Birth Defects

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Electric Hearing

Today

COURT HOUSE - A public hearing has been scheduled in the Old Courthouse building here today (3 to 5 Wednesday) on Atlantic Electric’s proposed $86 million

increase. « The last-minute hearing was scheduled here following protests by Freeholder Jack Bittner that the Jersey Cape was the only county in the utility's service area where a public hearing on the proposed hike hadn’t been

scheduled.

The utility is seeking a 30 per cent rate increase, citing inflation, rising interest rates and increasing service demands

(including casino-related growth). The state Board of Public Utilities granted Atlantic Electric a 22.5 per cent in the fuel adjustment clause, which went into effect last December, to cover rising fuel costs. The county governing body is on record opposing the hike, and Freeholder Bittner is urging county residents to Join him in this afternoon’s hearing to help convince the BPU to deny

the increase.

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Hughes Eyes Pulling the Plug On FueTAdjustment Clause

WASHINGTON — Congressman Bill Hughes has asked the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to commence formal hearings on changes in the fuel adjustment clause that could lead to lower electric bills for consumers. Consumers are becoming increasingly angry and frustrated, Hughes said, because the fuel adjustment clause continues to raise their electric bills despite individual efforts to cut back on electricity use. THE EXISTING SYSTEM does not give, utilities enough incentive to cut fudl costs or operate more efficiently, the congressman continued, because they can

increases over a six month period. Hughes said this system avoids wild gyrations in the fuel adjustment clause but still does riot address the underlying problem of skyrocketing energy codts. To support his contehtion that utilities can operate more efficiently, Hughes cited recent efforts by N.J. Public Advocate Stanley Van, Ness to push Public Service Electric and Gas Co. into renegotiating a fuel contract that may save its customer^ up to $17 million a year. AS AN ALTERNATIVE to the fuel adjustment clause, Hughes favors a system which would allow utilities to pass on only 85 percent of their increased fuel costs, but

‘...it is only the consumer who feels the pinch of higher fuel costs, not the utilities.'

pass their entire increased fuel costs on to consumers on a dollar-for-dollar basis. “Under the present system,” Hughes said, "it is only the consumer who feels the pinch of higher fuel costs, not the utilities. As a result, utilities lack the strong financial incentive their customers now have to seek the most for each fuel dollar, eliminate waste and use energy as efficiently as possible, HUGHES MADE A SIMILAR suggestion two years ago, but the Board of Pifclic Utilities Instead adopted a leveliied fuel adjustment clause that averages price

also allow utilities to keep 15 percent of whatever savings they might realize if they succeed in lowering fuel coats. Hugher said that his proposal which is very similar to a system now in effect by Michigan, would give utilitiee an opportunity to profit by becoming more efficient, while at the same time lowering consumer utility bills. In a letter to Public Utilities Board Chairman George Barbour, Hughes asked for formal proceedings on his suggestion, as well as any other proposal that might reduce utility costs.

Yield LOWER TOWNSHIP - It began Monday a week ago with a single newspaper account, reporting on almost a halfdozen birth defects during the winter in the Cold Spring-North Cape May area of this municipality. Within a week, it has become a multi-media event encompassing the entire Jersey Cape and leading to an investigation by state and county health officials into more than 50 problem pregnancies or births over the past couple of years. It is a major news story touching on motherhood, the environment, the art of medicine and the science of statistics and probability. It is an emotional story. And mysterious. INITIAL REPORTS recounted the circumstances surrounding five mothers within a mile or two radius of the southern part of the township who gave birth to defective babies between Noveriiber and February. Abnormalities were reported with such strange sounding names as hydroencephalus, hyaline

Mystery membrane disease, pregnancy, had ex gastroschisis, spina bifida perienced miscarriages Premature births and and troubled births, stillboms occurred. (A couple of CAPE As the mothers began members, Michelle comparing notes, other Dooley, 465-4829. and strange occurrences were Lynne Blaker, 729-6926, Here what it says on the warning label of a container of Sevin garden dust. CAUTION: HARMFUL IF SWALLOWED. AVOID CONTACT WITH EYES, SKIN OR CLOTHING. Avoid breathing dust.... This product is highly tdxic to bees exposed to direct treatment or residues on crops. noted; Kittens stillborn or have-become a clearing grotesque, chickens dying. house for reports from a dog changing tern- women who experienced perament then dying similar difficulties while FOLLOW-UP NEWS living or vacationing in the accounts reported how Jersey Cape.) other mothers, as far away SPECULATION as to as Cape May Court House cause began to snowball, and beyond had ex- the chemical spray Sevin perienced troubled, (carbaryl) getting most of pregnancies or abnormal the blame The chemical is births around the same used to combat gypsy time. Members of a moths and was sprayed in countywide group called mid-May last year at Childbirth and Parent campgrounds in the area Education Association where the abnormalities became concerned since were first reported, some of their members Sevin is still being tested who pay especial attenUon by the federal government to their bodies during: (p ige 3 Please)

TB Rise in South Jersey ‘Surprising & Disturbing’

HAMMONTON - 39 more tuberculosis cases were discovered in South Jersey in 1979 than in the previous reporting period, although Cape May County figures remained constant.

counties.

"FOR THE FIRST time in memory,” the agency executive said, "the number of tuberculosis cases has decreased in the state as a whole but in-

and unexpected since, until this year, South Jersey tuberculosis rates had been falling in a steady manner "For the patient who develops tuberculosis, there is still nothing to

"For the first time in memory, the number of tuberculosis cases has decreased in the state as h whole but increased in the Southern New Jersey counties.”

according to the American Lung Assn, of Southern New Jersey. Clinically active cases reported to the New Jersey Department of Healthnumbered 164 in contrast to 125 cases in 1978, noted Walter Dickinson Jr., managing director of the Association. He termed the 31 percent South Jersey rise "surprising and disturbing.” "This was the first time in e decade that there has been a genuine increase in tuberculosis in South Jersey," Mr. Dickinson said. "Changes in reportirig procedures in 1975 caused an apparent minor increase, but the cases reported in 1979 are based on final laboratory findings and x-ray examinations which have been consistent procedures since 1976 in the se,ven South Jersey

creased in the southern New Jersey counties." The largest proportionate increase occurred in Atlantic, Ocean, and Salem Counties. In Atlantic County the 1979 total was 39 compared to 20 the previous year Ocean County’ jumped to 27 clinically active cases after reporting 15 in 1978. Salem County doubled its number of cases, going from 6 to 12 cases in 1979. Cape May Gloucester Camden and Cumberland Counties, the four other counties served by the regional lung association showed little change. In 1978, 84 tuberculosis cases were the combined total for the counties compared to 86 clinically active cases in the same areas in 1979. DICKINSON SAID that even these consistent figures were discouraging

worry about.* The tuberculosis dmgs are excellent and if the patient follows his doctor's instructions, the cure raid is '96 per cent,” he said According to Mr Dickinson, state healti. department officials are aware of the disease increase in South Jersey and that the 1980 monthly tabulations are being watched closely In addition, the. state health department' has begun more detailed irispections throughout the state of health facilities offering tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment. If the upward trend in cases continues into the summer months of 1980, special recommendations will be made at the annual fall South Jersey tuberculosis conference, Mr Dickinson concluded.