Show Si Helens tists believe that the extremely fine ash — which coated everything including (continued) crops — is nontoxic and apparently e health hazard poses no Still long-terstudies are underway at a Center for Disease Control laboratory in Morgantown W Va where doctors have investigated “black lung” coal dust disease “It’s just an unfortunate opportunity long-rang- Health m Most of the people who died on St Helens (25 are known dead 40 are missing and presumed dead) were asphyxiated by large amounts of gas and volcanic ash Fortunately scien for people here to see what people who work in a coal mine see all their lives” said Dr Robert Bernstein of have to be comfortable with going back to what they were doing before” the CDC “People will What Next? Uneasy residents continue to beg scientists for predictions on whether Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined That Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Your Health volcanoes in the US that might be expected to erupt in the near geologic future (the next 10000 years) according to Wendell A Duffield a geologist with the Geological Survey in Menlo Park Calif there will be another eruption “It is clear the volcano is into an episode of explosive eruptions” says Dona! of a 1978 Federal publication that predicted a Mount St Helens eruption before the year 2000 “This leaves us in a position of watching and waiting” Mullineaux is convinced the worst is yet to come for Washington residents “But we can’t tell time very well” he says “And that is critical to our information” Dwight Crandell the geologist who the 1978 study warns that an eruption 4000 years ago dumped a foot of pumice (volcanic dust) 50 miles away in a single narrow line and that “we should expect similar eruptions in the future” A pumice eruption like that of four millennia ago would threaten thousands of people — depending on which way the wind blows But like Mullineaux and other scientists Crandell cannot say whether the “future” is two days two years or two centuries away” Nevertheless nearly 300 persons who were evacuated from a radius danger zone around the moun- tain have obtained state permits to move back to their homes Crandell points out that people did not Mul-linea- co-auth- ux or co-author- ed 20-mi- le heed scientists’ earlier warnings — and so some perished in the eruption There’s one consolation resulting '&!!' jA jf?f nV frl j tthj 4 p 0 1! S t f fI r fO n I ll ii 1 1 j I 11 1 nr I f llf rf r ? 114! "(fit fill f tlf j‘-- m sf 1 ip !jji rCHMlglMiM i j ? s V from the Mount St Helens eruption The reams of evidence instrument will readings and experiment results add immeasurably to science’s knowledge “We are writing the book on volcanoes” says Peter Rowley a geologist with the US Geological is Survey’s Denver office “I know it going to save lives down the road someday” 6 FAMILY WEEKLY Auflust 10 1980 |