A6 - Friday, August 10, 1984 - North Shore News EES editorial pagel See your doctor Ihe logic of Victoria’s pigheaded attitude to child safety seats in cars baffles the mind. Since the late seventies seat belts have been mandatory for all car occupants over the age of six. But it’s still legal for little passengers under that age to roll around completely un- protected by any restraining device, a situa- tion that virtually guarantees injury or death in the event of a crash. Any pretence that this omission is based on a policy of reducing government interfer- ence in people’s private lives is obviously rendered ridiculous by the seat belt law for everyone else. True, child safety seats tended to be expensive and sometimes of doubtful efficiency at the time the law was introduced, but the cost has since come down and stan- dards have measurably improved -- partly due to the demand of responsible parents who have voluntarily installed such devices. There are still those, however, who don’t bother, any more than they buckle up themselves. Until they’re caught, that’s THEIR choice. Meanwhile, their youngsters aren’t even given this life-and-death choice. Doctors throughout B.C. have now laun- ched a petition calling on Transport Minister Fraser and his cabinet colleagues to rethink their inexcusable opposition to this vital car safety measure for babies and small children. Even if you’ve never felt better in your life, drop by at your doctor’s office in the next few days and sign it. No appointment need- ed! Fowl proposal ompared to barking or vicious dogs, smelly backyard barbecues and cats using other folk’s flowerbeds as bathrooms, a few properly fenced-in hens would seem to be comparatively inoffensive neighbors. Moreover, North Van District's move to ban them has already laid an egy until council does something-about its own gapple of poultry at Maplewood Farm. Maybe it's still not to late for aldermen to heed the cries of ‘‘fowl’ and chicken out. ‘Teen voece OF MONTH AFED WHET VANCOUVER | north shore 980-0511 986-6222 985-2131 986-1337 980-2707 Display Advertising Classified Advertising Newsroom news Ee SUNDAY. wannmanay-.emnay Subscriptions 1138 Lonsdale Ave.. North Vancouver, 8 C V7M 2H4 Publisher Peter Speck Editor-in-Chiet Noel Wright Associate Publisher Advertising Director Robern Graham Tam Fran is Personnol Director Bernt Hillard Classified Manager Val Stephenson Circulation Director Bul) Mc Crown Production Director Photography Manager Chis Johnson Terry Peters North Ghore News. founded in 1464 as an ndapeENndent subuntvarn Newspaper and qualified under Schedute I Pact li Parageaph tl ot the ftacise Tan Act ts Published each Wednenday boday and Sunday by Nonth Share bree Press (td and dtetribuled to avery daar or the Nort Shore Second Ciass Mau Hegistration Numba: J8s* Entire contonts « 1964 North Shore Free Press Lid All rights reserved Subsceiptionn Nath and Woal Vancouver $ 4. pres yer avatlables Of request Maihry alan No reaponsiOlity oaccapled for Cat vescotte (EOC) oo reventercsa ne hadi MANUBCUPIS and PiCtUrEs which showtie be acCOMpaniod by a stamped addressed anvelope Member of the B.C Press Council bea 65.656 (average Wednesc Nay BOA OIVEON = + Haday & Sunday) SIN“ THIS PAPER IS RECYCLABLE Sa \ SN N SN ~ WSSs3~“q Sones, ere S Yj, Ye yy “oy y iy We WL Yy Yy ty iy Wy YY VY yj Ys 4 Li Wy, li. Yy yy Wy WY, Y New questions on smoking OES SMOKING KILL WORKERS, or working kill smokers? In polluted en- vironments, can smoking be beneficial to health? Dr. T.D. Sterling, a pro- fessor of computing science at Simon Fraser University, doesn't have all the answers, but he feels recent research on the human anatomy and respiratory health hazards tn the workplace raise compell Ing questions “dts time that certain in dustries eapressed as much concern about the large amounts of tox dusts, fibres and tumes ino the attr their workers breathe tather than about the numbers of cigaret tes they smoke Perhaps it’s ume as well to put the health effects of cigarette smoking into theit proper perspective Sterling believes that perspective was lost years ago when publi health in- vestigators, inp them en thusiasm to pin the blame on tobacco, failed to look at who actually did the smok ing ‘After all, smoking and exposure fo other hazards cannot be considered in dependent of cach other "’ Sterling's analysis of US data (supphed to him regular ly through the US) National Center for Health Statistics) has demonstrated that smok INg OCCUESs although most not frequently, exclusively, among those socio cconomic segments of society that do most of the dirty work tn construction and industry BLUE COLLAR “The realization of the full extent to which smokers are blue collar workers became possible a few years ago when the US) National Center for Health Statistics asked forin formation on occupation and smoking habits of people in 40 O00 bouscholds “The extent to whieh smoking and occupation aec telated is demonstrated when SFU News Service one ranks occupations by how many people in each group smokes. Of the 40 oc- cupations with the highest frequency of smoking among their members, 29 were blue collar On the other hand, 27 of the 40 occupations in which the fewest numbers of individuals smoked = were managers 7" Sterling says the logical step should be to sec what happens when mortality tates of smokers and non smokers within various oc cupations are compared He fcxt laments that many _ resear- chers missed the mark, and misled the public, by simply comparing mortality rates of smokers and non-smokers without taking occupation in- to account. “The answer to this ques- tion can only be provided by accurate research but unfor- tunately there is a smoking bias that scriously interferes with the caccution of such research tt us a. screntific disgrace that) among the thousands of cancer registries inthe US) and Canada, on- ly one, to iy Knowledge, col- photo submitted Professor Ted Sterting those of professtonals and lects information on occupa tonal and other caposures of cancer victims, while all of collect smoking histories 7" While tt ts important to plant the seed that peopte may be placed as much at risk them by respiratory hazards in the workplace as by smoking, Sterling says it is also intrigu- ing to consider a number of recent studies which indicate that smoking may actually be advantageous to people who work in polluted environments. LESS DUST ‘*For example, more non- smokers than smokers are found among lung-cancer cases with a history of ex- posure to chloromethyl methyl! ether Coke-oven workers who are exposed to the real, volatile by products of combustion, seem to have a thigh rate of lung cancer regardless of whether of not they smoke “And a research team tn Quebec, using newly developed magnetometric techniques lo measure the content of some dusts in lungs, presented evidence recently that smokers’ lungs may contain less of certain dusts than non smokers The authors attribute the = fin dings to the constricuon of small ayrways in the lungs of smokers but a oumber of other experiments have shown that dust particles may migrate differently an the lungs of smokers as com pared to non smokers because of the high mucus contents of smokers’ lungs “Whatever the reasons, this discovery combined with other evidence, strongly sug gest that smoking changes the internal cnvironment of the lung in such a way that ex posed individuals may better chminate occupational dusts and toxic acrosols if they smoke than if they do not One theory is that the tn creased mucus in the lungs of smokers may help ino the chminanon of dust and toa substances by facihtating migration of particles and See page AB