Small businesses look at Y2K issues
State business leaders offer to help local companies with technological concerns
By Ieva Augstums
Senior staff writer
With 267 days left until the new
millennium, the fate of some
Nebraska small businesses and their
willingness to discuss Year 2000
problems is being questioned by a
group of state business leaders who
would like.to help.
Many are concerned about busi
ness’ disinterest in Y2K compliance
plans, and are anticipating a potential
economic downfall.
“This could definitely be a prob
lem for some, and not for others,”
said Gisele Olney, a consultant for the
Nebraska Manufacturing Extension
Partnership, a program affiliated with
the Nebraska Department of
Economic Development. “But
regardless, everyone needs to look at
the issue.” *
Dave Wright; operations manager
with the Nebraska Manufacturing
Extension Partnership, agreed.
“Despite widespread publicity,
many small- and medium-sized man
ufacturers are still unaware of how
this problem may affect their busi
ness ” Wright said. “The potential cri
sis looming for companies’ computer
systems, manufacturing equipment
and facility infrastructures are real.”
To help combat potential Y2K
problems and to ensure businesses
aren’t forced to shift down, a Y2K
self-help program, developed by the
National Institute of Standards and
Technology, is available to all small
manufacturers and other small busi
nesses that would like free help with
Y2K compliance.
Olney said the main Y2K problem
was a flaw in the way dates tradition
ally have been entered into computer
systems. For example, on Jan. 1,
2000, computers using two digits to
track dates will recognize the double
zeros as 1900, she said.
“The self-help kit will help busi
nesses assess their concerns,” Olney
said. “It asks people to think through
their business, step-by-step, and tack
le one component at a time.”
Olney said the program asks busi
ness owners to identify areas of con
cern in the internal elements of a
business’s information system, then
consider the possible outcomes if that
specific area were threatened or ter
minated. It then prioritizes areas of
critical concern and provides
resources and help for improvement,
she said.
The program also examines exter
nal concerns.
“It’s a program approach in which
issues get addressed” Olney said.
“Each situation is different. You just
have to look at it, decide and figure
your priorities.”
Dave Wellsffy, a member of the
National Bank of Commerce’s
Project Year 2000 Team, has done just
that.
Wellsfry said" the company was
dealing with Y2K concerns, assess
ing them and coming up with solu
tions.
“We are simulating Year 2000
critical dates in our testing lab,”
Wellsffy said. “Once areas are identi
ii
This could definitely be a problem for
some, and not for others
Gisele Olney
Nebraska Manufacturing Extension Partnership consultant
fied, we actually use real people who
use real applications, seeing if we
have solved our problem.”
Glenn Harris, Nebraska Small
Business Administration district
information resource manager, com
mended those businesses that have
begun assessing their Y2K concerns.
But he said he had witnessed a strong
disinterest in Y2K compliance issues
among small business owners, and
more needed to be done.
In October 1998, the National
Federation of Independent
Businesses said 82 percent of small
businesses nationwide are potentially
at risk for Y2K problems. Of those
businesses, about 50 percent have
begun or finished assessing their con
cerns for 2000.
Harris, who travels across the
state providing Y2K informational
presentations, said the study also
applies to Nebraska.
He said he was concerned about
the future of small businesses but said
he could not provide a solution to
stimulate interest in Y2K issues.
“There is no simple answer for the
reasons why people are not respond
ing to our help. Some believe Y2K
won’t affect them,” Harris said.
“Sure, that’s a possibility, but small
businesses are the backbone of the
American economy. If they fail, we
all will be in trouble.”
Project helps abuse victims
By Dane Stickney
Staff writer
A UNL residence hall was deco
rated with colorful shirts to raise
awareness for violence against
women on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The shirts were part of a visual
display in the Harper-Schramm
Smith study room that bears witness
to violence against women. The dis
play is known as the Clothesline
Project.
Each of the 27 shirts on the
clothesline tells the story of a
Nebraska woman who was abused.
For example, a red shirt symbolized a
woman who had been raped, and a
white shirt symbolized a woman who
had died from some sort of abuse.
Many of the white shirts bore pic
tures of the women who had died,
whil^ other shirts carried slogans
such as “Abuse survivors will go to
heaven because we’ve already been to
hell.”
The Clothesline Project originat
ed nearly 10 years ago in
v
Massachusetts as a way to expose
violence against women. Since then,
other communities have started simi
lar projects.
The visual display was accompa
nied by an audio tape, which symbol
ized abuse that is currently taking
place, such as the following: Every
12 seconds a woman is battered; near
ly every minute a woman is raped;
every hour a woman dies from being
abused.
Matt Hedin, a junior biology
major and Harper Hall student assis
tant, was instrumental in bringing the
Clothesline Project to campus. He
saw it as a way to make males more
aware of the injustices against women
that occur on a daily basis.
“I first saw the display at a confer
ence in Iowa,” Hedin said. “It really
had quite the impact on me. The fact
that each shirt has its own story is
totally overwhelming.
“I thought it was a great way to
get the men on campus to open their
eyes to the problem and do something
about it.”
Hedin took his idea to the
University Women’s Center. He and
Women’s Center Project Coordinator
Tolandra Coleman then worked
together to make the project happen.
“After hearing Matt’s idea, (the
Women’s Center) was very excited to
help with such a great cause,”
Coleman said.
“Together we brainstormed on
ways to make the project known
around campus. We set up booths at
the (Nebraska) Union and printed up
fliers that Matt designed.”
Hedin and the Women’s Center
also teamed up with the Lincoln
Rape/Spouse Abuse Crisis Center to
play host to a program on sexual vio
lence Wednesday evening in the
Harper-Schramm-Smith study room.
The program presented informa
tion on date- and acquaintance-rape
and other common sexual abuse
problems on college campuses.
Those interested in finding out
more about violence against women
or sexual abuse should contact the
Rape/Spouse Abuse Crisis Center at
(402) 475-7273 or the Women’s
Center at (402) 472-2597.
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Study: Teen smoking
increases cancer risk
■ Those smokers who
start as teen-agers display
increased DNA alterations.
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Permanent genetic changes that for
ever increase the risk of lung cancer
occurs in teen-agers who smoke,
even if they quit later in life. And the
younger the smoking starts, the more
damage is done.
That’s the conclusion of a study
published Wednesday in the Journal
of the National Cancer Institute.
The research, coming at a time
when more than one-third of teens
are taking up the smoking habit,
shows “there is something uniquely
bad about starting young,” said John
K. Wiencke, a genetics expert at the
University of California, San
Francisco, School of Medicine, and
primary author of the study.
He said the research gives power
ful laboratory evidence of why start
ing smoking before the age of 18 can
be particularly harmful to long-term
health. Wiencke said such youthful
smoking on a daily basis causes lung
damage that the body cannot repair.
He said the damage is less likely
among smokers who start in their 20s
or later, although smoking at any age
is not healthy.
“It looks like it is the age when
smoking starts that is important,”
Wiencke said. “It didn’t matter if they
were heavy or light smokers - what
mattered is that they started young.”
Earlier studies have indicated
that young smoking stunts the lungs’
full development and increases the
risk of breathing problems later in
life. Studies have also shown that
smoking in the teen years is more
addictive and that smokers who
begin young are less likely to break
the habit.
But Wiencke’s study for the first
time shows dramatic and enduring
DNA damage caused by youthful
smoking.
, “This reinforces the idea that we
need to stop young people from
smoking, not only from the addiction
standpoint, but also from the cancer
risk standpoint,” Wiencke said.
Surveys by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention indi
cate that 34.8 percent of high school
students were regular smokers in
1995. That number rose to 36.4 per
cent in 1997.
A CDC survey of smokers aged
30 to 39 showed that 62 percent had
tried smoking by the age of 16, and
24.9 percent had taken up the habit
permanently by that age.
About 3 million teen-agers now
smoke, the government estimates.
And about a third of all smokers will
die of smoking-related illnesses,
including lung and other types of
cancers, heart disease, stroke,
emphysema and chronic pulmonary
obstruction.
In their study, Wiencke and his
colleagues tested for DNA alter
ations in the nontumor lung tissue of
patients being treated for lung cancer.
The group included 57 people who
were current smokers, 79 who were
former smokers and seven who had
never smoked.
The healthy lung tissue was test
ed for the number of DNA alterations
per 10 billion cells. Some alterations
occur with age, but the number of
gene changes was much higher
among smokers - and highest of all
among those who started smoking at
a young age, Wiencke said.
For nonsmokers, there were 32
DNA alterations per 10 billion cells.
For current smokers, the alterations
were about eight times higher. The
findings were adjusted statistically
for the number of years smoked and
for the amount smoked.
The startling discovery was that
for former smokers, the most impor
tant factor effecting DNA damage
was when they started smoking, not
how long or how much, Wiencke
said.
Former smokers who started at
or before their 15th birthdays had an
average of 164 genetic alterations.
Ex-smokers who started between age
15 and 17 had an average of 115
alterations.
Among ex-smokers who didn’t
start smoking until after they were
20, however, the DNA alterations
averaged 81, fewer than half that of
people who started smoking earliest.
Such alterations occur when
chemicals in tobacco smoke fuse
with genes in the DNA of lung cells.
These chemical complexes, called
adducts, cause mutations and signifi
cantly increase cancer risk, Wiencke
said.
The study shows that “genetic
alterations from tobacco carcinogen
exposure may persist in former
smokers,” said an editorial in the
journal by three cancer researchers at
the University of Texas M.D.
Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
The editorial said the finding “fits
one more piece into the lung cancer
risk assessment puzzle.”