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Show i YouthEducation B2 From the Trenches B3 Television B4 Church Life B6 Calendar B7 P0)(Dg6(a Thursday, October 21, 1999 B1 Hmuis sum Thanks for notes on our web site Judging by the kind notes we have received by many of you have already logged onto our new web site, dippeiloday.com. As I've been mentioning during the past two weeks, our goal was to be up and running by last Tuesday, and our internal web experts got it done. Tuesday's Gipper was the first official issue to hit our web site, followed by the Thursday issues of the Gipper and Gipper Today. It wasn't an easy job, but our people made it work. The more we got involved with the project, the more ideas we've developed for adding new features and making things better. So there will be refinements and new features to be added in the coming months. I ll tell s ou about these as they become available, but since wee already devoted several columns to our web site. I'd simply like to encourage you to check it out and give us any suggestions you have for its improvement. Mew press capacity You may have noticed that the front page of Thursday's Gipper was in again. That's caused by an increasing demand for color advertising, so (as I mentioned a couple of week ago) we've been taking steps to enlarge our capacity. Just as our w eb people have been working hard to get our web site up and running, several others have been working mightily to get our new black-and-whi- te press units It's not just a simple matter of screwing a few bolts Tiile merging new press units can be chaltogether. lenging mechanically, that's just the start. Once everything was'asserfibled. we've had to bring in experts to connect water lines (offset presses work by keeping a delicate balance between ink and w ater on their printon-lin- e. ing plates), and other experts to merge their sophisticated electrical systems. Then, once everything's in place, the new units are test run to see if the motor can pull the press. If all goes well at this point, there's still a good deal of fine tuning required to get ev erything to work in harmony By last Friday things were looking pretty good. Hopefully by the time you read this we will have been able to iron out the remaining kinks in the process. Gipper tront pages should lie a thing of the past. now-larg- Black-and-whi- te Gassiads Response to our Gassiads supplement has been great, as well. We've been pleased with the support we've received by our readers and advertisers, so we've taken the next step. We've recently signed an agreement with the same company that distributes our Utah Spirit magazine to expand the distribution of our Gassiads. In addition to receiving this supplement in Thursday "s editions of the Gipper and Gipper Today. Davis County residents will be able to pick up Gassiads at more than two dozen Maverik stations and grocery stores throughout the county. An extra 5,000 copies w ill be printed so they can be distributed through these outlets. This ensures that your classified ads you place with the Gipper and Gipper today will reach the maximum number of potential buyers possible. Not only will your ad reach 65,000 homes, it also will be made available to 5,000 more people than ever before. It's another way that we're working to make the Clipper and Gipper Today work better for the people of Davis County. Fluoride forum I've never seen as much as response to an issue as what we've received over the question we posed a few weeks ago about fluoridation of drinking water. You may have noticed that for several weeks we devoted two and three times the normal space to our letters to the editor. I did my best to include as many of the letters we received as possible. Because there was so much interest in this issue we have taken things a step further. We pro and con have compiled all the concerns and questions people have expressed over fluoridation and have asked the Davis Board of Health to respond to them. I felt that since the board was so interested in pro moting fluoridation, it was only fair that the residents of Davis County received answers to their questions and responses to their concerns. After all. if a group is advocating a position, it becomes incumbent on them to justify their stand. There were in excess of 30 key questions we gleaned from our readers' comments, and the Board of Health has agreed to answer them. They have selected recently retired health department director Dr. James Saunders to respond because he was the most knowledgeable person about this issue. Because there were so many questions, it would have taken pages and pages to respond to them all. so we have opted to take just a few at a time and publish them every week until they've been answered. If. as you read Dr. Saunders comments, you have additional questions, please feel free to submit them to me, and I'll ask him to respond to them, as well. Send them to our usual address: new srHmdihpper-today.com- . fax them to me at 4 or mail them to 25-304- 137(1 S. 5(H) West. Bountiful. COPY IT 84010. Davis County's guru of the great outdoors Doug Miller shozes off his catch during a recent fishing trip on Alaska's Alagnak River. BY NATE GIBBY Clipper Correspondent - Each Monday FARMINGTON morning along the Wasatch Front, while thousands of people on their way to work look upon the colossal mountain peaks and yearn for time in the outdoors, one man. on his way to the outdoors, delights in the fact that he gets to go to work. As the host of his own outdoors show, Farmington's Doug Miller is fortunate enough to call the most scenic locales in the state his office and the greatest fishing streams in the state his work. Known by many as "Mr. Outdoors," Miller has spent the .last 23 years enchanting Utah audiences with stories about sports, news events, wildlife and the outdoors. Despite that millions of Americans would envy is job because of the time he spends outdoors. Miller's greatest interest in his job is not the wildlife, adventure or excursions. Miller's primary interest lies in the people he meets and the stories they have to tell.T'm a storyteller' says Miller. "I like telling stories about people and their passion for what they do." When asked about his most memorable j ou m eys- Tirexpe neneea-- t he bearded, grayhaired Miller wastes no time overlooking the numerous coveted excursions and recalling his experiences with firearm craftsmen, hikers planning their expedition to Mt. Everest and people he has camped with. I like those people and the passion they have for what they do," he says. "It doesn't matter whether they're fishing Flaming Gorge, climbing Timpanogos or panning for gold in some tailings pile. It's amazing what drives people and gets them going." Make no mistake, however. Miller is an outdoorsman in the true sense of the word. What he does for work, he also does for fun. Ask him about his bird dogs, and you'll see his face light up like a lantern as he begins to speak of his dogs in a way that many people reserve for their children. Where most people his age are planning Miller is for retirement, the more active than most teenagers. In the month of September, he spoke at a convocation at Southern Utah University, spent two days fishing for wipers at Willard Bay, produced four episodes of Outdoors with Doug Miller' went on an archery elk hunt, participated in an ATV ride of a Paiute - trail and went to Flaming elk. So what keeps, him Despite the fact that he he can keep up his pace, Gorge to bugle for 1976, and Miller loaded up his station w agon and brought his wife, children and bird dogs Lake. After. starting in morning radio. he successfully lobbied to start a series of outdoor stories that ran two times a day A decade later, he made the jump to television as the sports director, and in October 1995. Miller began hosting the state's longest running local outdoors show "Outdoors with Doug Miller"' His success as a journalist and ability to captivate audiences are evidenced by the fact that his ratings superseded David Iettermaris The Late Show" according to May 1999 Nielsen ratings. Sev eral of the networks have offered him lucrative positions, but he has turned them down, saving that the diversity of L'tah keeps him here. Success hasn't tainted his humble disposition. however. "I nev er w ant success (to be) too busy, being too popular to make it w here I don't stop and say. Show me your Miller."! want to make sure that I look all of the people I meet in the eye and shake their hands." In fact, his southern demeanor is so likeable that upon speaking with him. you'll suddenly discover words like reckon" and fixiri permeating your U going at hi? wonders how long he says that it's the adventure and challenge that keep him life. If excited about his job and I sit here in my office at KSL warming the upholstery for more than a day or two I get so bored I can't stand it," he says. According to his producer Stev e POulsen. the secret to Miller's aptitude is that he loves what he does and is good at it. Growing up in El Dorado. Ark., he acquired his love for the outdoors by fishing in farm ponds and back rivers with his father. He went on to study electrical engineering at the University of Arkansas, but never graduated. After obtaining a few skills, he landed a job with a small radio station in El Dorado and began reporting town council meetings. Shortly afterwards, he was hired as the first e newsman at the radio station across the street. Fie built a reputation for quality journalism and soon found himself working at a radio and TV' station in Little Rock as a ghostwriter doing stories on the outdoors. vocabulary. His work caught the attention of KSL ih So with a success and a job like Miller's. ageZ.-to.Sa- day-to-d- full-tim- is it possible to have too much of a good thing? According to Miller no. After years of connnual travel, he stiU claims that he is not tired yet He will admit, however, that he doesn't have a lot of time for other things in life that he would like to do. I don't have enough Ume to savor it all." he says. "But I never get tired of the going, the packing and the adventure." Aside from not having enough time to do it all. he fights the constant battle of coming up with new programming that is com- pelling and interesting. He continual!) tries to come up with new angles and new things to keep the show interesting and different that what they've shown before. Miller has blazed a trail into the hearts and minds of thousands of people who will forever be associated with the outdxirs. I le has accomplished it telling stones and showing more interest in the people than the places, fame or fortune. Miller currently resides m Farmington with his wife. Marilyn. They have two children and seven Brittany bird dogs l or outdoors information, tune in to his program. "Outdoors with Doug Miller" which airs on KSL TV (channel 5) Saturday nights at 11 p.m. HMtofMMrThe dose makes the poison Editor's note: Following the recent response to our question about fluoridation of water, we haw asked the Dadd County Board of Health to justify its position by responding to nearly 30 concerns expressed by readers. Because the answers are often complex, require a good deal of research and take more space than we haw a tillable, we will print the answ ers to two or three questions in each coming issue. The indiddual chosen by the board to address these concerns is the former director of the county's health department. Dr. James Saunders, now retired He is a man of exten-siexperience in the field of public health. If you haw additional questions you'd like Dr. Saunders to answer please a intact us at owr-whelmi- w Isn't fluoride extremely toxic? Why should this be allowed in our drinking water? One of the most basic things 1 ever learned is that all substances are poisons"; dose alone determines toxicity That principle. stated nearly 500 years ago by the Swiss physician and alchemist. Paracelsus, is as true today as it was in the early 16th century Pure water can be lethal if drunk in sufficient quantities. In one sad instance reported in the literature, a child died after being forced to drink a few gallons of water as discipline. This was not drowning, it was a death resulting from the extreme dilution of body fluids. Similarly, ordinary table salt can kill. For centuries, some Chinese simply swallowed large amounts as a way of committing suicide. Even a few tablespoonsful can make one terribly ill. Due to osmotic activity, it draws water from the body into the intestine, producing sev ere diarrhea and a drop in blood pressure. Llntil the introduction of childproof caps on medications, thousands of children died as a result of aspirin overdose. Many others died after swallowing dietary iron supplements. There are many other examples of such fatal and non fatal poisonings due to vitamins, medications, herbs and other common houseAU these hold substances. serve to validate the idea lc .a JAMES SAUNDERS -- rii I over many years. But I was fortunate enough to have a good dental insurance plan through my work. Some people are admittedly more fortunate than others when it comes to teeth. Troth structure may be better, enamel may be thicker. Tooth decay is the single most common disease in America. Ninety eight per cent of Americans experience tooth decay by the time they reach adulthood. Because we live in a country w here most hav e access to dentists and to antibiotics, we often forget that in the history of our species, many of our Health Dept. Dir., Ret. expressed by Paracelsus. Should fluoride be any different than these other materials? forebears lost many most or all of their teeth I think not. before the age of 50. Is there some basis for the concerns some We still experience a dramatic and people have about fluoridation of drinking increasing rate of tooth loss between 35 and water? es. to the extent that overdose of 44 years of age. In 19uo, nearly one fourth any substance including fluoride, table (22.8) of Utahns over the age of 65 had salt or dietary vitamin and mineral supplelost all their natural teeth. Fifty four percent ments should be avoided. schoolchildren (54 ) of LIS. 6-- to y ear-olIs there reason to fear low levels of fluohave some tooth decay The prevalence is ride in drinking water? No. The safe use even greater among Utah children. 66 of and benefits of w ater fluoridation have been whom have some tooth decay Not only are demonstrated time and again. more children affected in L'tah than nationally. but Utah children with tooth decay have I grew up without fluoride and my teeth 3.5 teeth involved compared to the national were just fine. Why do we need it? average 2.5 affected teeth per child. In addiWhen I hear this 1 wonder what it means tion. one third of ltah schoolchildren have to have teeth that are just fine." I still have untreated tooth decay most of my teeth. That's just fine Many of In the preantibiotic age. a tooth abscess them have fillings or caps, but they work. could kill. Extraction of an abscessed tooth The restoration cost thousands of dollars was necessary to reduce illness and perhaps originally S-- d to save a life. Apart from this extreme outcome, dental disease still accounts for significant absence from work and school. Tooth decay has other effects in addition to discomfort, pam and asst. Nutrition and are affected by the inabilgeneral ity to eat certain fix vis. When decay involves the front teeth, appearance and may be profoundly affected. No matter our intentions, negative impressions based on appearance do influence the decisions we make about students, and othwell-bein- g m ers. Hr get a prescription for fluoride each time we sisit the dentist Why isn't this the best way to handle the matter? The beneficial effects of fluoride depend on consistent treatment for many years. To effectively prcv ent tooth decay in children, treatment should begin at six months ot age and continue at least into teenage years; however recent studies have shown that fluoride has benefits for all age groups. While the cost of tablets is less than 25 cents per month per person, the cost of fluoridated w ater would add only about 4 ) cents to the average water bill and would provide treatment of the entire family without the inconvenience of getting and filling prescriptions and giving these to one's children. While some families have dental insurance. regularly visit dentists and will seek this treatment for their children, national studies have shown that even the most educated and highly motivated parents fail to give fluoride tablets to their children as prescribed. This results in less than the desired -- effect. For all these reasons, fluoridation of |
