Newspaper Page Text
The Red and Black • Wednesday, February 21, 1990 • 3
Blood Drives reject women
when iron levels are too low
By PEGGY MCGOFF
Contributing Writer
University women willing to
bleed for a worthy cause may be
hard pressed to find someone to ac
cept their blood.
Often women are turned away
from blood drives because they are
told the iron levels in their blood
are too low.
An indication of poor health, the
problem can result from many
other factors as well.
“Some people just don’t absorb
iron from their diets,” said John
Ridley, chief medical technologist
for Health Services’ laboratories.
Ridley said low iron in women is
attributed to genetic reasons.
Transferrin is a transport pro
tein which carries iron from the di
gestive tract to be circulated in the
blood. Although the condition is
rare, the body is sometimes unable
to produce enough transferrin,
causing iron levels in the blood to
fall.
Mary Ann Brantley, University
nutrition therapist, said when
there’s a problem with low iron,
“most of the time it is because the
person is not taking good care of
nerself.”
Brantley said students who are
treated for low iron oflen consume
a lot of dairy products, which have
low iron content.
Chronic dieters also are prone to
low iron since they avoid starchy
foods, which are high in iron con
tent, Brantley said.
Steaming vegetables in an iron
skillet also increases iron content
in food.
Three ounces of meat every day
can increase iron intake without
the risk usually associated with
red meat.
Many cereals and breads also
are fortified with iron, Brantley
said.
Men aren’t immune from low
blood iron levels. Women, however,
are more susceptible because they
lose red blood cells during the men
strual cycle, Ridley said.
The Athens Red Cross estimates
about 11 percent of people who try
to give blood are turned away.
Most of the deferrals are because of
low blood iron, said Sarah Rhoads
of the Athens blood services divi
sion of the American Red Cross .
At a blood drive held Jan. 25 at
Russell Hall, the Red Cross de
ferred five of 96 applicants. In con
trast, a Brumby Hall blood drive on
Jan. 30 turned away 18 of 134 ap
plicants.
The Atlanta division of the
American Red Cross supplies blood
to many of Georgia’s hospitals that
surround the Atlanta metropolitan
area. While the blood supply isn’t
presently in an emergency situa
tion, the Red Cross says there is an
ongoing need for blood.
“In order to supply over 100 hos
pitals in 82 counties, we need to
collect 900 units of blood every
weekday,” Anne Wilcox,
spokeswoman for the American
Red Cross.
The Atlanta Red Cross currently
collects about 83 percent of the
supply needed. Wilcox said the Red
Cross checks red blood cells when
it analyzes iron content.
Ridley said iron is an important
component of the hemoglobin mole
cules of red blood cells. Since hemo
globin is the oxygen-carrying
pigment in the blood, the body
needs a sufficient amount of red
blood cells to circulate oxygen.
Upcoming blood drives on the
University campus include:
• The Army ROTC Blood Drive
Thursday from 10:30 a m. to 3:30
.m. in the Georgia Hall of the Tate
tudent Center.
• The Air Force ROTC Blood
Drive Thursday from noon until 5
p.m. at the Coliseum.
• A blood drive at Creswell Hall
Feb. 28 and March 1 from 1 p.m. to
6 p.m. both days.
Stamp printed in Athens fetches
fat fee at recent London auction
By TONIA PEARSON
Contributing Writer
If you think postage rates are
getting high, try paying $2,300
for one stamp.
That’s about how much
someone paid at a British auction
in January, for a postage stamp
printed in Athens, according to
Gordon May, president of the
Athens Philatelic Society and a
University accounting professor.
The brown, five-cents stamp is
a postmaster provisional, printed
in Athens from June 1 to Oct. 19,
1861.
Because of the newly formed
Confederate government, U.S.
stamps weren’t used in the South
at that time and the Confederacy
had not yet printed its own
stamps, May said.
Most provisionals were just a
postmark but Athens was one of
a handful of towns that actually
printed its own stamp, May said.
This stamp is the symbol of the
Athens Philatelic Society, which
gathers stamp collectors from
Athens once a month to learn
about and trade stamps.
The society currently is trying
to increase its membership by re
cruiting faculty and students
from the University.
“I suspect there are at least
500 or more former stamp collec
tors on campus,”said Ed Jackson,
secretary of the society and Uni
versity senior public service asso
ciate.
On Feb. 6, Jackson gave a pre
sentation about black Americans
on foreign stamps for Black His
tory Month. Jackson also has put
together an exhibit of black
Americans on U.S. stamps. It’s
now on display at the Institute
for African-American Affairs on
the ground floor of the psychology
building.
John Haag, vice president of
the society and history professor,
will give a presentation about So
viet women on stamps on March
6. The society holds it’s monthly
meetings at the First Presbyte
rian Church on the first Tuesday
of each month.
Haag, who specializes in col
lecting German stamps and oflen
uses his stamps to teach, said he
has learned a lot by preparing
this presentation.
“Very often you can make a
point,” he said. “You can talk
about the propaganda (of a cer
tain country), themes that they
projected in their propaganda or
their ideology and you show a
stamp and there it is."
Jackson also is interested in
using stamps in teaching. He
works with social studies tea
chers around the state in using
stamps to teach about history
and geography.
In addition to their monthly
meetings, the society also goes to
Atlanta a couple of times a year
for stamp shows and auctions,
said Jean-Pierre Frossard, grad
uate student in medical microbio
logy.
Frossard has been collecting
stamps for about eight years.
After he started collecting, his fa
ther got interested and now they
have a collection of about 50,000
stamps from around the world.
United States may invest in cocaine-chomping caterpillars
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The Bush ad
ministration is pushing research
into a possible new combatant in
the war against cocaine — a cater
pillar with a taste for coca leaves —
but officials said Tuesday that the
insects won’t be deployed in South
America unless local governments
approve.
“We are not undertaking any bi
ological war,” said President
Bush’s spokesman, Marlin Fitz-
water. “Neither troops nor caterpil
lars will go in without prior request
and consultation.”
Peruvian and Bolivian growers
supply the vast majority of the
world’s coca leaves, the raw
material for cocaine.
The embassies of Peru and Bo
livia didn’t respond to several re
quests for comment on the
proposal, first reported by The
Washington Post in Tuesday’s edi
tions.
The administration’s drug
budget proposal for the Agricul
tural Research Service for fiscal
1991, starting Oct. 1, is $6.5 mil
lion, a $5 million increase over the
$1.5 million to be spent this year.
The principal focus of that re
search is the malumbia, a white
moth that, when it’s still in its cat
erpillar stages, eats coca plant
leaves, officials said.
‘This is quite a voracious cater
pillar,” Waldemar Klassen, asso
ciate deputy administrator for the
ARS, told the Post. “If we could put
them down there in sufficient
number, we could then defoliate
the plants.”
Both Fitzwater and Don Ham
ilton, a spokesman for national
drug control policy director Wil
liam Bennett, emphasized that the
insect research program is in the
experimental stage.
‘The Department of Agriculture
is studying not just coca but other
drug plants as well to learn as
much about them as possible,”
Fitzwater said. “This research in
cludes study of herbicide and nat
ural enemies of these plants.
This program is experimental. Ab
solutely no potential tool will be
considered for use until it is proven
to be safe and effective.”
Fitzwater said the subject of bi
ological war against drug crops
wasn’t broached at last week’s
drug summit in Colombia.
Environmental activists were di
vided over the proposal.
Maureen Hinkle, the National
Audubon Society’s director of agri
cultural policy, said, “I think that
it’s an approach that bears ex
ploring.
“Biological controls, when they
work, they work like a ballet,”
Hinkle said. “The only problem is
they need to make sure that the se
lectivity of the caterpillars is for
the coca plants and not to other
Northwest Airlines.
• •
not just a great price.
Its a great experience.
m v
< ' - ♦
Onlv forstudent American Express Cardmembers.
Apply for the American Express® Card.
Then get ready to take ofF. In search of
adventure, action-or just simply to escape.
American Express and Northwest
Airlines have arranged these extraordinary
travel privileges on Northwest-exclusively
for student Cardmembers:
■ CERTIFICATES VALID FOR THE PURCHASE
of two $118 roundtrip tickets—to many
of the more than 180 cities in the 48 contig
uous United States served by Northwest.
Each certificate is good for a six month
period, and they will arrive within six
weeks after you receive the Card. Current
Cardmembers will automatically receive
their $118 certificates by March 15,1990
provided they are still full time students*
TRAVEL
RELATED
SERVICES
10% OFF ANY NORTHWEST FLIGHT-with
your own personalized discount card, valid
throughjanuary 1991 on all Northwest and
Northwest Airlink flights. (This discount
is not applicable to the $118 student
certificates and other certificates,
promotional or special status airfares.)
■ 2,500 BONUS MILES TOWARDS FREE TRAVEL—
when you enroll in Northwest’s World!Arks'
Free Travel Program.
AND NOW BECOMING A CARDMEMBER
IS AS EASY AS A TELEPHONE CALL
Just pick up the phone, call 1 800-942-
AMEX, and talk to us. We'll take your
application and begin to process it
immediately. (If you have your banking
information handy, like your account
number and bank address, it will help
APPLY TODAY
1-800-942-AMEX
speed the process.)
Keep in mind that our Automatic
Acceptance Program makes it easier for
you to become a Cardmember now, as a
student, than it will ever be again.
And remember that as a Cardmem
ber you’ll enjoy all the exceptional benefits
and personal service you would expect from
American Express.
So don’t miss out on a world of great
experiences. Pick up the phone. Apply for
the Card. And start packing 1
Membership Has Its Privileges*
NORTHWEST
AIRLINES
•If vou are already a student American Express Cardmember and have a question about this program.plcase send your written question, a copy of your student ID and class schedule to American Express. PO Box 35029,
Attn Student Marketing. Greensboro, NC 27425 Fare is for roundtrip travel on Northwest Airlines Tickets must be purchased within 24 hours after making reservations Fares are nonretundable and no itinerary changes
mav be made after purchase Seats at this fare are limited and may not be available when vou call Travel must originate by certificate expiration date and be completed within 60 days of that date Travel may not be available
between cities to which Northwest does not have published routings City fuel surcharges not included in fare from Boston ($2 50|. Chicago ($500), Denver ($2 00) and Florida cities ($2 00) Certain blackout dates and
other restrictions may apply For complete offer details, call 1 BOO 942 AMEX ©1990 American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc
THE AMERICAN EXPRESS* CARD FOR STUDENTS MORE THAN EVER
But Sandra Marquardt, pesti
cide information coordinator for
Greenpeace U.S.A., said the “drug
bug” idea “might be a proposal that
needs to be nipped in the bud.”
“It’s an expensive proposition
and probably won’t work the way
USD A wants it to work,” Mar
quardt said. “The reason is that
USDA wants to use an insect and
the coca growers have insecticide,
so they will just use insecticide to
kill USDA’s insect."
Coca growing and processing al
ready are “extremely destructive”
to the environment because of the
insecticides and the harsh chemi
cals employed, Marquardt said.
But instead of the caterpillars
producing “a nice biological con
trol, you’ll have growers adding
even more insecticides,” she said.
TRACY J. MURRAY^
ATTORNEY AT LAW ■
A Full Service law Firm
Free consultation
548-5918
ABRAMS ALPS CINEMA $
ALPS SHOPPWG CENTER 548-5256
Ends Thursday ^
NATIONAL LAMPOON'S |
I CHRISTMAS VACATION (P-G 13) I
A. 7:25.9:45 A
mm 111 i 1 i i m
WWWwwwwww
*
TATE
THEATRE
"She’s Gotta Have It"
Wed. 3:00/5:15/7:30/9:45
"Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop"
Thur. 3:00/5:15/7:30/9:45
Matinees: $1 oo riniyersrtin
Evenings: $2 00 l—WOO-HJ
3C
OUTSIDE THE MALL 648-9460
CINEMAS 9
NIGHTBREED
230 500 7 309 55
MADHOUSE
MS4 45 7 15945
STANLEY A IRIS
200 4 00 6 00 8 0010 00 :
»0 -3)
LOOSE CANNONS
2104106108101010
1*1
REVENGE
1 504 30'00 9 30
1*1 .
Do you like
to sell?
The Advertising Sales Department ol
The Red & Black is now accepting ap
plications lor Advertising Representa
tives. These are outside sales posi
tions lor aggressive hard-working
individuals who wish to sell ad space
It will email about 20-25 hours per week
- Monday - Friday. Compensation is in
the lorm ot a structured bonus, with
the opportunity ol salary + bonus. Reli
able transportation is a job require
ment Interested parties should stop by
our ottices at 123 N. Jackson St lor
an application No phone calls please
We will be calling lo set up interviews.
The Red & Black