Star-Phoenix from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada • 27

Tuesday, February 3, 1998 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan The StarPhoenix LIFESTYLE D3 Molested girls' mom warns others ECOLINE sucking the breath out of babies but this cat is by Catherine Farley Caring for Our Land ANN 4 LANDERS Garbage facts (cl 1998 Creators Syndicate. Inc. Dear Ann Landers: This is in response to "A Concerned Friend in Florida." whose friend's husband crawls into bed with his nine-year-old daughter. Someone had better open his eyes and tell that creep to sleep with someone his own age. When my two daughters were eight and nine, my husband began molesting them.

This went on for eight years. The girls were afraid to tell me, so I didn't find out about it until several years later. It kills me that I wasn't able to protect my children. One girl went through therapy and is doing fairly well. Her sister, however, couldn't deal with it and left home.

I haven't seen her in five years. It really hurts that I wasn't there for her when she needed me, and I feel so guilty. This letter is very difficult to write, but I want II private parts. They must know that no one has a right to do that and if anyone fries, they must come and tell the parents immediately. I'm glad you wrote.

You did a lot of good today. Dear Ann Landers: My stepdaughter just gave birth to a sweet little boy. She is 28 and has waited a long time for this miracle. The problem is, she is an animal lover and has a vicious North America has 8 of the world's population, yet it consumes one-third of the world's resources and produces half the garbage. downright crazy and we are all worried sick.

Please give me some advice. Worried About the Cat From Hell in Paris, Texas Dear Worried: The husband must get tough with his wife and insist that she put the baby's welfare ahead of her loyalty to the cat. He should insist that the cat be confined in a room away from the child at all times and never be allowed to roam around the house. A safer alternative is to get rid of the cat. Cruel? Not when you consider how the cat might harm the baby.

Dear Ann Landers: I'm tired of hearing references to the "female mind." The mind is not a sex organ. It has no gender. One might as well talk about the female liver. Get it? Ada in Arizona Dear Ada: I got it. No female activist ever said it better.

Thanks. Gem of the Day (Credit Dolly Parton): You have no idea how much time it takes and how much money it costs to look cheap. Drugs are everyivhere. Tiiey're easy to get, easy to use and even easier to get hooked on. If you lwve questions about drugs, you need Ann Laiders' booklet, Hie Loiodown on Dope.

Send a self-addressed, long, business-size envelope and a cheque or money order for $4.55 this includes postage and handling) to: Lowdown, do Ann Landers, P.O. Box 11562, Chicago, III. 60611-0562. cat that attacks everyone who walks in the door. to do what I can to prevent other children trom ,0 going through what my girls did because they Several family members have confided that were afraid to speak up.

Please print it, Ann. It they are scared to death when they go over will help me feel better about my own failure, there. The cat has been declawed, but it still has very sharp teeth. It has bitten, chased and Each day, North Americans No citv or state please, just A Brokenhearted scared several visitors and it especially dislikes children. My stepdaughter won't listen to anyone about getting rid of this cat.

We have tried. He has been her "baby" for six years, so her husband is afraid to even bring up the subject. Animals can be iealous, just like people. My stepdaugh Mother Dear Mother: No need for you to feel guilty. If you didn't know, you couldn't help.

Your letter, however, gives me an opportunity to urge parents to be in closer communication with their children boys as well as girls. When children are about three years of age, produce enough garbage to fill 70,000 garbage trucks. Lined bumper-to-bumper, these would stretch half way to the moon. The theme for this year's Earth Day on April 22 is the three R's: Reduce, reuse, recycle. The biggest hope for reducing garbage is the middle REDUCE.

ter insists she never leaves the cat alone with parents should start talking to them about their bodies and about what is appropriate touching the child but what about when she takes a and what is not. Children must be encouraged shower or uses the bathroom? to tell a parent if someone tries to touch their I don't believe that old wives' tale about cats Inhalers become environmentally friendly Source: The Media Foundation, Earth Day Canada Organic farm no longer seen as eccentric Next weekend. Saskatoon will host an important conference on organic agriculture which brings to mind the fact that it has been more than 20 years since the first conference on organic agriculture was held in Saskatchewan. At that time, organic farmers were considered a rather unusual lot, and, in truth, many were wonderful eccentrics. Which one of us who attended that first conference could forget farmers like compounds initially developed in the 1930s as refrigerants being released into the stratosphere have dropped from about one million tonnes to 200.000 tonnes, research shows.

The main reason is that prime CFC sources such as air-conditioning systems and aerosol propel-lants are being replaced with safer compounds. Asthma inhalers are still contributing a small but significant amount to the CFC problem, said Chapman, director of Toronto Hospital's asthma centre. An estimated 440 million inhalers are made annually worldwide. Some 10 million are used in Canada each year. 3M's answer to a safer inhaler drug-propellant compound is HFAs, or hydrofluoroalkanes, which are basically hydrogen-carbon compounds that contain no chlorine.

lion into the research and development of the CFC-free version, noted Dr. David Blackwell, manager of the company's life sciences laboratory. The company started work on the CFC-free inhaler following the so-called Montreal protocol an agreement signed by more than 150 countries attending a United Nations environmental meeting in 1987 where they agreed to ban CFCs by 2005. At ground level, CFCs are generally stable and non-toxic, but when they rise into the stratosphere, they break down into highly reactive chlorine fragments which destroy ozone. A thinning ozone layer enables harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun to reach Earth more readily, increasing the risk of sunburn, skin cancer and eye problems.

Since 1987, amounts of CFCs airway-opening asthma drugs (with no tail-off of medication as the aerosol container empties) and can be used more effectively in the cold compared to conventional inhalers, they added. Among the drugs Airomir delivers are salbutamol, which treats symptoms of sudden asthma attacks, and beclomethasone, which prevents attacks. Asthma expert Dr. Kenneth Chapman of Toronto Hospital said Gordon and other patients find Airomir easier to live with, both from a conscience and treatment point of view. Gordon, an asthmatic for 60 years, says it's helped improve his curling and golf games.

3M Pharmaceuticals, which made the first asthma inhaler 40 years ago and now accounts for more than half of the worldwide market, put 10 years and $100 mil TORONTO (CP) Former teacher Ted Gordon has been breathing easier in both the health and sporting arenas since he started using a new environmentally friendly asthma inhaler. Gordon, who's among about three million Canadians with the common respiratory disease asthma, took part in months of clinical trials for the Airomir metered-dose inhaler (also called a puffer) by 3M Pharmaceuticals of London, Ont. The inhaler, now available in 40 countries, was recently approved by Health Canada and is the first inhaler in the world to be free of CFCs (or chloro-fluorocarbons), compounds which contribute to the depletion of the ozone layer, health experts told a news conference Wednesday. Airomir is also less expensive, delivers more consistent doses of Fred Fries, who gave part of his talk standing on his head? He had the entire audience in stitches warning them that pesticides would rob them of their PAUL HAN LEY Environment SERGERA THREAD 100 Polyester, VJ 1500m. spools.

fJ )0 sfii Bl mm 13 IIS WML Asthma attacks can be avoided By The Canadian Press Some asthma facts: Getting to the roots: Asthma means panting and comes from the ancient Greeks. It is a chronic lung disease caused by inflammation of the lungs' small airways. Inflammation leads to air-tube narrowing from muscle spasms, swelling and mucous production, causing shortness of breath, wheezing and-or repeated coughing. Sharing lung woes: Asthma affects some three million Canadians. Some 500 people die annually.

Pulling the trigger: A number of factors trigger airway narrowing in asthmatics. They include allergens such as house dust, mites, pollen, fungal spores and animal hair, irritants such as tobacco smoke and dry cold air, and respiratory infections. Breathing easier: Traditional asthma treatment involves inhaled steroids called corticosteroids often twice daily to curb inflammation in the airways and reduce incidence of asthma attacks over the long term. Inhaler asthma drugs also include bronchodilators which contain drugs that provide immediate relief from an asthma attack. Natural prescriptions: Avoid triggers; drink plenty of fluids, warm teas and soups to relax bronchial passages; take extra Vitamin and zinc; keep home and air clean; avoid allergenic foods such as milk and cheese; exercise; and learn to relax.

In with the new: Aerosol inhalers traditionally work with a delivery system driven by CFCs, or chloro-fluorocarbons, which are slowly being eliminated from use because they deplete the ozone layer. The world's first non-CFC inhaler, Airomir by 3M Pharmaceuticals, recently was approved in Canada. Sources: 3M Pharmaceuticals, the book Natural Prescriptions by Dr. Robert Ciller. Toronto Hospital's asthma clinic.

"libidoo." Or Clifford Jones, the world champion seed grower, who at 80 years of age had never bothered to adopt "these new farm chemical." Cliffs ribbons and awards for grain quality covered a four-by-eight-foot sheet of plywood. He had a habit of attending all the farm chemical promotions in his district; at some point during the event he would rise and bet anyone $500 that they couldn't outyield him, although they could use all the fertilizers and sprays available and he wouldn't use any. He was proud to say that no one ever took him up on that bet. While some of these fellows were eccentric, there was also something that rang true in their determination to produce food without herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, "or any other kind of cides," as Fred Fries used to say. Many consumers wanted to obtain chemical-free food, and were willing to pay a premium price for it.

This was the incentive needed for more farmers to risk being seen as eccentrics and to begin to adopt organic farming methods. At the same time, research studies were beginning to show that organic farmers had a similar net income to conventional farmers, because their operating costs were lower. The organic farming movement has continued to progress, slowly but surely, since that first conference in 1977. Today, many of the concepts, if not the practices, or organic farming have become mainstream. Sustainability, for example, has become a universally accepted goal.

Few would argue that it is not desirable to minimize the use of toxic substances in food production, and even the major chemical manufacturers are also promoting biological alternatives such as microbial fertilizers. Although chemical farming continues to be dominant, there are signs that organic production is on the rise. In Europe, for example, sales of organic food are expected to overtake conventional food sales within a decade. Meanwhile, the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool is now handling organic grains and building an infrastructure dedicated to the organic sector. And why not, organic wheat sells for $2.50 a bushel above regular Wheat Board prices, while oilseeds sell at double the price of conventional product.

The conference, Exploring Organic Alternatives Meeting the Challenges of Agriculture. Health and Community, will be held Feb. 8-10, 1998, at the Radisson Hotel. Sponsors include the University of Saskatchewan, the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, Oxfam and the National Farmers Union. The conference will explore various issues of production but will also have presentations of interest to consumers.

The public is invited to attend the afternoon and evening sessions of the conference on Sunday. Registration at the door is $20 for this part of the three-day event. Presentations will feature local and national speakers on trends in organic production and organic food, sustainable communities, alternate food systems, and the food-health connection. Those who wish to stay on for the Monday and Tuesday sessions will hear more on the problems and solutions involved in building sustainable farming systems, with plenty of input from producers and scientists from around North America. For more information on the conference, contact Hart Haidn at 956-0832 or Joanne Kowalski at 966-8893.

Sportswear SOLIDS Fashion lengths, Reg. Faille Prints 100 Polyester, 115cm. Reg. 4S LP Prints 0J 9.89m. nli 975-0404 Tsa wc' 922-3111 I i 522-1525 -Mg a 786-7266 ttL ifisffi; Saskatoon, 106C-810 Circle Drive Prince Albert, 1403 Central Avenue Regina, 2044 Dewdney Avenue Yorkton, 385 Broadway The StarPfaoeek Saskatoon Board of Education i Helpful funding PirtMfi Canada Caring to Learn Learning to Care invites you to the tubcnt Art Sliow Some of the athletes of the Americas who will qualify for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney Thursday, February 5th thru Saturday, February 7th Midtown Plaza 2nd level next to Jersey City Thursday 5:00 p.m.

until 9:00 p.m. Friday 4:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. Saturday -1 0:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.

Come and enjoy arts and crafts from High School and Elementary School students. All artwork is for sale and will make ideal Valentine gifts. In addition, hand-painted bird houses will be available for sale. Winnipeg 99 One way for the better athletes of the Americas to go to Sydney Is through Winnipeg. Which should make for some interesting competition.

Where the Americas come to play.