Newspaper Page Text
12
August 17, 1995
A do run, run
Runners don’t quit, even when heat
index says they should
For some reason even the in
tense heat isn't stoppingjoggers.
And they know everyone else
thinks they're insane for jogging
despite heat alerts and record
breaking temperatures. Some
times they even agree.
“I always joke that I run for
how good it feels when I quit,”
said Wayne Ellis, 43, a manager
at Alabama Power Co. in Bir
mingham who pounds the pave
ment when he could be wolfing
down sandwiches and iced tea.
Even at noon. Even in August.
If Ellis and other runners were
ever to take a day off, though,
Monday might have been a good
choice. The state health depart
ment expanded a critical heat
alert from three cities to the en
tire state, except Baldwin and
Mobile counties. Alerts go out
when the heat indices reach 105
or higher for two days in a row,
and nighttime lows don’t fall be
fow 75.
Those conditions contribute to
heat buildup in enclosed,
unairconditioned spaces. Health
officials advise people to remain
in air conditioning if possible,
drink extra water and avoid
strenuous activity.
Like running.
Ellis admits he runs even when
the heat and humidity chart at
the downtown YMCA is in the
danger zone. “Ijust alter my pace
to take the heat into consider
ation,” he said.
“If you don’t do it, it sounds
impossible,” said South Trust
worker Maynard Brothers, who
logs four to six miles five days a
week. “But you build up a toler
ance for it.”
Brothers and his co-worker
Kevin Horton relish the heat and
the sweat and the ecstatic feel
ing of accomplishment when
their run is over.
“You always feel great after
wards,” Horton said.
Well-conditioned runners,
however, are the exception. The
average person needs to heed
warnings about the heat, said
Jim McVay of the Alabama De
partment of Public Health.
Alabama has had seven heat-
7o eve Q
Eye Care Questions and Answers with Dr. Thomas Casella, Optometrist
Yard work can be dangerous to your eyes
As the dog days of summer grow
longer. pcople find themselves working
harder to maintain their yards. Yard work
may be good for your grass but it may not be
good for your eyes. Eye injuries occurring
from flying debris from weed eaters, lawn
mowers, ctc. can lead to a serious eye injury.
When someone cuts their grass it is not
uncommon for debris to strike that person’s
eye. Often times, that person does not get
trcatment for their eye injury and this may
lead to permanent loss of vision.
If metal enters the eye and is not
promptly removed it can rust and lead to
scarring, inflammation, and reduced, distort
ed vision.
“It is important not to ignore a simple
eye injury,” said Dr. Jim McQuaig, presi
dent, Georgia Optometric Association and an
Courtesy of Dr. Thomas Casella, 767 Broad St. (Next to the Lamar Bldg.) ® (706)722-0817
Member, Georgia Optometrist Association
AUGUSTA FOCUS
@/ )
:’ | \\\ _
220
related deaths this year, includ
ing four in the latter part of July,
McVay said. In addition, an eld
erlywomanin Henry County died
Sunday of heat-related causes,
Coroner Norman Holman said.
Eighty-year-old Ethel Kirkland
Williams was found with her
husband in an unairconditioned
brick house with the windows
closed. Authorities said the in
Livingßetter
door temperature was in excess
of 120 degrees. Mrs. Williams’
husband was hospitalized in sta
ble condition today.
In Tuscumbia, three
firefighters suffered heat exhaus
tion Monday while battling an
attic fire. Two were treated at
the scene, while the third was
briefly hospitalized.
Birmingham reached a record
Alma optometrist. “A foreign object lodged
inside a person’s eye can lead to a permanent
loss of vision unless treated immediately by
a medical professional such as your local
optometrist.”
The Georgia Optometric Association
offers the following eye protection tips to
those yard warriors:
*Wear safety goggles while working
with power equipment in the yard such as
lawn mowers and weed eaters.
*Have side shields on these safety
goggles.
*lf you are struck in the eye with an
object, immediately seek medical attention.
As always, use common sense while
working in the yard and contact your local
optometrist when an eye injury occurs.
high of 102 Sunday, bre:i ing
the old mark of 99 set in 1954.
Huntsville equalled a record of
95 degrees last reached in 1980.
Heat indices were much high
er—ll 3 yesterday in Birming
ham, 117 in Anniston and 115 in
Montgomery.
The heat alert will last at least
through Tuesday, and may be
extended depending on weather
conditions, National Weather
Service meteorologist Bill
Herrmann said. The weather
service coordinates heat alerts
with the health department.
A high-pressure weather sys
tem locked in place over the
Southeast was contributing to
the heatbuildup, Herrmann said.
Part of the problem was Hurri
cane Felix off the Atlantic coast,
which was preventing the high
pressure from moving off to the
East.
Chances are poor for any sig
nificant cooling within the next
four to five days, he said.
“It looks like any day-to-day
change will be very minor,”
Herrmann said. “I don’t see any
definite trends developing. It
looks like a stagnant pattern.”
Alabama’s hot high-pressure
cooker starts to break up, typi
cally, in September, although
Herrmann wasreluctant tomake
any long-term forecast. The
weather service’s 90-day out
look—which usually says wheth
eracertain area will have above
normal, below-normal, or near
normal average temperatures—
makes no prediction for Alabama,
except the northwest corner.
That area will average near-nor
mal temperatures.
“This typically is the hottest
part of the year, where we are
right now,” Herrmann said.
The normal high for Birming
ham in mid-August is 90, and
drops slowly to 88 by the end of
August, with a normal low of 68.
That moderates to 81 by the end
of September, with a normal low
of 58. Statewide average normal
temperatures aren’t available,
but Herrmann said they aren’t
very different from Birming
ham’s.
- MEDICAL DIRECTORY
' An Area Guide of
- Dental, Medical and Chiropractic Services
CARDIOLOGY
Mac Andrew Bowman
MD,FACC
818 St. Sebastian Way
(706) 724-4400
CHIROPRACTIC
Scruggs Clinic
1926 Thomas Lane
(706) 733-8008
Dr. William B. Scruggs, DC
DENTISTRY &
ORTHODONTICS
Eddie Johnson, DMD
27558art0n Chapelßd.
(706) 790-9179
DeborahY.Makerson
1119 Druid Park Ave.
(706) 737-6453
w.J. Walker, Jr., DMD
1518 Laney-Walkerßivd.
(706) 724-9691
Jack W.Carter
456 Fury'’s Ferry Rd.
(706) 650-0468
Many Americans at risk of
harm from toxic chemicals
By Michelle Mittelstadt
Associated Press Writer
More than one in six Ameri
cans is at risk of being seriously
harmed or killed by toxic chemi
cal releases, plant fires or indus
trial explosions, two environmen
tal groups contend.
A study issued today by the
National Environmental Law
Center and the U.S. Public In
terest Research Group ranks the
states and localities considered
most vulnerable to chemical di
sasters.
“More than 44 million Ameri
cans live within range of a dead
ly toxic cloud that could result
from a chemical accident at a
facility located in their zip code,”
said Hillel Gray, the law center’s
policy director and co-author of
the report.
Texas, California and Ohiolead
the nation in terms of worst-case
chemical accident potential, the
study said, followed by Illinois
and Louisiana. Rounding out the
top 10 are Pennsylvania, Michi
gan, New York, Indiana and
Georgia.
Cities with the highest poten
tial of worst-case disaster are
Houston; Chicago; Baton Rouge,
La.; St. Louis, Mo.; Baltimore;
Los Angeles; and Memphis,
Tenn.
Utah was ranked 35th in the
nation for danger of chemical acci
dents, said Warren Alfred, U.S.
PIRG state campaign director.
He said that means one in six
Utahns also are directly in dan
ger of being exposed to toxic
chemicals.
At a late-morning news confer
ence in Salt Lake City, Alfred list
ed four Utah companies among
400nationallywhich hesaid posed
the potential for the greatest dan
ger—Magnesium Corp. of Ameri
ca, which has a plant near the
Great Salt Lake in Rowley;
Westinghouse Electric Corp. in
Ogden; Westernelectro in Cedar
City, and Thatcher Chemical in
Salt Lake City.
All of those companies either
manufacture or store chlorine,
except for Westernelectro, which
houses ammonia.
“This report should be a call to
action for business leaders and
citizens in the state of Utah,”
said U.S. PIRG spokesman Eric
Wilden.
The rankings were based on
the Environmental Protection
FAMILY HEALTH
Carey Goodman
MD, FAAFP
1203 George C. Wilson Dr.
(706) 855-1454
Elijah Lightfoot Jr., MD
1021 Laney-Walker Blvd.
(706) 724-1206
Audrey Henderson,MD
3623 J. Dewey Gray Circle
Suite 113
(706) 860-4567
HOME CARE
Care Management
Consultants
Juanitaßenjamin
(706) 737-8830
OBSTETRICS/
GYNECOLOGY
Eddie Cheeks, MD
1903 Wrightsboro Rd.
(706) 736-2737
Calvin Hobbs, MD
1903 Wrightsboro Rd.
(706)736-2737
Agency’s Toxic Release Invento
ry data. The law center then cal
culated for nearly 10,000 manu
facturing companies the worst
case scenarios of deaths or seri
ous injuries that could result in
the event of disaster.
A spokesman for the Chemical
Manufacturers Association,
which represents some of the
nation’s largest chemical compa
nies, said the study doesn’t con
siderindustry’s efforts toimprove
safety.
‘The (Toxic Release Inventory)
basically just measures how
much you are putting out into
the environment,” said CMA
spokesman Matthew Weinstock.
“It doesn’t measure what you are
doing inside the fence line to
safeguard against an actual re
lease or anything.”
Added Weinstock: “The CMA
member companies take very
seriously their commitment to
safety and health of their com
munities and the neighborhoods,
and I think have a pretty good
record of being able to safeguard
against accidental releases and
spills and so forth.”
The environmental groups rec
ommended that industry and
government make public their
worst-case accident estimates.
They also took aim at propos
als on Capitol Hill that would
weaken reporting requirements
by industry.
The House voted this month to
restrict the ability of the Envi
ronmental Protection Agency to
enforce a decade-old “right-to
know” law that requires some
23,000 manufacturing facilities
to issue annual Toxic Release
Inventory reports on emissions
of 651 chemicals tracked by the
government.
“Congress should not buckle
under to polluting industries by
rolling back the Community
Right-to-Know law and weaken
ing accident prevention require
ments,” said Carolyn Hartmann,
U.S. PIRG’s environmental poli
cy director.
President Clinton responded to
the congressional action by or
deringall companiesthat do busi
ness with the government to re
port the pollution they cause.
Clinton has promised to veto
the appropriations bill that funds
the EPA if it is sent to him with
the “right-to-know” restrictions.
The Senate has yet totake up the
measure.
OPHTHALMOLOGY
Keith C. Moses
3515WheelerRd.
Bldg. D, Suite D
(706) 736-0601
PEDIATRIC
MonicaC. Greene,MD
523 15th St.
(706) 722-1026
2572 Dover St.
(706)560-0014
OPTOMETRISTS
CasellaEye Center, PC
767 Broad St.
(706)722-0817
PHYSICAL
THERAPY
Walton Rehabilitation
Hospital
1355IndependenceDr.
(706)724-7746
For information on this listing, :
contact Augusta Focus, 1143
Laney-Walker Blvd., Augusta, Ga.
30901 or phone (706) 724-7855.