Brown and White Vol. 83 no. 31

              lehigh university brown and white 86&-0331 vol 83 - no 31 bethlehem pa friday february i i , i 972 bloch claims vw most unsafe car hairspray television hit m consumer lecture if laurel and hardy were to try and make the most unsafe car possible they would have come up with the volks wagen said byron bloch m his pre sentation on consumer advocacy at packard lab auditorium tuesday night the forum for visiting lectures com mittee sponsored the program which was attended by over 300 people who were held fascinated for about two and one half hours by bloch's stories on vw's mustang's hairspray ice cream electric cars bio medical cars television and ralph nader mr bloch has been involved m several law suits under the new product liability law ln connection with the vw this law states that the manufacturer can be held responsible for unreasonably dangerous design told bloch vw was being sued because of their ejector seats the front seats have been known to fly out of their tracks throwing the driver through the rear window when a simple rear end collision occurs vw was found guilty but all pre-1968 beatles still possess this amazing feature that could be remedied with supporting brackets for the seats which would cost the manu facturer about 1.04 per car " said bloch consumer m bad position even with this new " product liability law the consumer is still m a bad position when he tries to get damage payments through the courts and the manufacturer puts up a defense costing as much as 50,000 another feature of the vw that bloch mentioned was the instant inferno effect of the location of the gas tank in a col lision on the left front of the car the neck of the gas tank is ripped off and the gas sprayed towards the electrical box nearby and is ignited then burns its way through the cardboard glove compartment and into the passenger area the vw also has doors which fly open m the event of a side collision m all their pre-1965 models claimed bloch dangerous hair sprays another area which bloch is investigat ing was suggested to him by an ex-girl friend who commented that his hair was too messy he wound up investigating 81 brands of hair spray he reported that there was recently an article m the journal of the american medical assn which was titled cardiac toxicity of aerosol propellant the article said that the propellant m hair sprays freon from dv pont or genatron from allied chemical caused cardiac arrest when inhaled by laboratory mice bloch also told of an article m consumer bulletin magazine which gave warnings from the california medical assn concerning the use of aerosol hair spray spray only the minimum necessary direct as far away from eyes nose mouth and mucous membranes as pos sible hold your breath while spraying move to a different part of the room byron bloch a noted crusader m the ralph nader vein spoke before 300 people m packard lab auditor ium tuesday night attacking hairspray to volkswagons and complimenting the work done by nader valenzuela soys chile gov't is politically very mature by glen clark chile has had a stable government for decades and they are very mature politically speaking commented dr victor valenzuela m referring to his recent three-week visit to that south american country the american news media has led the public to draw unfair conclusions about chile he suggested valenzuela stated firmly that the socialist form of government m chile has been misrepresented as a new form of government according to him social ism has existed m chile for more than 50 years he noted that chile had social ized medicine m 1920 and shortly there after the education system became socialized during the last 50 years the chilean form of government has been labelled a democracy valenzuela said socialism is a good form of government for chile said valenzuela and this is evidenced by the fact that the chilean people have a great deal of confidence m their government according to val enzuela this confidence is based on the knowledge that the government is there dr victor valenzuela m an interview following his recent three-week visit to chile comments that the socialistic form of government m the country has been misrepresented as a new form of government by the american news media no one hurt in disturbance at carothers carothers dormitory was taken by surprise tuesday night when an unidentified woman m search of her old boyfriend discovered him m the room of one of the coeds according to eyewitness reports a scuffle developed between the woman who is not a lehigh student and her former boyfriend the campus police were called and succeeded m stopping any violence no one was injured although one coed was slapped while returning a comb dropped by the woman according to eyewitnesses the campus police took the involved parties to the bethlehem police depart ment the only charge pressed by the woman against her former boyfriend has since been dropped absence excuse poses cliffhanger i'm sqrry professor i won't be at your lecture today i just drove my car over a cliff . . . yes that's right over a cliff for richard altman 74 getting the professor to believe the ex cuse wasn't the problem getting his car out of the woods north of tau delta phi was altman attempted to park his late model mustang m the icy tau delta phi park ing lot shortly after noon wednesday according to altman he applied the brakes and the car skidded hopped the curb and precariously balanced itself between the parking lot and the lower end of a 15 foot embankment altman then got out of the car and attempted to push it back onto the parking lot his efforts caused the car to rock backward and then forward with him m front of it having scrambled from the car's path he watched it slide down the snowy hill narrowly missing two trees of substantial size the car came to rest with minor body damage when it struck a large rock having escaped injury altman sur veyed the situation from the parking lot saying this is a fine state of affairs talking incessantly to keep from cry ing he explained that the car was his only means of transportation and that he had not yet completed payment on it he also had a class to go to after deciding to forsake the pursuit of knowledge m favor of waiting for the tow truck altman pondered the likelihood of being assessed for the damage done to the grass and a few small trees a possibility suggested when he reported the mishap to buildings and grounds dorm student slashes wrists saturday night saturday night a student was treated at st luke's hospital after having slashed his wrists m his campus dormitory reported peter r shurtleff assistant dean of residence yesterday bethlehem police confirmed the report and said thej^are investigating the in cident the student was not admitted to the hospital and returned to campus the same night see valenzuela page 4 see status page 4