0161V,.' I.VV I aLncasteo^aHmnq Tm {lli7nnrtrKfSßilMiSi22V!MEs^ ♦lii iiib iiinii |j VOL 36 NO. 27 Grieving Young Farm Couple Hopes Their Experience Enlightens Other Families, Changes Milk House Detergent Labels Luke and Susan Howard with a portfolio of their son Matthew. Matthew died last month from accidently injesting dairy pipeline cleaner. Pittsburgh Pirates, PDPP Score With Dairy Promotion Program PITTSBURGH (Allegheny Co.) A milk promotion deal between the Pennsylvania Dairy Promotion Program (PDPP) and the Pittsburgh Pirates has gotten underway and is bringing public attention to both the dairy industry and the baseball organization’s shortstop. The PDPP is a non-profit gener ic dairy product promotion prog ram that is supported with funds from the Pennsylvania dairy farmers. On May 12 at Three Rivers Sta dium in Pittsburgh, the program INDEX See. A MMd Baparti ft Gauand Nm Sic. B WoMi’a Ncwi, PiMc Sites ft Matos Mvtct Sac. C Barium News ft OmMed 44t Sac. D Ckaßtei 14. Saa Stery tstei Pfefc A 3. Tobacco Plants Have A New Job Harboring Viruses VACAVILLE, Calif. —And you thought tobacco was made only for chewing and smoking. Just when some farmers are giv ing up on growing tobacco from a depressed national market, scien tists are making new use of the plant for harboring viruses. Thai’s right viruses. Accord ing to a story which recently appeared in “The Wall Street Jour nal,” a company called Biosource Four Sections got off to its start for the year with Jay Bell Growth Chart Day and Dairy Day at the Ballpark. The growth chart program fea tures a large poster of Jay Bell with a measurement gradient printed so youth can follow their own growth on the Bell poster. That, combined with Boyd Wolff, state secretary of agricul ture, throwing out the first ball to start the game provided a way to give the dairy message to the 12.000 youngsters who received growth charts and the more than 21.000 fans who attended the game. The Pittsburgh Pirates/PDPP dairy promotion campaign gets another chance to take its message of wholesomeness and growth to the youth and adults attending a baseball game when for the sixth year in a row they kick off June Dairy Month on June 4, again at Three Rivers Stadium. The state’s dairy industry will arrive in Pittsburgh and start fes tivities at 11 a.m. with a celebrity Genetics Corp. is spraying tobacco plants with a virus so the plant can manufacture a drug known as “Compound Q” (technical name, trichosanlhin). The drug is used on AIDS patients. Other drugs made by the plant include alpha amylase (a food enzyme to convert starch to sugars). Still other plants are creat ing human proteins, according to the newspaper. Biosource calls the technology Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 18, 1991 Editor:* Note: At 5 pjn. March 22, 1991, playing hide and seek around the bulk milk tank in the company of his parents, little Matth ew Howard, 17-month-old son of Luke and Susan Howard, Mt. Pleasant Mills, instinctive ly picked up a cup used to catch the drippings from the transfer tube on the milk house deter gent container and drank less than an ounce of the liquid soap. In less time than it takes to blink an eye, a chain of events was put into motion that six weeks later left the little toddler dying in the arms of his weeping parents. Matthew Howard died April 27,1991, and is buried in a church graveyard that can be seen from the family farm. This story of human love, almost unexpress able grief, and neighborly, church and clinical compassion, also projects a vivid warning: sodium hydroxide found in many milk house detergents is lye, not salt, as many farmers have perceived it to be. The chemical is often found in a form more concentrated than what is used to unclog drains. The danger warning on the label should be strictly heeded. Read, weep, and take the warning. EVERETT NEWSWANGER Managing Editor MOUNT PLEASANT MILLS (Snyder Coun ty)—“He was the perfect little boy, that’s for sure,” said Luke Howard affectionately. ‘That’s the Howard chin,” he said pointing to a snapshot of little Matthew Howard, age 17 months. “And of course he had my ears too. My dad confirmed that the first time he saw him after he was bom.” milking contest, followed by pro duct sampling, dairy entertainment and industry presentations. In the milking contest, particip ants are to be Bell and a dairy industry spokesperson, who are to compete against Stan Belinda, the Pirate’s relief pitcher. The cow is to be provided by the Marburger Farm Dairy of Evans City, in Butler County. Along with the milking contest, the several of the state’s dairy prin cesses are to perform skits carrying a message of the benefits of having dairy products as part of a diet. In addition, there is to be enter tainment for the youth from a ven triliquist dummy, Ms. Udderly. Also scheduled is a country western band, “Woodsmoke.” The annual event is sponsored by the Dairy Industry Association of western Pennsylvania, the Mid- East United Dairy Industry Asso ciation and Pennsylvania Dairy Promotion Program to recognize Pennsylvania’s outstanding dairy industry. "Gencware” a possible new source for chemicals used by the medicine and other industries. Basically, a “mosaic virus,” (the same one that threatens tobac co fields), containing the gene material, is sprayed onto the plant The material goes into the plant cell, and a few processes later, the proteins are genetically created inside the cell. The gene matter reproduces itself and migrates to What happened in the milk house that Friday evening when this young farm family was prepar ing to milk their 48 Holstein cows, has happened before. And because farming is a most hazardous occupation, accidents on the farm will happen again. But Luke and Susan Howard tell their story in hopes that out of their grief, some other farm family may be enlightened, and some additional warnings will be placed on the labels of milk house detergents. As soon as Matthew ingested the soap, Luke and Susan read the label and saw that the antidote (Turn to Pag* A4l) Attending Physican Thinks Farm Toddlers Need Protection Too Pittsburgh Pirate Shortstop Jay Bell and Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Boyd Wolff kick off dairy promo tion activities at Three Rivers Stadium. other cells, where the process begins again. Right now, the company has moved their operations to the actu al field to begin the process of obtaining the new chemicals from the plants. This may provide another way for tobacco farmers to possibly make better domestic use of their crops, according to experts. ‘ ‘The system will allow tobacco farmers to have wider market 60s Per Copy EVERETT NEWSWANGER Managing Editor DANVILLE (Montour Co.) —One of the attending physicans at the Geisinger Medical Cen ter who helped treat Matthew Howard said the ingestion of caustic alkali found in common milk house pipeline detergent is quite common in farm children and that as a pediatric intensive care spe cialist, these accidents are disheartening and dis turbing to treat medically. Dr. George Tenedios, MD, anesthesia, said these children can be devastated by the effects of ingesting catBWSgBIRs, ‘The accidental ingestion can lead to death as well as increased morbidity (Turn to Page A4l) opportunities since they will be able to contract their crops to com panies that use the (ieneware sys tem to make commercial products in tobacco plants,” said Robert L. Irwin, Biosource president, in the “Wall Street Journal.” If the test is successful, accord ing to the Journal, Biosource plans to continue using other material in similar tests and possibily build a processing plant in North Carolina to handle the work. 19.00 Per Year
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