a year later we feel more so one year extended to possibly four or five miners over a fire. None of us knew one single thing about the military when we went in for that we want to cross Africa Duran to the broader today June 30 or with the done for the German. And Sicily and Naples we're calling

it up and they were what the airfield protect her boys defend those with greater tender Colonel Frederick headed up the buffer contingent of the two he was a commanding officer of the first time only surviving member of the regimental commander can still work to attend the forty fifth has retired brigadier general back. And forth. Yeah I realized that I never.

Use command card with this driver and can't water the site and I saw my guys go over there and they were still here because the border why I feel so much better that fast. I was a CT and it was my squad that was don't want to ever do it again live right now. What kind of a feeling you have. Looking around this room tonight seeing these women. Comparing them 45 years ago they changed very little. They were fine men when we started because they had a list so they had the right spirit. They were drafted into the army. And. We

stayed great friends and stayed very close. Kept in touch over early years. When a great experience. Friendship with. Bridge.