Scope - Volume 07, Number 11

              REGIONAL ISSUE
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Vol. 7, No. 11 Thursday, April 16, 1970
University volunteers to staff
Indian medical- dental clinic
Los Angeles area citizens
and Indians of the Morongo
Reservation near Banning are
building a medical- dental clinic
on the reservation that will
serve all southern California
Indians.
When the center is finished
it will be manned by volunteers
from Loma Linda University
and University Hospital. Foot
ing daily operational costs will
be the Indian Public Health
Project which operates on the
Morongo and Soboba reserva
tions.
According to the Riverside
Press, all Indians in the mis
sion area, estimated at nearly
5,000 of 29 bands, will be able
to use the clinic facilities.
Work on the medical- dental
center is being coordinated by
Lieutenant D. C. Cook, mem
ber of the Torrance Police De
partment and former Banning-
Cabazon resident. He says an
other $ 5,000 is being raised to
finish and equip the clinic. To
date, about half that amount
has been contributed. Diag
nostic and treatment equip
ment has, for the most part,
donated.
The project, co- sponsored by
the Torrance Kiwanis Club,
will replace the present clinic
Nursing alumni
benefit schedules
Walt Disney film
" Swiss Family Robinson," a
Walt Disney Studios color ad
venture film, will be shown
Saturday night, April 18, at 1
and 9 in Burden Hall.
Admission to the motion pic
ture program, sponsored as a
benefit for the School of Nurs
ing Alumni Association, is $ 1
for adults and 75 cents for
children under 14.
which is located in the old Mo
rongo jail. Some of the equip
ment was donated by a Tor
rance church that had planned
to send it to South America,
but instead shipped it to Mo
rongo.
William J. Uerkwitz, Tor
rance city councilman and also
a telephone company executive,
is chairman of the volunteer
committee.
Professor writes
pamphlets on speech
therapy correction
A pamphlet written by W.
Fletcher Tarr, PhD, chairman
of the College of Arts and Sci
ences department of speech, is
being circulated widely among
speech pathologists in the
United States and Great Brit
ain.
The pamphlet sets forth a
method for correcting the
" tongue thrust syndrome,"
which many children develop
by thrusting the tongue
against the upper front teeth
while swallowing. Tongue
thrust causes protrusion of the
teeth, often resulting in what
is called an " open bite."
Straightening the teeth can
correct the dental problem, but
the patient must also learn to
swallow correctly, according to
Dr. Tarr. The orthodontist and
the tongue- thrust clinician thus
work together.
An advertisement in the
Journal of the American
Speech and Hearing Associa
tion has brought hundreds of
requests for the pamphlet,
" Tongue Thrust, A Method for
the Correction of the Tongue
Thrust Syndrome," which sells
for $ 1.25. Proceeds from the
sales are donated to the speech
clinic on the La Sierra campus.
Nursing school to host
alumni homecoming gala
Homecoming weekend for School of Nursing alumni is slated for April 24 to 26 on
the Loma Linda campus of the University, highlighted by a one- day institute pro
gram on Sunday.
Friday night's service, set for the Campus Chapel, will be presented by the silver
anniversary class of 1945. They
are also responsible for the
Saturday worship services at
the University Church of Sev
enth- day Adventists.
Sunday marks the beginning
of a nursing institute with the
theme, " Adolescent Dilemmas
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tre of University Hospital.
Keynote speaker will be
Georgiana Selstad, coordinator
of maternal and child health
for the Ventura County De
partment of Health. Her pre
sentation, on " Premature Preg
nancy and Parenthood, Prob
lems, and Prevention," is the
featured Mary Monteith Lec
ture.
Following the morning
break, Helen R. Morton, MD,
director of MediCal at Califor
nia State College, Fullerton,
will describe how " A College
Physician Interacts with the
New Morality."
Exhibits will be on display
during the lunch hour in room
A234 of University Hospital.
After lunch, scheduled for
showing are two films, " Mari
juana" and " LSD Insight or
Insanity."
John F. Mersereau, a coun
selor with the Riverside Youth
Counseling program, speaks in
the afternoon. His topic is " For
the Love of Mike."
Rounding out the institute's
activities, Jack W. Provonsha,
MD, PhD, professor of Chris
tian ethics and philosophy of
religion, will moderate a panel
discussion on " A Contempo
rary Moral Revolution." Stu
dent panelists from Loma
Linda University, University
Continued on page 5
Pharmacologist studies safer
pesticide to replace toxic DOT
THE AINA ALOHA SINGERS, making their first mainland appearance, will present a " Portrait of
Hawaii" Sunday, April 19, in Gentry Gymnasium at 8 p. m. Through music and costume, the group
enacts for " mainlanders" the annual historical gala held on Waikiki Beach on the island of Oahu,
depicting the heritage of Hawaiian Americans. The singers' name means " love of the land."
search in laboratories is ac
complished with the help of
rats, mice, guinea pigs, or
other such laboratory animals.
To translate such data into
terms applicable to man, a
Loma Linda University phar
macologist reported to a con
vention in Atlantic City, New
Jersey, a study comparing the
metabolic apparatus of the
laboratory rat and that of the
human by their activity on cer
tain pesticides.
Alien Strother, PhD, assist
ant professor of pharmacology,
undertook the study of carba-mates
because this type of
pesticide has beeji proposed as
a substitute possibly less harm
ful to the environment than
DOT and parathion, the pesti
cides most widely used today.
Carbamates, like the other
pesticides, are toxic to man if
accidently swallowed or inhaled
too deeply. They are used to
spray vegetable and other gar
dens; but the action of sun
light, moisture, and tempera
ture over a brief period tends
to dissipate their strength.
However, DDT remains where
it is sprayed and has a cumu
lative effect, piling up toxicity
with continued use. Parathion's
effects also endure for a long
time.
More toxic to man
Dr. Strother's study, which
he reported to the Pharma
cology Society, meeting in At
lantic City with the Federation
of American Societies for Ex
perimental Biology, has shown
that some carbamates would
appear to be even more toxic
to man than to rats.
They act as a poison by
blocking or inhibiting the ac
tion of the enzyme acetylcho-line
esterase. This enzyme
halts transmission of those
messages through the nervous
system which constrict the
bronchial muscles, lower blood
pressure, and slow the heart
Folk music festival
is scheduled for
Saturday night
A " Folk Happening" is
slated for Saturday, April 18,
in Gentry Gymnasium at 8 p. m.
An inter- campus event, the
concert will feature talent
from the La Sierra and Loma
Linda campuses. The Mini
Singers from Loma Linda will
be the special guests. Also ap
pearing is a special folk dance
group.
" Folk Happening" is spon
sored by the University's Social
Affairs Committee.
are not terminated by the ac
tion of the enzyme, they would
over a period of time result in
death.
To compare the effect that
the carbamate pesticide would
have on a man with the effects
previously demonstrated in
rats, Dr. Strother used biopsy
specimens of the human liver.
He studied the liver's activity
in converting these compounds
to other substances more or
less toxic. The liver is the
body's filtering organ; its func
tion is to strain out of the
bloodstream substances which
might damage the system.
Placing the human liver cells
in a solution with the nutrients
they require to keep active, Dr.
Strother fed them specially
synthesized carbamates made
with radioactive carbon. Be
cause a major ingredient was
thus radioactively tagged, he
was able to follow the meta
bolic breaking down of this
poison in the liver, using the
techniques of chromatography
and radioautography to sepa
rate and define the resulting
byproducts ( called metabo
lites).
Livers are different
He found differences between
the rat liver and the human
liver as each tried to break
down and modify the poison.
The human liver has a number
of additional metabolic path
ways to convert some of these
substances that the rat liver
doesn't use. In general, how
ever, the human liver produces
essentially the same metabo
lites as does the rat, although
in most cases less of them. This
means that somewhat more of
the parent compound, the
poison, might remain in the
Continued on page 4
KLLU manager
predicts stronger
Loma Linda signal
Ronald W. Bowes, station
manager of KLLU, is hopeful
that the transfer of station
KEMR to the University
Broadcast Service will make it
possible for Loma Linda area
residents to hear the station's
broadcasts from the La Sierra
campus.
KEMR will serve as a " re
peater" station to pick up and
rebroadcast the KLLU signal
into the Loma Linda blind spots.
Already approved by the Uni
versity president's committee,
the proposed transfer must be
approved by the Federal Com
munications Commission. Mr.
Bowes says that could take six
months or more.