Edmonton Journal from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada • 13

Citv Sunday May 12 One Great Hotel Two Terrific Bruncheel Edmonton Cciilic Siille Hold 10222-102 St. (Eaton Centre) 423-9650 ObituariesB4 ClassifiedB6 EDITOR: Kathy Kerr, 429-5399 HI rfjiirt'lr" Mud UUUUUUU JIM FARRELL Civic Affairs Writer to increase and that would increase the risk of cancer." The incidence of serious gastrointestinal infections would also soar since alum removes stomach parasites like Cryptosporidium and giardia, Fok says. Responding to fears of Alzheimer's disease, Milwaukee, reduced its use of alum in 1991 and 1992. "Four hundred thousand people got sick," Fok said. "One hundred and four died." Following that epidemic, Milwaukee increased its use of alum to pre-1991 levels, Fok says.

mally, you must find an increased risk level of three to five before you become concerned," says Nelson Fok. "There are a lot of conflicting studies and Health Canada is looking at all of them," said Gammie. To date, Health Canada has set no guidelines for aluminum levels in drinking water. "There's no conclusive link but they still may set some kind of limit just to be conservative," Gammie said. "That's why, for the last year and a half, we've been looking at reducing our need for alum through a pH adjustment in the water.

At the moment, we're costing out different methods to see which would be most cost-effective. We'll do whatever it takes." Simply reducing or eliminating the use of alum poses far greater health risks than Alzheimer's disease, Fok says. "It would increase the level of suspended solids in the water so chlorine use would have that levels below 100 which many municipalities maintain as a limit increases the risk. "What we need now is a standard that says levels won't go above 100," says McLaughlin, a long-time proponent of the theory that aluminum causes Alzheimer's. Alum, an aluminum compound, is used by treatment plants throughout North America to remove suspended solid wastes and mud.

River water usually has a higher concentration of suspended particles than lake water and the North Saskatchewan River is no exception. When questioned about McLaughlin's findings, an official with the federal health department refused to accept it as conclusive, saying McLaughlin's work has always been open to question. The health risk management officer for the Capital Health Authority agrees. "Epidemiology isn't an exact science. Nor- Edmonton An Ontario health study has added to the evidence that aluminum levels in drinking water similar to the concentration in Edmonton increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease.

A University of Toronto study published in the medical journal Neurology has found that Ontario residents with Alzheimer's are 1.2 to 2.6 times as likely to have lived in areas where local drinking water contained more than 100 micrograms per litre of aluminum. Last month, aluminum concentration in Edmonton drinking water averaged 240 micrograms per litre. "Two hundred to 300 is fairly normal for us," Les Gammie, the director of Edmonton's water lab said Friday. University of Toronto epidemiologist Donald McLaughlin said there was no evidence Journal Read about the report and background on the dis- ease http:www.southam.comedmontonjournal TINY TEE-TIME ipped-up roads part of summer Road mapB3 JIM FARRELL Civic Affairs Writer I 4 Edmonton Thirty-five kilometres of roadways will be ripped up and repaved and several neighborhoods will get new sidewalks and curbs under the city's $75-million 1996 road program. Part of Jasper Avenue won't reopen until mid-August so the leaking roof of the Central LRT station can be repaired.

Work on new sewer and water lines in the Boyle-McCauley area will continue until October. "Because of our climate, we have only five or six months to complete," said Phil Haug, Edmonton's director of roadways. This year's package is smaller than the $90 million spent last year under the federal-provincial infrastructure program, but it's about equal to the work done in 1994, Haug said. Few neighborhoods will be immune from jackhammers and paving machines. In September, Whyte Avenue will get a facelift with new streetscaping between 99th and 103rd Streets.

The Prince Rupert, Mayfield, High Park, Jasper Park, Westbrook Estate and Meyonohk neighborhoods will get new sidewalks, curbs, gutters and resurfaced streets. along Whitemud Drive and Anthony Henday Drive, the Yellowhead Trail and 34th Street. The second half of the Whitemud from 170th Street west to Anthony Henday Drive is being completed this summer, with all work ending by August. Henday will be extended from Stony Plain Road to Yellowhead Trail, starting in the fall and continuing until 1998. The existing roadway on the Whitemud from the Quesnell Bridge to Rainbow Valley will be resurfaced in July.

The Whitemud from 97th Street to 50th Street will receive a facelift between mid-May and mid-July. Work will begin in mid-September on the extension of Whitemud Drive east of 34th Street to Highway 14. That project will be completed in 1998. There will be an upgrade of 34th Street to a four-lane divided roadway by mid-September. Commuters will get a new interchange at Yellowhead Trail and 50th Street by the fall, although they'll have to do without 50th Street between May 10 and May 14 while the CN rail line is relocated.

Motorists can call the Transportation Department's Roadway Construction Hotline at 944-7691 for more information. John Lucas, The Journal THREE CHEERS Ryan Prentice, who is almost two years old, warms up to the game of golf on Friday as he putters around Hawrelak Park with his grandparents, Barbara and Tom Prentice. Commuters will Columnist wins Southam fellowship find big headaches i awaiting Journal Staff Story of the Hunt for the Yellowknife Mass Murderer. The fellowships, funded by Southam are awarded annually to experienced journalists enabling them to pursue eight months of study at the University of Toronto. back and research and learn as opposed to following the rush of current "What I want to look at is the philosophy of journalism and the history of democracy," he said.

"Just to better understand how democracies work and see whether ours is working or not." The other recipients are Isabel Vincent, multiculturalism reporter for The Globe and Mail and Barbara Crook, theatre critic for The Vancouver Sun. The fellowships were first awarded in 1962. Edmonton Journal columnist David Staples is one of three journalists who have been awarded the 1996-97 Southam Fellowship. Staples was hired as a features writer with The Journal in 1985. In 1990 he began reporting on city issues and was appointed city columnist in 1992.

That same year, he won a National Newspaper Award and in 1995 he co-wrote the best-selling book The Third Suspect: The Inside Staples Staples said: "It's a chance journalists don't get very often to stand We must learn from prison fiasco, not give up Liane Faulder "The more powerless you are, the more you have to rely on indirect means to get your needs met," Heney reminds. The temptation at this point in the women's prison saga is to demonize the inmates so that they (and the new program) can be dismissed. But remember one thing: nobody wants these women released from jail until they've done their rehabilitative work. And the new model still offers the best chance this country has ever had to make a difference for these women and the community at large. Heney says they talk about Edmonton a lot in the cafeteria at the Kingston Prison for Women.

Social workers and guards sit around the table at coffee break and worry. "The fear is that we'll give up on (the prison) too soon, say 'It's not going to work' and the women will get blamed," says Heney. "We can't do that. We have a radical vision we can achieve. Hang in there and fight for it.

Fight for the vision." (and doesn't have) a peer support system so women can learn to help each other. Also critical (and missing) is an intensive childhood sexual abuse program. Staff are committed, but many lack experience. "The way we could blow it (in Edmonton) is if we don't put in the appropriate services at the beginning," says Heney. "You need the healing environment, but also the healing resources." Heney's advice comes a bit late for round one.

We've passed the beginning and there weren't enough resources. But her advice still holds as the prison moves into round two. And she has other tips. First, don't dismiss inmates because you don't understand what they're doing. "If someone is having a heart attack and is screaming for help, we see that as normal," says Heney.

But when women show they have psychological pain by acting out (slashing themselves, running away), they are accused of being manipulative, seeking attention. who don't know these women think: "What's your problem? You've got a nice new house. Rehabilitate already." But Heney knows it takes more than pink paint on the walls to change women who have known nothing but a lifetime of despair and destruction. Heney believes in the vision of the new women's prison. She thinks it can work, even in the light of events in these past weeks.

The key, says Heney, is putting proper supports within the walls of the new facility. Women were moved into the prison in November before enough programs were in place. And there wasn't even a proper fence. Then too many maximum security prisoners arrived. The facility was designed to hold about 10 per cent maximum offenders.

At last count, closer to 50 per cent of the inmates were maximum security. WTiile some good stuff is there, including addictions programs and native elders, critical components are still missing. In particular, the prison needs The new women's prison sits quietly, almost empty. Confused and traumatized inmates have been transferred elsewhere. A handful of minimum offenders remains, trying to be normal.

There's clear space and time to re-evaluate. But where do you begin? That question faces officials at the Edmonton Institution for Women this weekend. Despite their expertise in corrections, I suspect they, too, are baffled and wondering: what's gone wrong with the new vision? How can we make it right? I say start with people who have been there before. Like Jan Heney. She's a psychologist at the Prison for Women in Kingston who was in town this week, coincidentally, attending a workshop on self-abuse by female offenders sponsored by the new institution.

No one from the Edmonton Institution for Women has asked Heney professional opinion on how to deal with the present crisis, though she's an expert. Her PhD was on suicidal feelings of female prisoners at P4W. I suggest someone call her soon. Heney lived through the dark days at P4W, the time between 1988 and 1991 when six female inmates killed themselves five in only 16 months. "I used to sit in my car in the parking lot in the morning, staring up at the grey dome of P4W and thinking: I'm not sure I can go in there.

What if someone else is dead?" Heney told an audience at the University of Alberta. She knows about the factors that make female inmates do things the rest of us consider plain weird. The slashings, the suicide attempts, other forms of self-sabotage. People AEROBIC WEAR on sale MM for only 9.99 'Excellent selection at CHILDRENS SWIMWEAR Girls suits for only 14.99 Boys suits for only 9.99 COMPETITIVE SWIMWEAR Ladies suits for only 39.99 Mens suits for only 9.9 9 Selected SWIM ACCESSORIES 20 off LADIES SWIMWEAR: $125 suits for only 49.99 $65 suits for only 29.9 9 Suits as low as 1 4.9 9 MENS SWIMWEAR $50 Boxers for only 24.99 HOT NEW 96 BALTEX Reg. $45 on sale for 24.99 all locations! a I i 1 1 All Three Locations: West Edmonton Mall (lower level by the ship) 444-1834 Southgate Shopping Centre (SW comer by the Royal Bank) 436-4371 Kingsway Garden Mall (upper level near the g'ass elevator) 474-1151 JtlP TO MAY 12TH AAY Selected styles only.

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