Hawaii Tribune-Herald from Hilo, Hawaii • 20

20 Hawaii Tribune-Herald, Thursday, November 18, 1982 Star spangled banner protected By Laurie Wertz Smithsonian News Service 2 i Iftfl mm mbmm I Wm 11 I mm mm I mV3 mm ml I mm mmm mmm mmm I ftv lH ftEa ftHIB lBII mWr Vmmm 9BI I III Mil The "rocket's red glare and bombs bursting in air" haven't been the only threats to the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key's famous poem. The Star-Spangled Banner, the giant 1 34-by 40-foot flag that greets visitors at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., had collected lots of dirt over the years a messy mix of dust, soil, grass and even microscopic blue cotton particles from visitors' jeans clinging to the priceless flag. Museum conservators attributed the grimy buildup'to the banner's dramatic location directly in front of the busy, often drafty museum entrance on the National Mall. "The main problem was dust which comes in with visitors and on eddies, of air and then settles on the flag," Scott Odell, head of the museum's Division of Conservation, explains. Also, the mere fact that the flag has been hanging in one place, sed to light and air for 19 years, was a major factor in 'he accumulation of dirt.

Clearly, the Stars and Stripes were facing new dangers. Besides being unattractive, dust in the long run wears abrasion as the flag sways slightly ifi the drafts," Rita Adrosko. head of the museum's Textile Division, notes. "Chemical substances trapped in dust might also contribute to folding, using small low-suction, battery-powered vacuum cleaners. The flag's surroundings walls, lighting fixtures and air ducts were also cleaned.

An opaque theatrical curtain was then placed in front of the flag to keep it in total darkness, except when unveiled for brief, hourly sound-and-light shows during museum hours. The air-handling system, which creates a clean air curtain around the flag, was upgraded to control dust as well as humidity and temperature. The Star-Spangled Banner, which Key observed in the "dawn's early light" of Sept. 14, 1814, has had many-adventures during its 169 years. Little is known about the flag's treatment from 1814 to 1907, when it belonged to the family of Col.

George Armistead, commander of Fort McHenry during Britain's unsuccessful attack on Baltimore in 1814. But the earliest known photograph of the flag, taken in 1874, shows it crudely tacked to a coarse backing, with one star missing and the white stripes tattered. In 1914, Mrs. Amelia Fowler of Boston stitched the flag to a new backing. It was then hung horizontally in the Smithsonian's Arts and Industries Building.

After Pearl Harbor, it was folded and stored in a tar-paper-covered package in a cavern near Luray, Va. When the war ended, the flag Was rehung in a glass case, its bottom edge set in moth crystals. During its stay in Arts and Industries, the flag was vacuumed only once, and no other treatment is recorded. In 1963, the banner was moved to its present location. HI Bp 1 degradation of the flag's surface." I he museum has just completed a delicate project to protect the flag frornfacther deterioration Both sides of the flag were vacuumed by conservators working from a scaf THROUGH MANY TRIALS The Star-Spangled Banner has been through many trials since it flew over Fort McHenry in Baltimore daring the War of 1812.

Torn and tattered, the flag (above left) was photographed in 1874 at the Boston Navy Yard. Covered with dust and grime, it was recently cleaned by conservators (lower left) at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., where it is now displayed, at right. 7. Nation's head pediatrician looks at child-raising, teen health needs youths as today. Dope addicts, as drug users were called in the 1950s, and teenage alcoholics were aberrations.

For most young drivers 25 years ago, the car was loaned by dad. Fewer mothers worked outside the home. Far fewer kids, even adolescents, spent long periods on their own. The enormous changes in 25 years make it more difficult, too, for the offspring to get to age 21 in prime condition. Tens of thousands do not make it without being maimed physically or emotionally each year.

Thousands die in auto accidents, half of which are linked to drunken driving. Strain said about one-third of adolescents who are sick emotionally or physically are cared for by pediatricians. And pediatricians hope to raise the number to two-thirds by 1990. Strain said millions of adolescents 20 and under now By Patricia McCormack UPI health editor i When hung out his shingle in 1950, pe'hair- i. E.

Strain recalled the other iaj child raising was a fairly simple business compared with today. Strain, of Denver, Colrv is the new president of the 24.000-inember American Academy of Pediatrics, an organization of doctors whose patients now range from birth to 21 years of age. He recalled when a doctor's" practice colic, advice on toilet training, remedies for diaper rash, and dealing with diets, immunizations, fevers, infections and smashed fingers. What has happened to make child raising and the practice of pediatrics so difierent today" The" emergence of conditions neither parents nor pediatricians had t' leal with on a large scale in the 1940s and 1950s, Strain said. To show how much times have changed, Strain looked back 25 years, noting that: The sex revolution hadn't taken off yet.

The pill wasn't around. Teenage girls didn't pussyfoot behind mom's back, as some do today, to ask the pediatrician for a prescription for oral contraceptives. Abortion hadn't been legalized. That made it harder for a pregnant teenager to deal with impending motherhood and acted as a control over early and frequent sexual activity. Television was not yet eating up more hours than school in a kids' average week.

The world wasn't perceived as such a violent place. Even the Korean war was dim drumbeats away. Kids had not yet been exposed to televised scenes of the Vietnam War. Drugs and alcohol weren't sapping the wills and rotting the bodies of as many come to the attention of the healthcare system only when they have an accident or acute illness. Strain said pediatricians want word to reach adolescents that they are around to listen to anything bothersome, be it the end of a love affair or the beginning of problems that young adults don't feel comfortable discussing with parents.

"The pediatrician, who has known the family and the child through the years, and is a specialist in growth and development, is professionally best qualified to care for the adolescent and the young adult." he said. But aren't teenagers bursting with good health1 "That's a mistaken idea," Strain said. "Millions of them have tremendous, unmet health needs." The physical and emotional health problems of adolescents and young adults, an Academy Task Force report said, includes: Suicide and suicide attempts. Among those 15 to 24 years of age, suicide is the third leading cause of death among males, fourth among females. 5 percent of males and 18 percent females have had intercourse by the time they are 13.

About 1 million teenage girls become pregnant each year; 650,000 are unmarried; 20,000 are 14 or younger; 400,000 have abortions. teenagers aged 15 to 19 suffer from gonorrhea; 5,000 girls skip school every day because of gonorrhea. Gonorrhea and syphilis alone account for more than 300,000 damaged infants each year. In 1981, approximately 20 percent of high school students smoked half-a-pack of cigarettes a dav 6 percent used alcohol daily; 7 percent smoked marijuana frequently. Smoking three marijuana cigarettes a week is roughly the carcinogenic equivalent of a pack a day cigarette habit.

Marijuana on the market today is 10 times more potent than in the 1960swhen it became popular. Children will spend 15,000 hours from childhood through high school watching television. During this same period, they will have spent only 11,000 hours in classrooms. More than 14 million children are in some form of day care for more than 10 hours a week; 42 percent of mothers with children under age 3 are employed and use substitute childcare. In the 1980s some 40 percent to 50 percent of children under 18 will have lived with one parent only, mainly due to divorces, now numbering 1 million a year.

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