No. 251 December 2003
VOLUNTEER WORKFORCE Volunteers have been around for many years, in churches, hospitals, scouts, kids’ sports leagues, and any other organization where people are willing to work without pay. Volunteers who perform a variety of tasks have become an essential part of the American economy and many community organizations. In September 2002, the Bureau of Labor Statistics surveyed the American public about its volunteer activities. There were “about 59 million people, or 27.6 percent of the civilian noninstitutional population who volunteered through or for an organization from September 2001 to September 2002.” This data was collected in the special supplement attached to the
BLS (monthly survey for) September 2002 Current Population Survey. For the first time, there are nationwide statistics about America’s volunteer workforce and the types of institutions or organizations who use volunteer help. “Volunteerism in the United States,” by Stephanie Boraas in the
Monthly Labor Review, V. 126 No. 8, August 2003, pages 3-11 (L 2.6:126/8 paper and online at
(http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2003/08/contents.htm) discusses the statistics for the kinds of work done, the hours spent volunteering, and the sex, age, race, marital status, educational attainment, and employment status of the volunteers. Information as to how people became volunteers is also provided. The author’s footnotes cite the related publications about the September 2002 Survey, the trend of high school and college students involvement in volunteer work, and a related work paper on America’s volunteers.
Volunteering in the United States, a BLS News Release, (http://www.bls.gov/news.release/volun.toc.htm) is another source for the content of this article and
Working for Nothing: The Supply of Volunteer Labor is a 27 page discussion of volunteers which can be purchased/obtained electronically from the National Bureau of Economic Research website page
(http://papers.nber.org/papers/w5435).
WHEELCHAIRS CLIMB STAIRS Approved by the FDA in August 2003, the iBOT 3000 Mobility System is the official name of the new six-wheel wheelchair. This new medical device, which carries a price tag of about $29,000 is available by doctor’s prescription. Designed to help (the FDA estimated) two million Americans who use wheelchairs, it has four modes of operation. In its first mode, (1) this can be a standard wheelchair with all six wheels on the ground. Or, (3) with the front wheels off the ground and the back four down, this chair, literally, is a four-wheel drive vehicle for soft or loose terrain. (3) Making use of stair rails, the user can use the four (back) wheels to climb steps which are 5 to 8 inches high and 10 to 17 inches in tread depth. Last, (4) the “remote” feature allows it to be used remotely. However, its use requires training, and adjustment to the user’s size and weight, and the user’s weight can be no more than 250 pounds. In “New Wheelchair Keeps People on the Move,” by Carol Rados,
FDA Consumer, V. 37, No. 6, November-December 2003, pages 26-27 (HE 20.4010:37/6) not only presents this new wheelchair, but also includes a picture and the “iBOT Modes of Operation” Chart of its capabilities and specifications. The website
http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2003/603_move.html
version of this article includes the operation chart but NOT a picture of this new wheelchair.
PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE AND HOLLYWOOD IMAGES Did you see the 1995 movie Outbreak
in which Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) epidemiologists work to prevent a major outbreak of an African virus. In
Outbreak, the (Public Health Service) CDC’s epidemiologists prevent the spread of the virus and the mass killing of the plague victims by the Army Officers. This intertwining of the Public Health Service, the plague as a public threat, and current Government policies, was in Hollywood over 50 years ago. The movie
Panic in the Streets (1950) had a U.S. Public Health Officer, Dr. Clinton Reed preventing a major outbreak of the plague. Reed, a U.S. Public Health Officer was the only investigator, and during his search for the source of the plague, experienced more adversity than assistance from the newspapers and public officials. In
Outbreak, the only social issue was some insidious military officers, but in this 1950s film, the plague symbolized communism, and the more complex 1950s social and political issues. The 1950s plague came from America’s socially unacceptable “foreigners and Un-Americans” citizens who were the people sought by the Senate Committee under Senator Joseph McCarthy, J. Edgar Hoover, and the House Un-American Activities Committee. “The Public Health Service and Film Noir: A Look Back At Elia Kazan’s Panic in the Streets (1950)” by Alexandra Minna Stern and Howard Merkel in
Public Health Reports, V. 118, No. 3, May/June, 2003, pages 178-183 has analyzed this 1950s movie. Even though the authors are medical professionals and not movie critics, they have provided some valuable insights into this film noir and the 1950s image of the U.S. Public Health Service.
SALIVA: A NEW MEDICAL TEST When the Environmental Protection Agency sponsored some research to determine how to detect pesticide exposure in children and adults working or living near farms, the researchers found laboratory rats exposed to pesticides exhibited chemical residues in their saliva. Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have used special mass spectrometry equipment to identify the chemical residue and the pesticide. These successful saliva tests allow for a new, reliable, non-invasive and fast way to test for pesticides, chemical warfare agents, or exposures in occupational or industrial settings. In a bioterrorist scenario, the saliva analysis would easily identify the exposed victims allowing immediate treatment. As a forensic tool, saliva analysis could also detect the chemical residue in the person who handled the poisons before releasing them. With further development of saliva analysis technology, this new test will allow immediate identification victims’ exposure to chemical and biological contaminants in an occupational, accidental, or bioterrorist setting. This will allow immediate treatment and save lives.
Saliva Spits Out Information on Chemical Exposure is the October 23, 2003 PNNL Press Release
http://www.pnl.gov/news/2003/03-39.htm which describes the purposes and goals of this new medical test.
AMERICA’S PRICELESS HERITAGE In the opening (Utah in 1912) scene of the 1989 movie Indiana Jones, the Last Crusade, Indiana Jones unsuccessfully tries to prevent a looter from keeping a jeweled Spanish cross which was unearthed in America’s western desert. Jones states that this cross really belongs to the American people and should be a museum. Though Jones and the event are fictional, his concern is real. The old Spanish cross represents the archeological and pale ontological work and the fossils, fossilized artifacts, and archaeological objects which came from America’s 261 million acres of Public Lands found in primarily 12 western states and Alaska. America’s priceless heritage takes the form of the millions of objects we now find in the Smithonsonian
Museum and other 106 non-federal museums in the United States. Much archeological and pale ontological work has been done, but population expansion, natural forces, and thieves and looters must be overcome to complete the discovery and preservation work yet to be done. This information and more can be found in
Caring for the Past, Managing the Future: Federal Stewardship and America’s Historic Legacy, a March 2001 report by the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation which describes what has been achieved at the Federal level. It also prescribes what could be done in terms of Federal-private and public-private partnerships to preserve America’s heritage. Information about our priceless heritage is also in
America’s Priceless Heritage: Cultural and Fossil Resources on Public
Lands, issued November 2003 by the Bureau of Land Management, Publication BLM/WO/GI-30/007+1800 (I 53.2:AM 3/4). This 18 page publication highlights the goals and activities of the BLM Cultural Heritage Program, related archeological and pale ontological policies and laws, a Geologic Time Scale, and a Cultural Timeline 11000+ B.C. to A.D. 2000. That old Spanish Cross was part of America’s priceless heritage.
WOMEN IN HISTORY, SUSAN B. ANTHONY: A CONVICT TO BE PROUD OF Yes, Susan B. Anthony the woman who’s face is found on America’s dollar coin was convicted of a federal crime. She voted, or at least tried to vote in the congressional and presidential election of 1872 and for that she was indicted, tried in a federal court, and found guilty of illegal voting. Reading
Susan B. Anthony, An Account of the Proceedings of the Trial of Susan B. Anthony, on the Charge of Illegal Voting, at the Presidential Election in Nov. 1872 and the Trial of Beverly W. Jones, Edwin T. Marsh and William B. Hall, the Inspectors of Election by Who Her Vote was Received
(1874) would reveal if Anthony sentenced to go to jail and for how long. At a later date the when the Supreme Court eventually ruled in Minor v. Happersett that suffrage was a privilege to be granted by states, but the trial got Anthony a lot of publicity and her sentenced was overturned. Unlike most women of her time, Susan B. Anthony was a rebel of the times, who made a bad name for herself. However, by current historical standards, she was justified in what she did. She is also one of the American women covered in
American Women, read on.
WOMEN IN AMERICA Most American history from 1608 to 2000 centers around English, Spanish, French names of explorers, presidents, officials, etc. who were men. There are a few women’s names tossed in such as Pocahontas, (scarlet letter), Carrie B. Nation, Margaret Sanger, and most recently Susan B. Anthony and Scarwaga on our coinage. Motion pictures and the entertainment industry are two of the ways a great many women to have gained recognition for their historical contributions. Both men and women came over on the Mayflower, and women have been part of America’s history as long as men. Women were making significant scientific, educational, civil rights, social, suffrage achievements and they kept the home fires lit while their husbands fought in their country’s foreign wars. Women traveled the Oregon Trail, settled the west, and were in the early Spanish settlements of California, Texas, and the southwestern United States. Susan B. Anthony in 1872 and Inez Milholland in 1913 were two women who made the national news and represent the hundreds of named and anonymous women who left books, diaries, or were the subject of publications which recount their deeds, accomplishments, and contributions to America’s history.
American Women, A Library of Congress Guide for the Study of Women’s History and Culture in the United States (L 2.8: W 84) is a 2001 420 paged guide to old and new publications about the women in America’s history. The first 370 pages of narrative text about and photographs of these women are followed by about 15 pages of Notes. The Notes section is really a series of bibliographies for each titled chapter of text. The final section of this publication is a 32 page topic/name index of both personal names (Anthony, Milholland, Sanger, etc), topics (entertainment, stereotypes, etc) and includes each of the Divisions of the Library of Congress which houses the innumerable women’s publications. American Women , the book is also a Library of Congress website
at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/
. Now, you can use the computer, which you are using to read this newsletter to find all this information about American Women. What more could you ask?
DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY: NEW PHOTOS AT OLD DEPTHS As of November 2001 the U.S. Geological Survey has a new underwater microscope which has the ability to acquire and analyze digital images of sediment grains on a riverbed or sea bottom where it would otherwise be difficult to manually collect samples. The special underwater camera is lowered to the seabed or ocean bed on a winch line. It captures a video image of the seabed at ¼ -inch distance from the focal plane of the lens and sends the video signal to a digital video recording device on the surface vessel. Later a computer is used to link and analyze these digital images of the seabed. The current system allows four different ways to determine sediment grain size from these images and helps not only in the study of sediments in oceans, rivers, and lakes. This digital camera and video study and analysis also help in the aquaculture and fish wildlife studies. U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 135-01,
Underwater Microscope System which is online at http://geopubs.wr.usgs.gov/fact-sheet/fs135-01/ is a 4-page publication which includes pictures of this microscope.
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