The Galveston Daily News from Galveston, Texas • Page 2

2-A Bailfl Friday Morning, December 27,1985 New test called key to finding components in tobacco smoke WASHINGTON (AP) A new test demonstrating the link between smoking and genetic damage raises hopes for finding the components of cigarette smoke that cause cancer, scientists said Thursday. Their research involves radioactive testing of the placentas discharged after birth from women who had smoked during pregnancy. In the short term, the results appear to reaffirm the longstanding assumption that smoking is potentially hazardous to babies as well as their mothers. But the research has broader implications concerning the search for specific chemicals in cigarette smoke that could trigger the onset of cancer by damaging DNA, the body's basic genetic material, said Kurt and Erika Randerath of the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. It should eventually be possible to identify such a cancer-inducing chemical or chemicals, "maybe in a year, maybe three to five years, "Randerath said.

And that would raise the possibility of blocking or removing such chemicals, "but that's farfetched for now," he said in a telephone interview. Mrs. Randerath said that while the key link between smoking and genetic damage has only been suspected, the new test provides "a direct demonstration" of such a tie. That is important since the onset of cancer is thought to involve damage to DNA, as shown by the fact that many known cancer-causing chemicals produce certain changes chemical addition products, or adducts in experimental animals. The new test shows "for the first time that cigarette smoke is associated with a specific chemical fault in DNA of smokers that is absent in the DNA of nonsmokers," Randerath said.

The trick now is to match the damage-revealing adduct they found in nearly all the tested women smokers to some chemical or mixture of chemicals in cigarette smoke. The scientists have failed in early tests to find such a match. But they said that could merely mean the particular adduct they found is formed only in human or placental tissue or that it results from a smoke component not yet tested. In the meantime, they said, finding a smoking-related adduct consistently showing DNA damage gives a crucial starting point for further research. The new report, published in Friday's edition of the journal Science, was submitted by researchers from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons and the University of North Carolina Medical School in addition to Baylor.

It said cigarette smoking has been well-established as "the major single known cause" of cancer deaths in the United States. And it added that tobacco smoke contains many substances that animal tests have shown cause cancer. "But it is not clear which of the several thousand components of this complex mixture are responsible for human carcinogenesis," the report said. As for the pregnant women themselves and their offspring the report said a separate recent study had indicated a relationship between DNA adducts in the placentas of animals exposed to various cancer-causing chemicals and adducts in many other organs in those animals. Such findings, the researchers said, suggest that adducts found in smokers' placentas "will also be found in other maternal and fetal tissues and may be associated with initiation of malignancy or other adverse effects in the mother or her progeny." In the specific new tests, one adduct showing DNA damage was found in the placentas of 16 of 17 women who smoked during pregnancy and in only three of 14 who didn't.

And since the report was submitted, Randerath said, further tests have increased the correlation between smokers and the adduct to 29 out of 30. The researchers noted that their findings were based on a small number of tests and must be considered preliminary. The scientists included Richard B. Everson of the Biometry and Risk Assessment Program of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, N.C.; Regina A. Santelia of the School of Public Health of Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons; Robert C.

Cefalo of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of North Carolina Medical School, andTommie A. Avitts of Baylor. Raising of Titanic planned CHIRK, Wales (AP) From a remote 14th-century farmstead in the hills of north Wales, John Pierce is planning the ultimate project raising the wreck of the Titanic from the depths of the North Atlantic. "It's the last great adventure left on Earth and we can do it," says the Welshman. He has passionate feelings for the majestic ocean liner which hit an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage in 1912 with the loss of 1,513 lives.

Pierce, a self-taught mechanical engineer, got started on marine salvage in 1982 by bringing home the bell and other items from the Lusitania. That ship was sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland in 1915, taking 1,198 people to their deaths. A Nov. 29 ruling by Britain's Admiralty Court that the British government cannot claim the Lusitania salvage means, Pierce says, he is assured of financial backing for his multimillion-dollar project. He envisions raising the Titanic with hydrogen-filled canvas bags attached to the hull by manned deep-sea submarines.

Once the wreckage is floated, Pierce says he would tow the hulk back to the shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where it was launched. Pierce plans a survey of the wreck next summer, then the building of the submarines, already designed by a Canadian firm, Can-dive. The lift itself could be tried in the summer of 1987, but probably in 1988, he says. Pierce, 44, is not the only contender though his credentials rank him among the serious. His certainty that no one owns the wreck dismisses a tangle of potential legal arguments.

He is undeterred by those experts who say it is impossible to haul the liner from its seabed grave nearly miles down. Skeptics include members of the U.S.-French expedition which in September located the Titanic wreck, 560 miles off the coast of Newfoundland. There is also the argument that the Titanic is a mass grave which should be left undisturbed, along with a possible fortune aboard in jewels and other valuables. "Unlike the Lusitania, which went down in 18 minutes, the Titantic is not a mass grave," Pierce says. It sank in an agonizing two hours and 42 minutes on the night of April 14.

Only 711 of the 2,224 passengers and crew survived. "The postal crew of six was trapped in the front end and some of the engine crew who kept the lights running until after the last lifeboat had gone may not have made it to the surface," says Pierce. But of the rest, who clustered on Artificial-heart patient showing little progress MINNEAPOLIS (AP) A week after becoming the first woman to receive an artificial heart implant, Mary Lund has shown little improvement and doctors said Thursday her chances of survival remained less than 50 percent. Mrs. Lund, 40, remained in a light coma at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, where she was listed in critical but stable condition, said Dr Fredarick Gobel, a spokesman for the implant team.

"Her neurological state since Wednesday is unchanged," Gobel said in a statement. Mrs. Lund, who on Dec. 18 underwent an emergency operation after her heart was destroyed by what doctors believe was a rare virus, was to undergo an electroencephalogram test to check on her brain function, GobeJ said. the "Her condition appears to suggest neurological deficit is reversible," he said.

Mrs. Lund, of Kensington, also underwent dialysis treatment for a fifth day Thursday to help her kidneys dispose of waste products and remove fluids from her body, Gobel said. Although Mrs. Lund's kidneys have not improved as quickly as hoped since being weakened by her massive heart failure, doctors said none of her organs appeared to have been damaged irreversibly. She had not shown clots or abnormal bleeding, and the scaled-down Jarvik-7 heart continued to work well.

However, Mrs. Lund's chances for survival until she would be healthy enough to receive a human heart transplant have been put at less than 50 percent. the stern, most would have jumped or been washed overboard, he adds. Scientists from the discovery expedition by the state-run French Institute for Research and Exploitation of the Sea and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts did not announce the exact location. Pierce says the expedition, which reported finding the Titanic standing upright, used coordinates he and associates had worked out, and he knows precisely where the wreck is.

Members of the discovery team have backed a U.S. initiative aimed at having the wreck declared a memorial and getting international agreement for guidelines for research, exploration and salvage. Pierce's main occupation was rebuilding vintage aircraft in a hangar at his farm until he saw a television discussion in 1979 about raising the Titanic. The ship became his life's passion. He experimented first with raising a modest 20-foot fishing ketch, which now stands in his garden.

Then he developed hydrogen-filled bags as a salvage method and lifted a 130-ton steel barge in 1981, while also leading the team which discovered the Lusitania. Similar gasbags were used to lift Greenpeace's sabotaged Rainbow Warrior anti-nuclear protest vessel from Auckland Harbor, New Zealand, this year. Estimates of the cost of a bid to raise the Titantic start in the hundreds of millions. Pierce refuses to say how much he needs, nor will he identify potential backers. He maintains he has support from the British and U.S.

navies, and his successful suit over the Lusitania salvage means he will get the money. Published estimates put the value of the Lusitania salvage, in which Pierce has a substantial share, at $3.3 million. AP Laserphoto Many have been cleaned An oily grebe is picked up at Dungeness Spit near Port Angeles, this week. Hundreds of volunteers sacrificed part of their Christmas day to help clean up birds that became incapacitated in thousands of gallons of Alaskan crude oil which leaked from a tanker on Sunday. Bomb explodes near Tel Aviv City Hall TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) A bomb exploded Thursday in a trash can outside a fast-food restaurant across the street from City Hall, shattering glass and sending one restaurant patron to the hospital, police said.

Police were searching for a blond man seen running from the scene with a yellow bag, said an officer who spoke on condition of anonymity. Ambulances and police cars with their lights Dashing converged on the Burger Ranch restaurant, located across the street from the 12-story City Hall. A dozen police officers searched the area and kept onlookers away. The bomb, placed in an o'range plastic trash can just outside one of the restaurant's picture windows, exploded shortly before 6 p.m. (11 a.m.

EST) and blew the trash can into small pieces. Two days earlier, a bomb was found concealed in a loaf of bread at a Tel Aviv bus stop and was safely defused. The dissident Abu Mousa faction of Yasser Arafat's mainstream Fatah guerrilla group, which is part of the Palestine Liberation Organization, issued a statement in Damascus, Syria, claiming responsibility for that bomb. Two other bombs were found and safely dismantled in towns close to TeJ Aviv on Monday, and three other devices have exploded in the city since June, wounding two people. TC property stolen TEXAS CITY Two Texas City businesses reported properly stolen over the Christmas holiday.

videocassette recorder was stolen from Danforth Memorial Hospital, 519 9th Ave. some time between Monday and Wednesday. The machine "was valued Southwestern Bell telephone offices were burglarized some time on Christmas Eve; a microwave oven and two pictures were taken. Police are investigating. The following items were compiled from officials reports.

POLICE BEAT GALVESTON POLICE Burglary of a business, 1000 block of 23rd Thursday, $4,149 worth of camera equipment taken. TEXAS CITY Burglary of a residence, 900 block of Third Avenue South, 5:30 p.m. a.m. Wednesday, watch and ring taken, total value $3,300. Weather Sun, Moon and Tides FOR GALVESTON COUNTY Friday, Dec.

27 High tide 6:40 p.m. (1.2). Low tide 9-58 I a.m. Sunrise 7:12 a.m. Sunset 5:29 p.m.

Moonrise 5 49 p.m. Climate Data FOR GALVESTON COUNTY Thursday, Dec. 26 High 58. Low 36. Record high 73 (1875) Record low 24 (1879).

Rainfall in 24-hour period ending at 4 p.m. none. Rainfall since first of year 40.83 inches (1 14 inches above normal). Marine Forecast SYNOPSIS Ridge of high pressure in northwest gulf will continue onshore flow across coastal waters today; cold front will move into South Texas and off the coast tonight PORT ARTHUR PORT O'CONNOR South and southwest winds near 15 knots today shifting to north near 15 knots tonight. Seas 3 to 5 feet today.

Widely scattered showers through tonight. PORT O'CONNOR BROWNSVILLE South and southeast winds near 15 knots today shifting to north near la knots tonight. Winds briefly hieher and gusty near shore today afternoon. Seas 3 to 5 feet loday Isolated showers through tonight. Satellite Photo NWS photo shows low clouds ver South Texas Weather Summary Extended Forecasts Sunday through Tuesday SOUTH TEXAS Sunny and mild Sunday.

Mostly cloudy and warmer Monday a Upper 30S nortn to near Sunday by Monday Highs in iow I WEST TEXAS Mostly fair Sunday becoming partly cloudy Mondav and Tuesday with no significant temperature change "fflgS DOS to near 70. Lows mid 20s to upper 30s. NORTH TEXAS Mostly fair with a wanning trend. Highs in 50s Sundav warming into 60s by Tuesday. Lows in 30s SundaJ warming Tuesday to lower 30s to mid 40s.

warming oy Temperatures Indicate clay's high and overnight lov, EST. Albany Albuquerque Amartllo Anchorage AshevUle Atlanta Atlantic City Austin Baltimore Billings Birmingham Bismarck Boise Boston Brownsville Buffalo Burlington. Vt. Casper Charleston.S.C. Charleston.

W.v. Charlolte.N.C. Cheyenne Chicago Cincinnati Cleveland Columbla.S.C. Columbus.Oh. Concord.N.H Dallas-Ft Worth Dayton Denver DCS Molnes Detroit.

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