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