By The
Associated Press
Edited by Tabitha Hiner
Study:Stress may double riskof cold
BOSTON - The s«||^of such
problems as losing a job^reaking off
an engagement or simply feeling
overwhelmed by life’s taudens nearly
doubles the risk of catching a cold, a
study has found,
“It is the first evidence for an asso
ciation between stress and a biologi
cally verifiable infectious disease,”
said the study’s director, Dr. Sheldon
Cohen of Carnegie Mellon Univer
sity in Pittsburgh.
Some experts have long believed
that chronic stress weakens people’s
defenses against disease. But while
circumstantial evidence of this idea
has built up in recent years, there has
been little direct proof that stress
l
actually makes people sick.
Now a unique, carefully conducted
study suggests just this: When other
wise healthy people are equally ex
posed to germs, those under stress are
more likely to catch them.
The study exposed 394 volunteers
to equal doses of five different cold
bugs. Typically in such experiments,
about 35 percent to 40 percent come
down with the sriiffles.
This study, however, showed that
the risk is strongly associated with the
amount of stress people encounter in
their daily lives. Among those under
the most stress, 47 percent caught
colds, compared with 27 percent under
the least stress.
The study was conducted at the
Medical Research Council Common
Cold Unit in Salisbury, England, and
published in today’s New England
Journal of Medicine.
The researchers calculated a nu
merical stress level for each volun
teer by questioning them about such
burdensome events during the previ
ous year as moving, being fired, chang
ing jobs, having a child, getting an
abortion, suffering a burglary or ex
periencing a death in the family.
They also asked if the volunteers
had trouble coping with life’s de
mands as well as whether they often
felt such dark emotions as anger,
depression, nervousness and guilt.
GNPfinishes third consecutive below average quarter
Stress and Colds
The more stress in people’s lives, the more likely they were to become
infected with cold viruses. Stress raised the chance of catching all five
viruses tested. Rhinovirus is the most common virus to cause colds.
Percentage of study subjects with colds
HLow stress
High stress
'I
Rhinovirus-Rhinovirus Respiratory Rhinovirus CoronavimVb ~
Type 2 Type 9 syncytial Type 14
virus »
Source: New England Journal of Medicine ~
jUovemment says national recession may cunuiiue
j WASHINGTON - The U.S. econ
omy contracted at a slight 0.1 percent
annual rate in the April-June quarter,
the government said Wednesday,
casting doubt on whether the nation
has emerged from the recession.
The Commerce Department said
the gross national product, the most
widely watched measure of economic
health, posted a third consecutive
negative quarter.
Econonvc activity slumped a sharp
2.8 percent in the first quarter of this
year and declined 1.6 percent in the
last three months of 1990.
The second-quarter drop marked a
sharp revision from the government’s
original estimate of a 0.4 percent
advance, which was greeted last month
as evidence the economy was climb
ing out of its first recession in eight
years.
The report was seen as strengthen
ing the argument of some economists
who believe the economy is in danger
of lapsing into a so-called double-dip
recession, in which a brief period of
revival is followed by a fresh down
turn. In advance, most analysis ex
pected little revision in the earlier
estimate.
The department attributed the
revision to weakcr-than-expected
production of goods for inventories
and a more modest gain in consumer
spending than first thought.
The first change, on inventories,
could turn out to be a favorable devel
opment for the economy. Lean inven
lories mean any pickup in sales will
quickly translate into increased pro
duction at factories and eventually
into more jobs.
However, the 2.8 percent growth
in consumer spending, instead of the
3.6 percent growth estimated earlier,
was viewed more seriously, even
though the department allributol some
of it to a shift of car and automobile
purchases from the consumer sector
to the business sector.
Consumer spending represents two
thirds of all economic activity and its
revival is considered the key to any
lasting economic recovery.
In another sign of the recession’s
impact, the department said that af
ter-tax profits of U.S. corporations
fell 1.6 percent to $163.7 billion in
the April-Junc period, the lowest level
since the third quarter of 1989. How
ever, the drop was less severe than the
6.3 percent decline in the first quar
ter
Deadly crash
Crack vial found in cab of derailed subway train in New York
NEW YORK - A subway train
jumped the tracks and slammed into a
pillar today, killing at least five people
and injuring 171, officials said. The
motorman was reported missing for
hours, and sources said a crack vial
was found in the cab.
The 12:15 a.m. accident occurred
as a 10-car downtown train was ap
proaching Manhattan’s busy 14th
Street-Union Square station. The crash
sheared the lead car in half, and pas
sengers were trapped in the twisted
steel for hours.
The train “was going so fast, the
next thing you know it was boom,’”
said passenger Albert Webb, 30. He
said he saw a baby hurled from its
mother’s arms.
“It was like an explosion,” said
passenger Joseih Ricketts, who had
bloody knees and a tom dress. “Some
people from another car got thrown
into our car. There was a lot of smoke.
The car was just shredded. There were
wires hanging down. People were
H L
screaming."
The train’s motorman, who left
the accident scene and was missing
for several hours, was later located by
Cslice and was being questioned, said
L Robert Nardoza. Authorities with
held the motorman’s name.
Two sources involved in the in
vestigation told The Associated Press
that an empty crack vial had been
found on the floor of the cab, which
was intact after the accident. The
sources spoke to The AP on condition
of anonymity.
Investigators were also looking into
reports that the motorman skipped a
couple of stops early in the route and
was traveling too fast.
Deputy Fire Commissioner Tom
Kelly said the train looked like “a
collapsed telescope.” The first car of
the train was slit in half and the back
was shredded. Police said they be
lieved the last of the victims trapped
in the wreckage was out by about 5
a.m.
»» VI V IIIIVU V/Ul Wl
the tunnel on stretchers, others were
treated at the station and still others
were led onto buses and taken to
hospitals.
Kelly said five people were killed.
The Emergency Medical Service
reported 171 people were injured, 12
critically. The injured included 34
police officers treated at the scene for
heat and smoke injuries.
The cause of the derailment was
not immediately known, said TA
spokesman-Bob Slovak.
The accident occurred about 200
feet north of the station as the train
was crossing from -express to local
tracks, said TA spokeswoman Carcn
Gardner. The first five cars derailed,
and the lead car slammed into a pillar]
she said.
The speed of the train was not
known, Slovak said.
The accident occurred at one of
. the. busiest stations on one of the
busiest lines of the subway system,
the Lexington Avenue line. The 14th
Street stop is a major transfer point.
New York’s worst subway acci
dent occurred in 1918 when a train
derailed in Brooklyn, killing 92 people
Two people were killed and about
150 injured in December in a fire in a
subway tunnel between Manhattan
and Brooklyn.
Students supplied with books,
pens, drug treatment insurance
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -
When a new year of classes began
this week, students in Little Rock
schools got something besides books
and assignments: complete insur
ance coverage for drug and alco
hol-abuse treatment.
City and school officials worked
with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield
of Arkansas insurance company to
provide 100 percent coverage for
the district’s 26,000 students.
“Itproviaesour youngsters with
an opportunity to receive help,”
said Jo Evelyn Elston, the district’s
director of pupil services.
Abuse of drugs and alcohol is “a
problem we’ve not been able to ad
dress in the past for not having the
resources to get these children into
the programs that they needed,”
she said.
The student-insurance program,
called “Fight Back! Insure the Chil
dren,” will provide services for al
cohol and drug abusers, ranging
from education and early interven
tion to intensive treatment. It also
includes family-therapy coverage.
One student was referred to the
program Monday, the first day of
school, Elston said. The referral
came to the district from a commu
nity agency where the student had
sought help. The student will get
help from an agency that has agreed
to participate in the program, she
said.
“The agency that referred (him)
could not have provided the serv- I
ice,” she said. Among other treat- I j
meni, Elston said, the student was I l
recommended for three group ses
sions three times a week, for up to
eight weeks.
The school district hired three
people on Monday to assess and
refer children to the program.
In April, city and school district
officials announced a drive to raise
money to pay for the program. Par
ents were asked to donate $10 a
child. But the effort fell short. The
district raised only $68,728, and
almost failed to meet Monday’s
deadline for the first of two $133,500
premiums due to Blue Cross and
Blue Shield of Arkansas.
The premium was paid with help
from an $80,000 interest-free loan
from Twin City Bank of North
Little Rock.
“The summer was really a bad
time to start,” said Frankie Sarver,
executive director of the Fighting
Back Initiative. Now that school
has started, she said, she expects
parent-teacher associations to help
raise additional money.
The school program grew outol
the work of Little Rock Fighting
Back, a coalition of community
leaders and city officials. The coa
lition operates under a $200,000
grant from the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation of Princeton, N.J.
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