Bethpage-Tribune_1985-01-31

              A r QP \LS
0 E T 'r^ P A G 51 I- 1 0
4 7 P 0 W L I . L A V
B t T H P A G t NV 1 5 7 1 4
Island Trees Plainedge
also serving
Seaford Old Bethpage Plainview
VOL. 19 NO. 43 Week of Jan. 31 - Feb. 7,1985 20 cents per copy
On LIE
The New York Public Interest Research Group, Inc.,
NYPIRG, today launched an attack on the U.S. Depart­ment
of Energy for shipping deadly radioactive waste from
Brookhayen National Laboratories over the Long Island
Expressway and other highways through the densely popu­lated
New Yorkmetropolitan area. Theshipment, which left
Brookhaven on Monday, January 21, shortly after midnight
in sub-zero temperatures, endangered millions of sleeping
New Yorkers by subjecting them to the risk of deadly radia­tion
release.,
The casks used to contain the spent nuclear reactor fuel
are considered unsafe during shipments, according to Lind­say
Audin, a consultant to Citizens Against Nuclear Truck-irig
(CANT), and a co-aufhor of The Nexi Nuclear Gamble.
The casks are vulnerable to leaks caused by accident (or
rupture due to terrorist attack). Radiation released from the
casks wpuld^nTsike the area surrounding the site of release
uninhabitable for decades.
Kathieen^ W of NYPIRG pointed out that adequate
eniergency prep plans had not been made^ leaving
every community along the route out to Idaho FalliSv Idaho,
iexceedirvgly vulnerable to r^^^ ' f-
To help bring about a halt to these dangerous shipments,
NYPIRG also announced a citizen action campaign
designed to raise the awareness of the hundreds of thousands
of residents living near the route of the shiprnents/and to
galvanize massive grassroots opposition to further nuclear
waste trucking. The NYPIRG campaign will involve recruit­ing
volunteers to help educate other citizens on the issue
through leafletting and teach-ins,working with local public
officials in lobbying the federal and state governments to
end sliTpments, and staging public events and demonstra­tions
to give members of the public the opportunity to vent
their opposition to having deadly fissionable materials
trucked through their streets.
"This is war," said Lee Brown, a staff member of
NYPIRG at Queens College, "and the Energy Department
hasTired the first salvo by shipping weapons-grade material
without the consent and against the will of the people it's
supposed to serve." Brown also pointed out that additional
storage space exists on site at Brookhaven, making the
recent shipment inexcusable.
"We are literally defending our families, homes, aitd
communities against a nuclear threat, from our own
government!" said Neil Rosenstein, a NYPIRG staff
mertiber at SUNY Stony Brook in Suffolk County. "The
worst of it is, this makes no sense. They shipped"bn Monday
morning, when the roads were icy, and winds were extremely
high. Why, on one of the most dangerous days of the year —
so cold that inaugural events had to be cancelled in
Washington —over one of the most dangerous routes in the
nation, did the Energy Department go out of its way.to force
the shipment of the most dangerous type of material known
to humankind? This is bureaucracy gone wild."
The first community event scheduled for N YPIRG's citi­zen
action campaign will take palce on February 4th.
Nuclear Waste Transportation Alert Day will be held near
Queens CenterMall at Queens Blvd. and 59th Ave. Volun­teers
will distribute information on the dangers of radioac­tive
waste shipments to shoppers and pedestrians, asking
them to voice their opposition to their U.S. Senators, Gov.
Cuomo, and the U.S. Dept of Energy.
Big Bambu
KickedOff
The Biis
Hempstead Town Presid­ing
Supervisor Thomas S.
Gulotta, majority leader of
the Nassau County Board of
Supervisors, and Nassau
County District Attorney
Denis Dillon today
announced that advertise­ments
for Big Bambu
cigarette rolling paper,
which are featured on the
buses of the metropolitan
Suburban Bus Authority
(MSBA), will be discon­tinued
beginning in March,
1985.
Allied Bus Ads, Inc., the
agency which handles all
advertising for MSBA buses
assured Gulotta that: "In no
w^ywill we,-Allied Bus Ads,
renew the 'Bambu' contract
upon its expiration in
March of 1985."
The appearnace of "Big
Bambu' advertisements on
MSBA buses drew fire from
local school, PTA and anti-drug
addiction groups
which attacked the ads for
promoting substance abuse.
Big Bambu, on the other
hand, countered that its
product could also be used
for the rolling of tobacco
cigarettes and that the com­pany
offered a variety of
other products for sale,
including hair shampoo.
"I am pleased that discus­sions
with Allied Bus Ads
has resulted in their decision
not to renew Big Bambu's
contract," Supervisor
Gulotta noted. "1 believe
that the great public outcry
which these advertisements
instigated was indicative of
the high degree of public
awareness that exists among
Nassau County residents
concerning substance abijise.
And while it is true that JBig
Bambu rolling paper could
be employed to produce
tobacco cigarettes, the vast
Beth pagers Keep The
Wheels Rolling
majority of County resi­dents
feel, as do I, that this
product was too closely
associated with illegal drug
use to allow it to be adver­tised
on our public buses."
District Attorney Dillon
termed the continued, pres­ence
of Big Bambu adver­tisements
on MSBA buses
"An affront to the residents
and taxpayers of our
County." Dillon continued:
"To have the use of Big
Bambu rolliog paper pro­moted
on our County's pub­lic
buses was, in effect, con­doning
the use of a product
which is fundamentally
associated with one of the
most pervasive forms of
substance abuse: the smok­ing
of marijuana cigarettes."
Both Gulotta and Dillon
lobbied hard with Allied
Advertising to have the
advertisements removed
from MSBA buses.
Meals on Wheels recipients throughout Nassau
were given special attention during the recent hol­iday
season, as volunteers organized by the VIS­ITING
HOME HEALTH SERVICES OF
NASSAU, Inc (VHHS), the central agency for
visiting nurse services that administers Meals On
Wheels throughout Nassau, distributed hundreds
of gifts to the home-bound. Meals On Wheels
provides a hot lunch and a cold supper five days a
week to some 250 home-bound patients, delivered
right to the door by a team of over 400 volunteers.
Organized and Administered by VHHS, the pro­gram
is funded in part by the Nassau County
Department of Senior Citizen Affairs.
The living gifts shown here were furnished by
the Syosset Garden Club. Here, Vice President
Norman Jeanne Henriksen of Oyster Bay Cove
(1) presents the floral piece to volunteer-drivers
Mrs, Babe Reynolds of Bethpage, as Meals on
Wheels Dispatcher at the Mid Island Hospital
Herbert Diaz looks on.
Double Blood Drive
Two local H icksville churches, in an effort to increase area
blood supplies, are sponsoring blood drives open to the
public. All healthy individuals are encouraged to donate at
either of the scheduled drives. Holy Family Church will host^
its blood drive on Wednesday, Februairy 6 from 3:30 p.m. to
8:15 p.m. A Long Island Blood Services bloodmobile will be
set up in the Holy Family school cafeteria, located at 20
Fordham Avenue.
A team of Long Island Blood Services nurses will also be
on hand at the blood drive being sponsored by St. Ignatius
Church on Thursday, February 7. This will be held in the old
school cafeteria, located on East Nicholai Street, from 4
p.m. to 9:15 p.m.
Donating blood is an easy and safe procedure. Each
donor will receive a mini-physical that checks blood pres­sure,
temperature and pulse. At the end of the donation,
cookies, juice, coffee and tea will be served.
If you are in good health, weigh a minimum of 110
pounds, and are between the ages of 17 land 66 you can
donate blood.
Within hours of each blood drive, Long Island Blood
Services laboratory technicians will process the blood so
that it can be distributed to hospitals throughout Nassau
and Suffolk counties.