Daily News Record (Newspaper) - July 14, 1986, Harrisonburg, Virginia Hot Today mostly sunny and hot with widely scattered afternoon Highs around Tonight partly Lows in the upper Tuesday mostly Fuzzy Zoeller shoots a 7 64 Sunday to win the Anheuser Busch Golf Classic in Williamsburg by two strokes with a See story Page 241 28 Pages July 1986 4332702 20 Cents Study Says Radon In 20 Of Homes WASHINGTON AP Twenty percent of Americas homes could contain more radon gas than some experts think is accor ding to a disputed estimate by a California firm that has tested thousands of Radon is a odorless radioactive gas that concentrates Several scientific groups have said it could be caus ing to deaths a year from lung That would be 4 percent to 17 per cent of all lung cancer some government scientists question the firms saying they believe the proportion of homes with unhealthy amounts of radon to be about 7 Up to nobody has known how many homes might be affected by Though radon changes into other ele ments in a few some of those daugh ter products have long radioactive lives and can remain in the In daughter atoms can be carried into the lung and lodged there by dust Radon is one of the radioactive decay products of which occurs natural ly in almost all It rises into homes through cracks in basement floors and walls and in drinking and can even rise through the hollows in concrete block experts Houses can even draw it in from the soil because of the slightly lower air pressure in most basements com pared with the The EPA has been studying various measures in 18 Penn sylvania homes over the Reading Prong geological This which extends to parts of New Jersey and New has many homes because of high uranium concentrations in the The agency is expected to recommend Several scientific groups have said radon could be causing to deaths a year from lung That would be 4 percent to 17 percent of all lung cancer that homeowners try to reduce radon con centrations if they are above 4 per liter of As with all causes of it does not believe there is any safe but below this reduction like pressurizing a get increas ingly complex and Four per liter is the concentra tion that will increase a residents chance of lung cancer by 1 percent if that person lives in the house for 70 years and spends 75 percent of the time the EPA A General Accounting Office report to the Pennsylvania congressional delegation on the EPAs made available last gave figures from a Walnut testing on radon contamination in other Ward president of the provided updated figures in a telephone Alter said has measured radon concentrations in almost homes since From his it is hard to gauge the ex tent of the radon problem because his cus tomers make up a nonrandom People who already know they have a high concentration of radon are overrepresented they want a measurement to know where they Alter used a simple method to try to get a random sample discarding the seven states with more than on the grounds that those states are likely to be like That leaves about measurements made on homes that he believes were ran domly selected by individual owners responding to news stories about radon con These he average a little more than 4 per The distribution of these measurements is not normal but highly and so only 20 percent exceed this Alter But Alters method is accor ding to Richard head of the radon section of the indoor environmental pro gram at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Im not sure theres anything he can do to randomize his Theyre solely at the mercy of what people write on little They dont know what theyve Second Quake Jolts California In 6 Days AP The moderate earthquake in six days shook Southern California from the Pacific Ocean to the Arizona border breaking triggering rock slides and scaring not only humans but also animals at the San Diego One person died of a heart but no other injuries were I was really Our bed started shaking drawers started swinging said Miriam a guest who ran out of the Hotel Laguna as the temblor and aftershocks shook Laguna I heard this big like a sonic said Gloria who was getting ready for This was a definite The temblor struck at shaking people awake along a 150 mile stretch of coastline from San Diego to northwest of Los antelopes and other hoof stock at the San Diego Zoo were brought to their feet by the said Mike Ahler zoo operations The elephants were marching around with their ears out trying to figure out whats going he The zebras were running back and forth in front of their The quake measured on the Richter scale at the California In of Technology and was centered offshore 28 miles southwest of a northern San Diego County community 75 miles southeast of Los said Caltech spokesman Dennis Six large aftershocks were re corded within two Meredith the highest registering on the Richter scale preceded by one at The others ranged from to Meredith The Scripps Institute of raphy in La Jolla called it the largest recorded quake in modern history in the immediate area off shore of the San Diego metropolitan said spokeswoman Jackie The previous record was recorded July It was The bed was flew off the said Perrin Lira of Del At least one power line fell in caused a small power said police Dave Weve had a lot of phone calls from around the A lot of burglar alarms going The San Onofre nuclear power midway between San Diego and Los was put on unusual event status the lowest of four levels of emergency response for about an hour while it was checked for Charles a spokeman for Southern California said no damage was found See Page 5 V People are trying to beat the heat anyway they possibly can in Story on Page Strong Lobbies Hit Congress WASHINGTON AP Congressional of fices are reporting heavy mail these days urging members not to change one of the most popular tax shelters ever given to Amer who can afford to use it the individual retirement In an era when lobby groups and trade associations can and do generate mail to Congress through ad campaigns and the IRA movement is This is clearly not says Willie a spokesman for George These people are Theyre writing their own There is not a lot of drumbeating by groups like savings institutions and mutual which hold huge amounts of IRA money and could be affected if a Senate tax revision plan to rein in the tax shelter becomes Banks and savings and loans have other priorities in the tax the first being to keep their writeoffs for the money they set aside for bad Theres only so many things you can lobby says Kirk William son of American Bankers You dont need special says William a leading IRA This is a populist IRAs have been around for 12 ini created in 1974 to give people not covered by employer pension plans a chance to save for retirement by sheltering some of their income from immediate By the end of some billion had been stashed in some million accor ding to The IRA which is published in The dam broke in after Congress made IRA writeoffs a universal tax offering the bounty to all working corporate executives and All it takes to claim the tax shelter is the ability to put some money as much as a year into a savings or investment The money deposited is shielded from taxes and so is the interest it The money enjoys this favored status until the saver reaches at least age When the saver withdraws his or her both the principal and interest are subject to Married couples in which one spouse does not work may salt away a year when both they can put up to in their The public knew a bargain when it saw The IRA Reporter the amount of money in IRAs has reached billion and is growing by about billion each Estimates of the number of people with IRAs range from 28 million to 35 Little wonder that mail is arriving to pro test the provision in the Senate tax revision that would eliminate the deducibility of IRA deposits for people with company pen sion plans while keeping interest earnings until The retains IRA deduc When Senate negotiators sit down with their counterparts from the the prospects appear good that IRAs will survive the process and remain univer sally A key indicator is that there seems to be no one on Capitol Hill who will stand up and say that IRAs per se are a tax scam that needs like Senate Majority Leader Bob and Finance Com Chairman Bob argue that getting rid of IRA deducibility is a necessary tradeoff for other massive tax law changes in the Senate But Dole and who will head the Senate were among the 96 senators who voted for a nonbinding resolu tion instructing the negotiators to work to re tain IRAs in talks with the Theres a moral says who sponsored the The chief House Dan has said he will work to improve the Senate bills treatment of mid See Page 5 Registration Required At Black Schools South Africa AP President Botha said that the million black students scheduled to resume classes today must apply to attend and of can refuse them without giv ing published on Sunday in the Government said the decisions cannot be appealed through any ap including the Speculation had arisen about whether black students would show up for class today because the day was declared a national protest Day of Action by the member Congress of South African Trade The type of action was left up to individual unions in each Union demands include that the gov release union leaders de under the state of emergency declared on June A hearing begins today in Natal Supreme Court in Durban on a union petition the validity of the emergency Human See Page 5 AP Garbage continues to pile up in Story on Page 8 American Missionary Missing In Philippines Philippines AP Kidnappers dragged an American Protestant missionary from his home in the southern Philippines one day after 10 Filipino Roman Catholic nuns were abducted from a nearby officials said Pedro depu ty chief of the army Southern Com said he suspected the armed abductors on Mindanao island were Moslem terrorists seeking rass President Corazon 4Mimonthold No group has claimed ty for the kidnappings in the mostly Moslem city of 500 miles south of said the Brian of was in his dormitory room at Mindanao State University when about 20 armed men knocked on the door Saturday Lawrence saw the intruders through the window and hid his Carol in a The general said the men bundled Lawrence In Embassy spokesman Alan Croghan said the Philippine Defense Ministry told officials of the abduction and that the embassy was trying to get more All 10 Carmelite nuns at a hilltop convent two miles from the universi ty were kidnapped Friday He said troops were searching for the kidnappers in both and that it was not clear if the abduc tions were The military also has contacted local Moslem leaders in an effort to begin negotiations with the kidnap He said the gunmen have not contacted A woman said she saw armed men lead the nuns down the hill from their convent and take them away on two the Very Michael head of the Carmelite fathers religious order in the told The Associated Press from his Manila Fitzgerald said the nuns had been cloistered for six years in the con spending their lives in prayer and venturing outside only in ex treme such as He said the kidnappers allowed the See Page 5 Bollard Dives To Titanic In Midget Sub WOODS AP The leader of an expedition to the sunken wreck of the Titanic rode a midget submarine to a depth of more than two miles Sunday southeast of New foundland to see the hull of the lux ury liner Robert leader of this exploration and of the expedition that located the ship last and two crew members made a sixhour dive in the sub marine Alvin in preparation for an 11day examination of the the Woods Hole Oceanographic tion He described seeing a huge black wall with his own said Woods Hole spokeswoman Shelley Everything looked the weather there is very The Titanic struck an iceberg April four days after leav ing England for New and sank with Another 704 peo mostly women and escaped in The Atlantis carrying 56 scien and arrived at the target area 450 miles southeast of Newfoundland late Ballard began the hour dive to a depth of feet Sunday See Page 5 Todays Index 12 Classified Jeane Local Valley Valley Deaths Mensel David Keezletown Floyd of Shenandoah Details on Page 16 of
