Vernal Express | 1993-09-15 | Page 2

2 Wmal Express Wednesday, Septerrfrer 15, 1993 f c MAM WE'RE TO DO IS SHOOT INTO THE Afc REALLY THREE TIMES JACK-STRAWS r-XSTAV WHERE byJackWallls SOMEONE WILL FIND U5 r 12 stops to stay alivo In the September Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Utah Grapevine publication on health and benefit notes, a special report was given on the 12 steps to stay alive. The 12 suggested steps, "to help you stay alive," have been compiled by the editors of the Mayo Clinic Health Letter and are listed in the following order 1. Don't use tobacco. Don't smoke, don't chew and avoid secondhand smoke. Smoking is the greatest great-est single cause of preventable death and illness in the United States, annually causing 400,000 American to die early. 2. Exercise regularly. Exercise 30-45 minutes three to five times each week. Exercise reduces your risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, adult-onset diabetes, colon cancer, osteoporosis, depression and anxiety. 3. Eat a low-fat, varied diet. Reduce fats and oils, both saturated and unsaturated. Eat at least five servings serv-ings of fruits and vegetables daily. 4. Know your blood pressure. Watch for elevations. eleva-tions. If it's high, take your medication regularly and follow diet and exercise guidelines. , 5. Screen for cancer. Even though you feel fine and have no pain, get periodic mammograms, colon X-rays, rectal and prostrate exams, PAP smears and oral exams. 6. Drive safely Wear you seat belt. Don't drink and drive. 7. Get immunized. If you're over 65, get a yearly flu shot and a one-time pneumococcal vaccine. Together, pneumonia and influenza are the sixth leading lead-ing cause of death in America, and it's even higher if you're over 65. 8. Build strong social ties. Friends and family can provide an outlet for stress and offer emotional support sup-port Isolation contributes to depression, heart disease and suicide. Strong social ties guard against these problems. 9. Maintain a healthy weight If you're overweight, over-weight, plan to lose no more than one pound a week with diet and exercise. Excessive weight stresses your cardiovascular system and can lead to or worsen health problems such as heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and back problems. 10. Communicate before you medicate. Ask questions ques-tions about you medications. Make sure your doctor knows your medical history and what other drugs you're on before you take additional medications. Thirty to 55 percent of Americans don't take medications medica-tions as prescribed. 11. Be careful at home. Make sure you have a working smoke detector, and minimize the danger of falls. You are twice as likely to die in a home if you don't have a smoke detector. Falls are the leading cause of death from injury to people 65 and older. Install railings in your bathroom. Dispose of old rugs. Wear low-heeled shoes that fit properly. 12. Don't abuse alcohol Habitual heavy drinking contributes to a host of ailments and increases your risk of accidents. A long useful life depends on many other factors other than these 12 suggestions. But this list has been compiled by those who have everyday contact with health problems and they should know. So a word to the wise is to, "pay attention to your health and lifestyle habits," to insure a longer life. f AIN'T NOBODY S DON'TjAfORRY THEY'LL ) p I WELL THEY BETTER BE COMIN' SOON.CALi;p. WE'RE DOWN TO OUR. LAST THREE: ARnMC 1 r 1 ' Vernal Police respond to 394 incidents Last week Vernal City Police responded re-sponded to 394 reported incidents including 30 arrests. Arrests for the week of Sept 7 to Sept. 13 include seven warrants, two for misdemeanor theft, two for contributing to the delinquency of a minor, four illegal consumption, five retail thefts, three DUIs, two tobacco violations, a dog bite and one arrest for intoxication. Incidents include two ambulance assists, a business burglary, 24 citizen citi-zen requests for assistance, four civil civ-il problems, three contributing to the delinquency of a minor, three criminal .mischief, five criminal trespass, two curfew violations, two dog bites, four dog nuisances, four emergency messages, 22 extra patrols, pa-trols, four family fights, 28 follow-up, follow-up, five responses to keep the peace, seven misdemeanor thefts, three noise disturbances, three residential burglaries, eight retail thefts,, and five stranded motorists. Officers issued 15 traffic citations and 47 traffic warnings. Bat bites Jensen boy At 1:30 a.m. Friday, Dustin Hinkle, 17, of Jensen, got an unusual unusu-al awakening - a bat was nibbling at his arm. The bat bit the underside of his arm and become hooked in his bed when he rose to turn on the lights. The bat continued biting Dustin's bed. "We suspected it had rabies so we closed off all the exits to the room," Dustin said. "We think in came into the house through the air conditioning." condition-ing." The highway patrol transported the bat to Salt Lake City Friday where it was tested and determined to be rabid. "I was worried because I thought I would have to have shots in the stomach, but they were just in the shoulder," he said. Dustin said he is not feeling any side affects from the encounter with the bat and he is sleeping soundly back in his bed. "They said this was the first time that a bat has bitten a person in the Uintah Basin," said. According to Joseph Shaffer, Uintah Basin Health Department director, di-rector, cases of bats biting humans are extremely rare. "The best way to deal with bats is to simply leave them alone, especially espe-cially if they show unusual behavior," behav-ior," said Shaffer. Bats are nocturnal animals that mainly eat insects at night I,,,.., . - - .--( gjr-JSiw. " - j "'- . CONSTRUCTION continues on the Jensen bridge project. Educator suggests controls for escalating health care costs In state after state, in every region of the country, the nation's 81 -year-old workers' compensation system is failing the employers and injured workers it was designed to serve. The Utah the failure is not as se- Temperatures Pate High Low Sept 7 79 45 Sept 8 80 ' 39 Sept 9 83 41 Sept 10 83 44 Sept 11 89 41 Sept 12 82 42 Sept 13 57 43 Precip .03 PUBLIC FORUM LETTERS TO THE EDITOR What is your opinion? The Express welcomes letters from its readers concerning con-cerning any subject pertinent to the Uintah Basin. There are no restrictions as to contents, if not libelous or vindictive and of reasonable length. Letters must be submitted exclusively to the Express and bear the writer's full name, signature, phone number and address. The name or name of those submitting letters must appear on all published letters. All letters are subject to condensation. Letters express the opinion of the writer and are not necessarily nec-essarily the opinion of the Express Editor. vere, but people need to be educated and educate their employees, said Sue Kooring, director of FirstMed Occupational Health Services. , v ' Kooring was speaking during( the noon Vernal Chamber of Commerce meeting Tuesday. She suggested the Workers' has increased in cost faster than health care cost In the entire 1980s the cost was $160 billion, in 1992 alone it was $60 billion. She suggested seven steps for taking tak-ing control of workers' compensation compensa-tion costs: Identify a primary treatment center for injured workers. Consider a hospital ER as your primary treatment center Have a written "TLC" plan for injured workers and familiarize all supervisors with it Communicate in all directions Support light duty work 1 Analyze your company's injury record. Many company department heads responsible for safety. She also recommended managed care for worker's compensation. The major difference between managed man-aged care for workers' compensation compensa-tion and group health is a question of focus. Group health concentrates on the benefit plan, while workers' compensation concentrates on the individual. The actual treatment process differs, too: Group health treats illnesses and workers' compensation com-pensation treats injuries. In July 1990, Joyce Freiden reported re-ported that more than 35 million Americans are addicted to prescription prescrip-tion and non-prescription drugs and that 23 million are addicted to marijuana. mari-juana. The heart of the problem for workplace safety and health is that the majority of those illicit drug user us-er are employed. Courtesy of Sky West Airlines Expi (ISSN 0892-1091) Published every Wednesday for $17.50 per year in shopping area and $28 per year out of shopping area' within state and $31 per year out of state within USA by the Vernal Express Publishing Company. 54 North Vernal Avenue, Vernal, Utah 84078. Second class postage paid at Vernal, Utah 84078. POSTMASTER: Send address Changes to VERNAL EXPRESS, P.O. Box 1000, Vernal Utah 84078.- JackR. Wallis Publisher Steven R. Wallis Editor Melanie' Morrison Staff Writer Kathleen Irving Staff Writer EricF.Pye Sports Writer Janet D. Wallis .Advertising Marcia Henry. .Advertising Judy McCarley Circulation & Classified Ads Colleen Noble Legal Notices Phone [phone] FAX [phone] Member of Utah Press Association and National Newspaper Association Area correspondents Tridell Loma McKee, 247-2350 Lapoint Marlene McClure, 247-2552 Whiterocks Virginia Ferguson, 353-4584 Manila Clara Robinson, 784-3438 ' Deadlines News Monday 5 p.m. Display Advertising Tuesday 11 a.m. Classified Advertising .Tuesday 11 a.m. ' .4 Education important Dear Editor, When I read the letter "Pay to Play" in last week's paper, I had to sit back and wonder. I guess it is too bad that the parents of the few kids that play football, wrestle, basketball, basket-ball, baseball, etc. have to pay out so much money. But on the other hand, if your son or daughter is in band, who "has to pay for the instrument and all the things that go with it? What about the Rodeo Club, who pays for the equipment, who pays to take them to all the rodeos? And their horses, they are not cheap to feed and that's a year-round deal. And what about the other clubs that exercise minds rather than bodies, who pays for their meals on trips and everything else they have to have? It all costs money. And who pays for the kids that are talented in other ways that the school system has no program for. The list could go on and on. What about the kids who don't play or watch, should we as parents and taxpayers have ,to pay for the football, wrestling, etc. for the kids to play, for their parents to get in free, for their gas and meal money, just because they are talented? I don't think so. And what makes anybody think that those who play football are more talented than those on the debate team. Why should they get special attention? Please don't misunderstand. I can see that sports are important, all sports and clubs, not just a chosen few. But I do not believe that they should take presidence over education. educa-tion. After all how many people actually ac-tually end up supporting themselves playing sports? In 10 or 15 years from now, when this group of kids arc grown and out on their own, raising their own families fam-ilies and working to make ends meet, which do you think will have benefited them more? More money being poured into sports programs that only a few kids use or that same amount being put into new books or other educational tools for their classes. I really believe that my son being able to bring home a math book or having a chemistry book that is not outdated will help him much, much more than a few of the families not having to go out and buy several pairs of shoes for their kids just to play a game. If you are going to dance you should have to pay the fiddler. SUE GEORGE Vernal I Ferret Continued from page 1 "no change" policy also applies to the maintenance and operation of existing facilities. However the Diamond Mountain Management plan includes some restrictions re-strictions on oil and gas development develop-ment in black-footed ferret areas. "These restriction could be mitigated miti-gated on a case by case basis," Ms. Sinclear said. Up to 100 ferrets would be released re-leased initially with subsequent yearly release of additional ferrets until a self-sustaining population is established. I If any ferret is accidentally killed it must be reported to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but there would be not a fine or penalty. ' In the Book Cliffs or Diamond Mountain Area, the BLM and other agencies want to mirror the success the reintroduction of the black-footed ferret is having in Wyoming. "There they are co-exiting alongside along-side oil and gas development," Sinclear said. The ultimate goal is to establish 10 populations of black-footed ferret fer-ret in natural settings. "This would go a long way toward delisting the species and establishing its recovery," recov-ery," Sinclear said. THE VOICE OF BUSINESS THE IMPORTANCE OF TRAINING by Dr. Richard L.Lesher, President US. Chamber of Commerce I WASHINGTON John F. Kennedy was once ; asked why he wanted to be President I guess it s the only thing I can do," he replied. laughing matter for millions of younger Americans, or for an economy desperately desper-ately in need of skilled labor.. Even as legions of young people struggle to find decent jobs, business struggles even harder to find qualified workers for jobs that desperately need filling. In fact, when business executives identify their most pressing problems today, they list scarcity of qualified labor right alongside along-side health care costs, taxes and government govern-ment regulations. Obviously, there is something absent ab-sent from our educational mix that would prepare the nation's youth with the skills business needs. Providing this missing link will simultaneously enhance the quality of life for millions of citizens while making business and industry more competitive in the world marketplace. . What is needed is a more comprehensive compre-hensive and sensibly coordinated apprenticeship ap-prenticeship program whereby young persons who do not intend to pursue advanced academic educations can acquire ac-quire the practical, and increasingly sophisticated, so-phisticated, skills required by the modem mod-em workplace. Apprenticeship is generally managed man-aged by the private sector and involves structured on-the-job training backed up by theoretical instruction. An apprentice appren-tice completing a typical three to four-year four-year program earns certification as a journey worker in a skilled trade. There are many apprenticeship programs pro-grams in the United States, primarily in the construction trades, but they are not as ubiquitous and highly-developed as in Europe. For example, less than 1 percent of U.S. high school graduates enter apprenticeship programs, compared com-pared with 70 percent in Germany. Also, the average age of U.S. apprentices is 27, considerably older than the German age range of 16 to 19 years. - At the behest of President Clinton, the Departments of Labor and Education Educa-tion are now working on a joint school-to-work transition initiative. The challenge chal-lenge is to provide impetus for this badly-needed badly-needed concept without setting the stage foryetanother government boondoggle. Reliance on the private sector is critical, for technology is rapidly changing chang-ing the way business and industry operate. oper-ate. The inability of government to anticipate and respond to change is legendary. leg-endary. Were Uncle Sam in charge of job training, we would still be producing blacksmiths, candle makers and millwrights. mill-wrights. ' However, business and government can work together with public schools to develop a flexible, practical apprenticeship apprentice-ship program geared to the modem workplace. work-place. In an undertaking of this scope and importance, there is ample opportunity opportu-nity for everyone to contribute.