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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Times Advocate, 2005-02-02, Page 22 Exeter Times -Advocate Wednesday, February 2, 2005 Regional wrap up Gambling addiction rises in Huron SEAFORTH — Gambling addictions are on the rise in Huron County, as they are across the country. Huron Addiction Services counsellor Gail Huber told the Huron Expositor recently that since she started her job in 1999, she has noticed an increase in clients. Huber said she is con- cerned about the increase and notes she has seen marriage break-ups, bankrupt- cies and debts resulting from gambling addic- tions. Huber said she is not against responsible gambling. Two per cent of slots revenue goes towards responsible gambling research, said Teresa Roncon of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, a figure that was $36 million in Ontario last year. Huber sees about 45 to 50 clients from Huron County each year who are addicted to gambling. OR times are a concern CLINTON — Local surgeons have recently expressed concern about Operating Room (OR) time. As the Clinton News - Record reported last week, surgeons expressed concern at a recent board meeting of the Huron -Perth Healthcare Alliance. St. Marys hospital site chief Dr. Peter Johnston said things are return- ing to normal in terms of the number of surg- eries conducted, but there is "tension in the air about the future of the hospital's OR." Johnston said having well-trained staff is important and, if OR time is taken away, "the staff will be ren- dered impotent." He said Stratford doesn't have the capac- ity to handle more surgeries and that there is a role for expanded services in St. Marys and Seaforth. Parents speak for school in Kingsbridge KIN BRIDGE — Parents learned at a recent meeting that St. Joseph's School is being considered for closure because of education, not finances. With declining enrol- ment, it's difficult to meet the demands of the Ontario curriculum, the Goderich Signal - Star reported last week. Living through the tsunami has happy ending MarkVanderkam, left, was on a beach in Thailand when the tsunami struck Dec. 26. He told his story Monday to students at Stephen Central School, where his brother Alex, right, is principal. (photo/Scott Nixon) By Scott Nixon TIMES -ADVOCATE STAFF STEPHEN — Amid the countless tragic stories resulting from the deadly Dec. 26 south Asian tsunami, there are those sto- ries that have a happy ending. Students at Stephen Central School were able to hear one of those happy stories Monday morning. Principal Alex Vanderkam's brother, Mark, was vaca- tioning in Thailand when the tsunami struck. He spoke to students Monday about his experiences and showed some pictures from the area he was staying. As Mark explained, he had been snor- keling and kayaking in Thailand on the Andaman Sea coastline for two days when the tsunami hit. He was actually kayaking in the water when the earth- quake took place at 9 a.m. Dec. 26, although he was 1,000 miles away from where it took place. Not knowing what had happened, Mark headed back to the beach to buy some suntan lotion, when he noticed all the water draining out of the bay, leaving fish flopping around on the sand and boats sitting on the floor of the bay. On the horizon, he could see a large wave coming in, after which people started yelling at those in the water to head for land. As he told the Times -Advocate, Mark knew a tsunami was coming as soon as he saw the water empty out of the bay. He then looked for an escape route, which there luckily was — a hill, which he and others ran up. Three waves hit the coastline, measur- ing between 10 and 15 feet high, destroying buildings and boats. After each wave, the bay would empty out until the next wave came. After the third wave, there were reports of a 40 foot wave on the way. That wave luckily never arrived, although the bay kept emptying out for the next eight hours. Mark showed students pictures of some of the devastation caused by the tsuna- mi. While the area he was in wasn't the hardest hit, people were killed. He showed a picture of a popular tourist area he had just visited the day before, Phi Phi Island, where over 1,000 were killed. Mark, who recently moved to Vancouver, but who works for a software company in Kitchener, says because news was so slow to circulate he didn't really know the deadly extent of the tsunami for a couple of days. Flying to Europe Jan. 3, he said his plane was full of injured tsunami victims on stretchers. "It's almost unbelievable," he says of the tsunami, adding that when he was kayaking back to the beach, there were kayakers heading out into the bay who were killed when the waves hit. Stephen principal Alex Vanderkam was out all day Dec. 26 and wasn't aware that his brother may have been in dan- ger until he got home at about midnight. There were two messages from his father: in the first, his father was wor- ried and didn't know Mark's condition after the tsunami, but in the second mes- sage, he said Mark was OK. "I was quite happy to see him in per- son," Alex said of his brother. Stephen Central has raised $1,059 for the tsunami relief fund, which will go towards health care, reconstruction of houses and schools, job creation, med- ical supplies, psycho -social support and tourism. The Canadian Red Cross congratulated the school on its efforts. SHDHS hosts forum dealing with bullying problems Continued from front page people. "We were very shocked," at the results, Baynham said, adding violence and bullying was the number one concern of students. In response to this and in an effort to do something about the problem, a DVD called "Take Notice" was filmed with 36 youths participating. The film has a rural focus and uses realis- tic language and tackles the high school issues of bullying, exclu- sion and gossiping. Baynham said she looks for- ward to the DVD being used in workshops in schools. Other projects will also be done for the younger grades. "The sooner we intervene, the better," she said. Brown said bullying is a com- munity issue, noting it's every- where in society — in arenas and the workplace, for example. "The students are loathe to tell on someone because they're afraid it will get worse," she said, noting that police told her at a South Huron police services board meeting that police never hear about bullying. Reaburn said gossip and rumours are prevalent at South Huron, with probably more girls than boys taking part. He said exclusion is another issue, but there aren't that many fights at the school. When fights are investigated, Reaburn said he fmds they usually have nothing to do with school and he's finding MSN has become a big problem, with students bullying with e- mail messages. And he added the most frus- trating aspect of dealing with the bullying issue is getting bystanders to tell staff there is a problem; often, they will pretend they didn't hear or see anything. Reaburn said he tries to shield bystanders from being identified when they give him information. Katie Pickering of the Exeter Youth Centre said she experi- enced bullying while at SHDHS but would never have told some- one about it. She said it's impor- tant to educate students about the role of the bystander. "We have the power, not the bully." Baynham encouraged people to check out a youth -driven Web site called www.youthspark.ca, which has been in development for a couple of years. SHDHS's next public forum will be held March 24 at 7 p.m. in the school library. The topic will be "The Internet" and will include a guest speaker from The London Free Press who entered a chat room pretending to be a 13 -year- old girl. The forum will deal with the perils of the Internet, MSN and blogs. Swine Research Update hosts packed house Continued from front page disposal method for sheep, goats, swine, cat- tle or horses. As part of the current regulato- ry review, however, cremation may be included as an accepted disposal method for all livestock, provided that it does not have an adverse effect on the environment." Van Heyst then detailed a study done which compared the environmental effect two dif- ferent types of cremation units would have. Testing was done on emissions of acid gases, metals, particulate matter, oxides of nitro- gen, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide and other compounds. Van Heyst said it has to be determined whether on-site cremation is worth it. Both models tested, the Eco Waste Solutions CleanAire and the Burn -Easy Model 37-1 performed better than units in the UK, although that may be because the UK units were up to five years old. As the units age, they give off more emissions like carbon monoxide, Van Heyst explained. The Burn Easy unit showed higher concen- trations of nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide than the Eco Waste model. Dr. Jeff Gray of the the University of Guelph spoke on salmonella in swine production, noting the disease infects an estimated 1.4 million people in North American annually. He said the disease exists in people, animals, insects and the environment. "That's one of the problems with this organism," he said, noting salmonella invades the cells of a host and can remain there, turning the host into a carrier. To put the disease into perspective, Gray said there are 2,000 deaths in the U.S. annu- ally from salmonella, compared to 100-200 annually from E. coli. There are 2,400 differ- ent types of salmonella, with a newer, harder to treat type developing 10 years ago. He said contemporary salmonella can't be treated and has been identified in multiple animal species in North America. With heightened awareness of food safety, Gray said this is a good opportunity for Ontario to be an international leader in pork safety. He said the province has the scientific expertise to deal with the problem and thinks salmonella can be reduced to a level where it isn't a public threat. Also on the safety front, Dr. Don McDermid of Pfizer Animal Health spoke on the swine influenza virus, another serious problem. He said pigs are the only animal that can get both the human flu and the bird flu. He said this could lead to a new virus and create a flu pandemic in humans. A story from The Toronto Star in November said a pandemic could kill seven million peo- ple worldwide. Another speaker was Dr. Harold Gonyou of the Prairie Swine Centre in Saskatoon. He spoke on housing for gestating sows and about the advantages and disadvantages of keeping pigs in large or small groups. He said freedom of movement in animals reduces frustration, gives them control of their environment and improves their physi- cal condition. On the other hand, confine- ment can prevent bullying among sows. He also spoke of feeding and noted every sow should receive the same amount of feed. The traditional method of feeding, floor feeding, can lead to uneven feed consumption and feed related aggression. Gonyou suggested feeding stalls and electronic sow feeders to ensure equal feeding. In another study, Gonyou determined living in small pens creates aggression, while large pens create tolerance.