4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL November 10, 2015
O PINION
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Hazardous
trees
This letter is about the dead
trees (snags) along the east side
of Highway 99 south of Harri-
son.
There are fi ve dead trees;
there used to be six, but one fell
onto the roadway not too long
ago. Currently one is broken
off about 10 feet off the ground.
The top is leaning against an
adjacent tree and over the com-
munication lines running north
and south.
These trees are a hazard to
anyone passing by them. I’ve
called the city, CenturyLink and
Charter to report the tree broken
and leaning. That was two weeks
ago and nothing has been done.
I believe that the trees are in the
railroad right away, according
to a CenturyLink representative,
and they are unresponsive.
I reckon that someone will
need to be killed by a falling
tree to get the hazard mitigated.
Eric Jager
Cottage Grove
Offbeat Oregon History
Hundreds of hospital patients fed deadly
poison in horrifying kitchen mix-up
BY FINN J.D. JOHN
For the Sentinel
S
eventy years ago this week, on a quiet November
evening, 467 psychiatric patients at the Oregon State
Hospital in Salem were about to tuck into a scrambled-egg
supper.
Before the end of the evening, 47 of them would be dead,
and the rest would be in mortal agony — their teeth aching,
their faces numb, their legs no longer supporting their weight
as they writhed on the fl oor, clinging to life.
A horrifying mix-up in the kitchen had resulted in their
scrambled eggs being spiked with roach poison.
Oregonians all over the state, who had never much thought
about the occupants of the asylum, now were riveted. How
could this have happened? And was it done on purpose?
Sent to fetch powdered milk
The events began on a Wednesday evening — Nov. 18,
1942. The United States had just entered the Second World
War, and things were not yet going particularly well. Because
of the vast manpower needs from the war, all unnecessary
staff members had been taken from the hospital and sent over-
seas, so in the kitchen chief cook Mary O’Hare and assistant
cook A.B. “Mickey” McKillop were on their own, cooking up
an evening meal for nearly 500 people.
In lieu of the staff assistants, they had the help of some
“trusties” — high-functioning patients who’d been given the
job of helping out, like interns.
McKillop sent one of those trusties, a man from Medford
named George Nosen, down to the basement to fetch some
powdered milk to mix into the eggs. McKillop was hustling to
get the meal ready and didn’t have time to go downstairs and
unlock doors, so — in violation of the hospital’s policy, — he
handed Nosen his keys to get into the storeroom where the
milk was kept.
Now, at the bottom of the basement stairs were two locked
rooms. On the left was the room with the dry goods — fl our,
sugar, powdered milk. And on the right was the room in
which the fruit was stored. In that room, with the fruit, for
reasons that remain unclear to this day, the hospital had
decided to keep the roach poison. The poison was kept in a
giant galvanized-steel trash can of the type farmers often use
to keep chicken feed safe from rodents.
Nosen went down the stairs, let himself into one of the
rooms, and soon was back upstairs with a generous scoop full
of white powder — fi ve, maybe six pounds of it. McKillop,
with a word of thanks, tossed it into the eggs and mixed it in,
poured the stuff out on the skillet, and a few minutes later was
ready to serve his fi rst patient.
Writhing on the fl oor
Within 15 minutes of the fi rst mouthful of eggs going down
the fi rst patient’s throat, the place was in horrifi c, lethal chaos.
Patients writhed on the fl oor, unable to stand or sit. Some
were vomiting blood. Within an hour, some of them were
dead. By midnight, the death toll was at 30 and climbing.
Please see OFFBEAT, Page 11A
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Poor diet is the major cause
of premature death worldwide
BY JOEL FUHRMAN, MD
For the Sentinel
An international team of re-
searchers have released new
data about
the risk fac-
tors associ-
ated with
prevent-
able deaths
and
loss
of quality
life years.
The Global
Burden of Disease study is a
huge, ongoing project collecting
data on 79 modifi able risk fac-
tors in 188 countries; the team
of researchers evaluates studies
on each risk factor, grading the
evidence that links each one to
early death and adding more
risk factors to the list when new
evidence arises.
In 1990 and even in 2000,
child and maternal malnutrition,
unsafe water and sanitation, and
lack of handwashing were the
primary risk factors.
However, between 2000 and
2013 dietary risks overtook
child and maternal malnutrition
as the factor responsible for the
greatest number of premature
deaths.
A poor diet (a collection of
14 risk factors including high
red meat intake, low vegetable
intake and low nut/seed intake)
accounted for 11.3 million
deaths. Following a poor diet,
the major risk factors were high
blood pressure, child and ma-
ternal malnutrition, tobacco, air
pollution and a high BMI.
In recent decades, the Ameri-
can diet has undergone a trans-
formation that has put disease-
causing refi ned carbohydrates,
oils, and animal foods at the
center of every meal, with natu-
ral plant foods playing only a
minor role.
This dietary shift is apparent
in the data. As new parts of the
world continue to adopt these
eating habits, diet is becoming
a larger burden on health and
lifespan all over the world.
When the researchers looked
at some of the dietary risks in-
dividually, between 2000 and
2013 there was a global in-
crease in the numbers of deaths
associated with low fruit, high
sodium, low fi ber, low nuts and
seeds, and high red and pro-
cessed meat intake.
The number of deaths associ-
ated with high blood pressure,
high BMI and high fasting blood
glucose also increased over this
time.
There is some good news
though — deaths due to trans fat
intake and secondhand smoke
have declined.
The authors state “each of
the risk factors included in this
analysis is modifi able, pointing
to the huge potential of preven-
tion to improve human health.”
These trends are reversible, and
the deaths associated with a
poor diet are avoidable. It took
many years, but today everyone
knows that smoking causes lung
cancer.
Everyone is taught this from
a young age, before the oppor-
tunity to start smoking. Tobacco
use is declining, and as a result,
so are the health impacts of to-
bacco. The data suggests that
this is beginning to happen with
trans fat too.
We’re not there yet, but we
are moving toward a time when
processed meats, commercial
baked goods and sugar-sweet-
ened beverages will be viewed
by everyone as dangerous.
Dr. Fuhrman is a #1 New York
Times best-selling author and a
family physician specializing in
lifestyle and nutritional medi-
cine.
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