Suspect letter still a mystery
■ Attention shifts from the
powdery substance within the
letter to its mysterious sender
By Marty Toohey
for the Emerald
More than one week after a letter
containing a white powdery sub
stance was mailed to the Universi
ty, it is still unknown as to why a
physics professor was targeted.
The letter Bernd Crasemann re
ceived Nov. 18, postmarked from
Malaysia and containing a harm
less powdery substance and a few
phrases in English such as “death
to the oppressors,” has left every
one in the physics department
scratching their heads.
Crasemann, an emeritus profes
sor of physics, earned his master’s
degree in physics from the Univer
sity of California at Berkeley. He
came to Eugene in 1953 and imme
diately took a teaching position at
the University.
Coworkers and contemporaries
describe the 77-year-old as friendly
and helpful. He is active in scientif
ic circles, is chairman of the North
west section of the American Phys
ical Society and edits the science
journal Physical Review A. His spe
cialty is the study of inner-shell
atomic physics, a branch of sub
atomic physics.
Dietrich Belitz, head of the
physics department at the Uni
versity of Oregon, said Crase
mann is one of the nicest people
he’s ever met.
“It’s inconceivable to me that
anyone would wish to cause him
harm,” Belitz said.
John Drumheller, who will take
over as APS Northwest section
chairman when Crasemann steps
down next
year, said he
doesn’t “have
any idea why
someone
would have
cause to threat
en Bernd.”
Crasemann
himself said he
has no idea
why he re
ceived such a
letter. He said it was most likely a
random mailing, because his name
appears only on the envelope in
which the letter was sent and not
on the letter itself.
CRASEMANN
He thought it extremely unlikely
that the letter was sent by an upset
student, because he has not taught
classes in nearly 10 years and
would not suspect his students.
And although he turns down
nearly 1,200 submissions per
year worldwide as the editor of
Physical Review A, he said he
has never received a letter even
expressing discontent and would
not expect one from the people in
the scientific community.
“I would hope that people do not
speculate too much or make some
thing out of this that it’s not,” Crase
mann said. “I think it’s just a
random thing.”
Crasemann is not the first to re
ceive such a letter from Malaysia,
however. The Microsoft licensing
office in Reno, Nev., also received a
letter from Malaysia in mid-Octo
ber that contained a white powdery
substance. The letter that arrived at
the Microsoft office contained
pornographic magazine clippings,
but no writing.
As Crasemann's case is ongoing,
the FBI would not comment on
whether the white powdery sub
stance he received was the same as
the substance in the Microsoft let
ter. However, in both cases, the FBI
later determined the substance
was harmless.
Belitz said he has never heard of
an angry letter being sent in re
sponse to a submission rejection,
but that with the emotions in
volved in these rejections, such a
reaction is not impossible.
“If you edit a journal, of course
you’re going to have people upset
at you,” Belitz said. “Sometimes
you have to deal with controver
sial issues, and you have to turn
people down who want to have
their part heard.
“Quite frankly, we’re just hop
ing this is just a really bad joke,”
Belitz said.
Marty Toohey is a freelance reporter for
the Oregon Daily Emerald.
Study looks at hospital-related deaths
■One University professor
will examine the impact on
hospitals of providing public
‘report cards’ of their care
By Marty Toohey
for the Emerald
Nearly 100,000 people die annu
ally from medical errors, according
to the American Medical Associa
tion, and University Professor Judy
Hibbard is determining whether
public scrutiny will help hospitals
improve that figure.
Hibbard, who teaches in the de
partment of planning, public poli
cy and management, is studying
the impact of a hospital “report
card” on the Madison, Wis., area,
thanks to a $530,000 grant from
The Robert Wood Johnson Foun
dation.
Over the next three years, she
and fellow PPPM Professor Jean
Stockard will study whether mak
ing the report card public will
compel the hospitals to provide
better care.
Hibbard’s study comes on the
heels of the California Legislature’s
recent approval of a study of fatali
ties from coronary procedures to
determine if doctors were at fault.
“These types of public reports
are coming all over the country,”
Hibbard said. “It’s cardiac care in
California and hospitals in Wis
consin right now, but soon most of
the blanks will be filled in and
these public reports will be the
norm. This is at the very heart and
soul of (health care) policy ap
proaches taking place right now.”
The report card studied the per
formance of 121 Madison-area hos
pitals in five categories and com
pared the results with national
averages, adjusted for the general
health of the Madison population.
The performances of 24 hospitals
have been made public, while the
rest will be kept private, and three
vears from now Hibbard will deter
mine whether the hospitals whose
information was made public
made greater improvements in
their care.
The report card was compiled
by The Alliance, a nonprofit health
cooperative in Madison. The Al
liance originally intended the re
port to include only the 24 hospi
tals contracted with it.
The relatively inexpensive eval
uation process allowed the health
cooperative to include the other 97
hospitals, however, according to
The Alliance administrator Cheryl
Demars. The 24 hospitals contract
ed with The Alliance were the
ones whose information was pub
licly released.
“This was mainly intended to
help Alliance consumers make
more informed decisions,” Demars
said. “Although we decided it was
important to study the impact of
the report, it wasn’t intended as a
survey of all Wisconsin hospitals.”
Demars said she anticipates
that the hospitals whose informa
tion was disclosed will make
greater improvements in their
care.
“Our experience when dealing
with public hospitals is that public
pressure makes a difference,” she
said. “The hospitals, for the most
part, accept that the time for pub
lic scrutiny has come.”
Demars said when she was look
ing for someone to study public
impact of reports, there was “not
much literature available, but what
little we found has been done by
(Hibbard). She’s clearly the leading
expert in the field.”
Hibbard has done several stud
ies of health plans, but said they
did not involve as much hard data
as the Madison report. She said
most health care providers im
prove after such a report is re
leased publicly.
Marty Toohey is a freelance reporter for
the Oregon Daily Emerald.
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Please join us for our
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Tuesday, Nov. 27th, 10:00am-5:00pm
at the Craft Center
EMU Craft Center 346-4361
Sell texts and
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We have buyers at
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345-1651
525 Willamette St.
343-4717
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