Waitin’on a call Page 9
Oregon daily _ _
emerald
Monday, March 11, 1985
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 86, Number 116
Bomb threat mars Ethiopian benefit
By Cynthia Whitfield
Of (he Emarald
A bomb threat disrupted Sunday night’s Heart of
Oregon’s Pledge to Ethiopia benefit to raise funds for
famine victims in Ethiopia. No bomb was found, and
the concert resumed within thirty minutes.
The threat came after an already disappointing day
for HOPE. The fund-raising effort fell far short of
HOPE’S $200,000 goal. By late Sunday evening only
$3,200 had been collected.
HOPE member Arzinia Richardson said the caller
said he "didn’t like the idea of raising money for
niggers.”
HOPE, a four-member Eugene-based organization,
and Public Health International of Oregon, sponsored
three Hult Center concerts Sunday, which featured
rock, jazz, folk and gospel music in the Silva Concert
Hall.
The ticket price for each concert was originally set
at $12.50, but was lowered to $7.50 Tuesday because of
low ticket sales.
But by noon Sunday, local radio stations announc
ed that tickets were no longer necessary. Instead. HOPE
decided to accept donations of any kind for admission
to the concerts.
All proceeds from the concert will be donated to
Oxfam America, an organization working to provide
famine relief and educational self-help projects to
Ethiopians.
*‘We had sold only about 50 tickets before this mor
ning,” said Denny Guelher, a promotions volunteer for
HOPE. Guelher said Ken Kesey “grabbed him” and
suggested the concerts should be a give-as-you can
community event.
Guelher blamed Eugene’s warm weather and sun
ny skies for part of the problem. The HOPE staff asked
local radio stations to inform listeners of the change in
admission policy. The radio stations responded by urg
ing listeners to come to the Hult, bringing “anything
you can afford.”
The first concert, classical and jazz performances,
featuring the Eugene Ballet Company and nationally
recognized jazz performer Bobby McFerrin, was attend
ed by an estimated 50-100 persons. Several concert
goers said they would have liked to stay for McFerrin’s
performance, but had purchased tickets for the stage
performance of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in
the Hult Center’s Soreng Theatre.
Meanwhile, additional entertainment provided at
the Eugene Hilton also drew sparse crowds.
Photo by Stjeven Wall
. . 0 Photo by Dean Guernsey
The Whitetones performed before a sparse crowd at the Hilton Sunday afternoon as part of the HOPE benefit.
EPA sued for studies’ findings .
Local use of dioxin sprays scrutinized
By Dave Berns
Of tb« Emerald
Dioxin — the word creates the
imagery of life-threatening
chemicals and brings to mind
the evacuation of small towns
such as Times Beach, Mo.
Yet, has the dioxin threat
been overplayed by the media
in recent years? A University
law student and his wife do not
believe so.
Paul Merrell and Carol Van
Strum, who are residents of
Five Rivers, have sued the
federal Environmental Protec
tion Agency in an attempt to
force the agency to release all
documents relating to the EPA’s
studies of the impact of her
bicides on human health in the
Siuslaw National Forest.
The lawsuit, which was filed
in U.S. District Court in late Oc
tober, names William
Ruckelshaus, former EPA ad
ministrator. as the defendant.
Merrell has, in the past, filed
two other lawsuits seeking bans
on the use of herbicides in
Oregon.
"The EPA is withholding in
formation on the effects of diox
in spraying all over the coun
try," said Van Strum in a recent
interview. ,yy/y/f ,,
“TKe agency did studies in
Hemlock, Mich.; Hempstead,
.N.Y.; San Antonio, Texas; and
Chicago. I don’t. believe they
contacted any area residents
with the results of these
studies/’ she said.
Van Strum has written a book
titled “A Bitter Fog: Herbicides
and Human Rights,” which
describes the events leading up
to her lawsuit.
“In the spring of 1979 our
valley was sprayed with the her
bicide 2,4,5-T. That summer
five of seven pregnant women
miscarried, two kids almost
died from spinal meningitis,
and people suffered from both
gastrointestinal and respiratory
problems,” Van Strum said.
There is much circumstantial
evidence to suggest that these
events were related to the her
bicide spraying, she said. “But
the EPA will not release infor
mation that supports our
beliefs.”
Recently, the Lane County
Board of Commissioners sent a
letter to U.S. House Speaker
Thomas P. "Tip” O’Neill, re
questing that O’Neill initiate a
House investigation into Van
Strum’s charges. *,*,*.’’
What is the EPA doing?
The EPA tries to release as
much information as possible
on the study of dioxins, said
Anita Frankel of the EPA’s Seat
tle office.
“A lot of fear exists about
dioxins,” Frankel said. “People
just hear the word dioxin, and
the publicity is going to hurt
anyone trying to perform an ob
jective study. Unfortunately,
the EPA hasn't been involved in
the study of dioxin for very
long.”
But the agency is working to
increase the amount of informa
tion it has on dioxins, she said.
In late 1983, the agency
developed a “National Dioxin
Strategy,” said Barry Korb, of
the EPA’s Washington D.C.
office.
The strategy orders studies to
determine the health effects of
dioxin and an examination of
possible methods for the
disposal of the contaminant,
Korb said.
Structure of dioxin
A dioxin is composed of two
six-sided benzene rings that are
linked by two oxygen
molecules. In most dioxins,
chlorine molecules bond with
the benzene. It is the location of
the chlorine on the benzene that
determines the form of dioxin
present in an herbicide.
In 2,4,5-T, the numbers in
dicate that the chlorine is
located on points 2, 4, and 5 of
the benzene ring.
There are 75 types of dioxin,
with the most toxic being
2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p
dioxin, also known as TCDD.
Herbicide use in Oregon
Throughout the 1970s and
early 1980s, the U.S. Forest Ser
vice and the Bureau of Land
Management routinely sprayed
Oregon’s forests with dioxin
contaminated herbicides. The
purpose of the sprayings was to
kill grass and brush that in
terfered with timber growth on
BLM and Forest Service lands.
The 1979 spraying that Van
Strum described was part of this
program.
Since early 1984, a federal
court order has ended the use of
herbicides on federal lands in
Oregon and Washington. U.S.
9th District ludge James Burns
ruled that the BLM and Forest
Service must give him a “worst
case scenqriq,,v • outlining the
health effects of the herbicides,
before he would consider lifting
the ban.
Local environmentalist sup
ports Van Strum
Mary O’Brien of the Nor
thwest Coalition for Alter
natives to Pesticides supports
both the ban and Van Strum’s
concerns about dioxin.
“There is plenty of cir
cumstantial evidence of birth
defects, cancers and respiratory
problems, yet we don’t know
how toxic most dioxins are
because they haven’t been
tested. Currently, the only
pesticides recognized as
dangerous and banned by the
EPA are 2,4,5-T and Silvex,”
said O’Brien, who has a doc
torate in botany.
But the 14-year-old EPA is not
sufficiently investigating the ef
fects of most dioxin
contaminated herbicides,
O'Brien said.
OSU scientist believes
dioxins are harmless
Yet Michael Newton, a pro
fessor of forest ecology at
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