![[University of Waterloo]](/images/logobars/goldbar.gif)
| Yesterday |
Thursday, February 16, 2006
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Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[Handshake through massive protective glove]](/images/2006/0216glove.jpg)
Government
is insulated from industry, and vice versa, as
Ontario labour minister Steve Peters tries out a
leather-and-rubber glove used by hydro workers when they're working
on live high-voltage lines. Richard Wells and colleagues in the
kinesiology department are doing a study on correct sizing and the
effects of different glove thicknesses, measuring the electrical
activity of the muscles in the arm and hand. The minister greeted
Shannon Maracle of the
Electrical and Utilities
Safety Association during a visit to campus in late January.
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Under the emergency closing guidelines, the closing means classes are cancelled, and any assignments due today will be due at the same time tomorrow instead. Staff members don't have to come to work, except a few in "essential services" such as policing, maintenance and Village kitchens. Libraries, offices and stores on campus will be closed, and so will a host of services and spinoffs, from day care centres to the optometry clinic. The closing includes UW branches in Kitchener and Cambridge as well as the main campus.
The Student Life Centre is open (and there's coffee at the turnkey desk) but Brubaker's cafeteria, Tim Horton's and other SLC services are closed.
Registrar Ken Lavigne says students should check with their instructors for new dates for any midterm exams that were scheduled for today. Staff in the co-op department are scrambling to make new arrangements for employer interviews that were scheduled for today, as the main interview period nears its end before the job match on Monday.
It didn't actually look that dreadful outside at 6 a.m., but roads were starting to fill up with accidents, and freezing rain was moving in from the west. A local radio station's list of closings includes everything from the major school boards to a number of day care centres. Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Guelph are closed today.
Sergeant Wayne Shortt of the UW police says campus roads are "greasy in spots" but have been cleared by the grounds crew shift that started at midnight. The campus looks like "a ghost town", he said, with most people staying home. And he added the usual advice to anybody who has to take a car out: "drive with care and control!"
At UW, one casualty of today's closing will be the scheduled reception to open a pair of exhibitions at the UW art gallery in East Campus Hall. The event was scheduled for 7 p.m. Opening in the gallery are "Inscriptions", a solo touring show by UW fine arts professor Jane Buyers, and "The Black Notebooks" by Montréal-based artist Brigitte Radecki.
Also on the agenda for today had been an appearance (6:30 in the Biology amphitheatre) by two internationally known activists, sponsored by the Solidarity Association for International Liberation and Young Communist League. Word came yesterday that one of the two speakers, Ward Churchill of the University of Colorado, would not be able to come to UW anyway. The other scheduled visitor was "Palestinian Jew" and academic Uri Davis.
It's been more than two years since the last snow day. The closing procedure was used when snow and freezing rain hit on January 27, 2004.
| WHEN AND WHERE |
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Most of today's campus events will be cancelled, but
here's what had been scheduled:
Canadian National Institute for the Blind crocus sales, Student Life Centre, 10 to 2. Federation of Students election online until 8 p.m., polls in campus buildings 9 to 4. Women in Mathematics Committee workshop on post-doctoral fellowships with advice for graduate students, 12:00, Math and Computer room 5158. Teaching workshop: "Critical Thinking", 12 noon, details online. 'The End of Suburbia' documentary on oil depletion 3:30, Environmental Studies I courtyard, discussion groups with researchers afterwards, sponsored by UW Sustainability Project. Career workshop: "Interview Skills: Selling Your Skills" 3:30, Tatham Centre room 1208, registration online. Athletic department awards presentation 4:30, University Club. Forum for Independent Thought weekly discussion 5:00, Student Life Centre multipurpose room. This week: torture. Warrior women's hockey at Guelph 7:30. Arriscraft architecture lecture: Larry Beasley, co-director of planning, city of Vancouver, "A New Approach to the Regeneration of North American Cities", 7 p.m., Architecture lecture hall. Graduate House bands tonight: Pinstripe Mystery, the Platonic Shadows and David Hein, $5 cover. Information systems and technology professional development seminar, "Wireless Network Control in Residence", Friday 8:45 a.m., IST seminar room. Centre for International Governance Innovation presents Andrew F. Cooper, associate director, "Reworking Canada's Strategy for Humanitarian Intervention", Friday 11:45, 57 Erb Street West, free tickets 885-2444 ext. 246. Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre (part of Conrad Grebel University College) fund-raiser, "Big Rude Jake" and Cate Falconer-Lichty, Saturday 8 p.m., Wycliffe College, University of Toronto. |
David Hammond, now an assistant professor in the department of health studies and gerontology, does research focusing on tobacco control policy in the areas of health warnings and product regulation. He is a co-investigator on the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Survey -- a cohort survey of more than 15,000 smokers in nine countries. He is currently helping the World Health Organization to develop recommendations for revising the international standards for cigarette testing. The Lancet article was written as part of his PhD studies in UW's department of psychology.
The Lancet put out a news release to trumpet Hammond's findings. Here's what it said:
"British American Tobacco (BAT) developed cigarettes which produce low-yields of nicotine and tar under standard testing protocols while delivering much greater amounts to smokers, according to a Public Health article published online today (Wednesday, February 8) by The Lancet.
"David Hammond (University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada) and colleagues reviewed internal tobacco industry documents on smoking behavior research undertaken by Imperial Tobacco Limited (ITL) and BAT. The BAT research reveals that consumers smoke to achieve a certain level of nicotine and will compensate for low-yield cigarettes by smoking them more intensely. BAT research also suggests that human smokers typically draw puff volumes almost twice as large as the International Standards Organization (ISO) smoking machine.
"The internal documents describe BAT's strategy to maximize the discrepancy between the low machine yields -- which are often printed on packages and used in marketing campaigns -- and the levels of tar and nicotine actually delivered to smokers. The documents also show that BAT pursued this product strategy despite the health risks to consumers and ethical concerns raised by senior scientists. BAT also marketed these cigarettes as low-tar alternatives for health-concerned smokers.
"Professor Hammond concludes: 'Overall, these documents depict a deliberate strategy whereby BAT and ITL designed products that would fool their consumers and regulators into thinking these products were safer or less hazardous when they were not. . . . Moreover, this product strategy remains in place today, as does the tool of its deception, the ISO cigarette testing protocols. The current review leaves little doubt that the ISO standards should be discarded in favour of new standards that meet the needs of consumers and regulators, rather than the tobacco industry.'
"In an accompanying Comment Simon Chapman (University of Sydney, Australia) states: 'For the past 30 years, hundreds of millions of consumers have been misled into thinking low-yielding brands are less dangerous. Many who might have otherwise quit have died as a result of this appalling deception, continuing smoking after false reassurances. . . . The farce of the ISO testing standard being an even remotely reliable guide to what is actually delivered to smokers must surely be in its death throes. But as the authors note, it is now up to health authorities to develop an effective policy response.'"
![[Jardine with stained glass]](/images/2006/0201jardine.jpg)
That's her funniest campus memory, according to a profile published on the web site of the Keystone Campaign, which provides monthly sketches of staff and faculty Keystone donors.
Jardine has worked at UW for more than 30 years in a variety of different areas, the profile points out. She worked for Co-operative Education & Career Services and the Faculty of Science before moving to her current position as executive assistant to the Dean of Graduate Studies.
"I believe in the University of Waterloo," she says, "and I am committed to supporting students any way I can. Scholarships are one way to attract high-quality students to our exceptional University. Because I have worked in both academic and administrative departments, I am aware of the need to reward and assist students financially."
What do you like best about your job at UW? "I enjoy the diversity in my job. With the growth of graduate enrolment, new graduate programs, and working with the Ontario Council on Graduate Studies, every day brings new initiatives and challenges. I especially enjoy meeting and interacting with students, faculty, and people from on and off campus."
Why do you feel the University needs funds today? "With all the cuts and increases in cost of living, we need to keep our university at the front of innovation and research, through our students. Additional scholarships will help UW to be competitive nationally in attracting academically excellent students. I have chosen to contribute to Ontario Graduate Scholarships, because the Ontario government gives $2 for every $1 that I donate."
What do you do in your spare time? "I love quilting, painting, baseball, crosswords, and Sudoku puzzles. I have also recently taken up stained glass."
CAR