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Courier
July 14, 2005
pcc-courieronline.com
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Page 6
Vol, 92, Issue 1
They Want YOU
The military is after students’ personal information
Meningitis Vaccine
Advised for Students
Keith P. Lubow
Contributing Writer
The Pentagon announced last
month that it has contracted a private
marketing firm to maintain and mar
ket a database of students and other
potential military enlistees due to
dwindling military recruitment fig
ures. The announcement has sparked
fury among privacy and civil rights
advocates. c .... ■
The. Massachusetts based data¬
base marketing company BeNOW
will manage the Joint Advertising and
Market Research Recruiting
Database, which may include person
al information on high school stu¬
dents 16 and older, all current college
students, and even those who have,
asked to be removed from any future
recruitment lists. This database will
include social security numbers,
addresses, phone numbers, e ntail
addresses, ethnicities, and college
majors. It will be used to aid recruiters
in waging more precisely targeted
recruitment campaigns Sources for
the data include Department of
Motor Vehicles records and comnter
rial information brokers and vendors,
as well as existing military records.
The website for the Pentagon’s
Joint Advertising Research Studies
division, which manages recruiting
research and marketing for all four
branches of the military, describes the
database as “arguably the largest
repository of 16 to 25 year old youth
data in the country, containing rough
ly 30 million records." Officials from
the Department of Defense said that
the personal information collected
will be “restricted to those who
require the records in the performance
of their official duties” and will
remain confidential by the use pf
passwords that are changed periodi
cally. According to Master Sgt.
Ricliardson of the Pasadena Marines
recruiting office, this information will
be used to do background checks “to
ensure that you're not a terrorist."
“This is scary,” said PCX student
Nicole Miller, 20. “I don’t feel com
fortable with anyone having (hat
information about me, even my par
ents.”
According to the I, os Angeles
Times, the issue of the database has
emerged as the Army and, to a lesser
extent, the Marines struggle to meet
their recruitment goals. With the wars
in Afghanistan and Iraq making
deployment into a war zone a realistic
fear for both potential soldiers and
their parents. Pentagon officials have
said that the recruitment situation is
expected to worsen in 2006. The
Pentagon fears this “is not a short
term slump, but a long term crisis'
threatening. the viability of the all vol
unteer military.”
Although the public was
informed about the database on May
23 in a Federal Register notice, the
database had first been formed three
years earlier, the undersecretary of
defense, David Chu, told the New
York Times. This may be a violation
of the Privacy Act of 1974, which
requires government agencies to make
notice and accept comments from the
public before forming any new system
of records. Chu said that the depart
ment did not realize until May of
2004 that no privacy act notice had
yet been filed.
According to the Pentagon, slu
dents can choose to “opt out” of the
database so recruitment offices know
they do not want to be contacted. In
order to do this, they need to give
detailed information, w'hich will be
kept in a "suppression file.” . This
information will be compared with
the database to ensure that recruiters
will not contact those who opted out.
The database has drawn criti
cistn, most notably from a coalition of
eight privacy groups, the .American
Civil Liberties Union, and a group of
seven Democratic senators. These
groups claim that the hiring of a pri
vale firm is a way for the Pentagon to
side-step the Privacy Act, and it puts
(lie Sensitive information contained in
Military -
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Page 4
Beware:
Do You Know What
You’re Swimming In?
Chantal Mullins
Features Editor
The temperatures are rising and people are feeling hot, hot, hot. One
thing on everyone’s mind is a trip to the beach for some fun in the sun. One
may immediately envision blue skies, warm sand, and the crashing of
waves as they come crashing in. But before diving into that enticing water,
you may want to think about what, exactly, it is you’ll be swimming with.
Every year the news reports on high levels of bacteria, various spills
and other hazardous pollution contaminating beach water. Many people
have witnessed yellow tape and warning signs scattered across the beach.
This year, reports of bacteria began occurring in early May, before the real
beach season even started.
that lead into the ocean. Storm drains
are the biggest source of water pollution
and are often contaminated with motor
oil, animal waste, pesticides, yard waste
and trash that How
directly into beach water.
According to the organization’s
website, healthebay.org, the Beach
Report Card is based on levels of bacte¬
ria found that indicate pollution from
various sources, including fecal waste.
However, this test doesn’t measure trash
or toxins that can also be found on
Kate Murray
Editor-in-Chief
A new vaccine against the
disease meningococcal menin¬
gitis could prove to be a vital
item on transferring students'
to-do lists. According to the
American College Health
Association, the typical college
lifestyle, including irregular
sleep patterns, sharing of per¬
sonal items, and especially
crowded living situations - i.e.
dorms - significant^ increases
the risk of acquiring the disease.
“College students need to be
aware that this is a very serious
disease that can strike without
warning," said Dr. Ralph
Manchester, director of health
services at the University of
Rochester, “The only good
strategy to decrease their risk is
to get the vaccine before they
get into the high-risk period in
the first year, in a residence
hall.”
The meningococcal disease
is rare but potentially deadly.
According to the Centers for
Disease Control and
Prevention, it spreads quickly
within the body and can kill
within hours. It is spread from
person to person through
coughing, sneezing, kissing, or
sharing cigarettes and drinking
glasses.
Once the meningococcal
bacteria are transmitted, they
attach to the mucosal lining of
the nose and throat, and multi¬
ply, Serious damage can be
done if the bacteria penetrate
the membranes and get into the
bloodstream, where they can
affect the function of various
organs. Most commonly the
bacteria cause meningitis, an
inflammation of the mem¬
branes surrounding the brain
and spinal cord. If it is not
detected early on, meningitis
can lead to brain damage, hear¬
ing loss, seizures, limb amputa¬
tion or even death,
“This is a rapidly progressive
disease,” said Dr. Marjeanne
Collins, co-chair of ACHA’s
vaccine-preventable disease task
force. “One day a student will
be healthy and full of promise;
the next day, he can be dead.”
Symptoms of meningococ¬
cal disease include a high fever,
severe headache, sore neck,
nausea, vomiting, fatigue, con¬
fusion or a rash, Unfortunately,
these symptoms can easily be
mistaken for those of minor ill¬
nesses like the flu. To be safe,
visit your college health center if
you notice any of these symp¬
toms.
Although the Centers for
Disease Control have never rec¬
ommended that youths be vac¬
cinated to protect against
meningococcal disease, the
introduction of a longer-lasting
vaccine, Menactra, has changed
things. Menactra protects
against the disease for at least
eight years; however, it could
cost anywhere from $70 to $100
at a doctor’s office, which might
be a bit pricey for the average
student. If this is the case, the
CDC recommends using the
older vaccine, Menomune,
which requires a booster every
three to five years.
Getting vaccinated is a small
price to pay for saving your own
life. For more information on
the disease and its effect on col¬
lege students, please visit the
ACHA’s meningitis website:
www.acha.org/ projects pro-
grarns/ meningitis/index. cfm.
Illustration by William Hallstrom/Couricr
The Los Angeles Times’ beach report assigns letter grades to California beaches
based on local levels of bacterial contamination.
Heal the Bay is an organization that fights to keep our beaches clean.
Its members take on polluteis and learn everything they can about beach
water to inform the public about what’s in the water. They monitor beach
water during both wet weather and dry weather finding that higher bacte¬
ria levels can be found in the wet season.
In May Heal the Bay put out its annual Beach Report Card. Making
the top 10 “beach bummers” were four Los Angeles County beaches. They
were Cabrillo Beach, Avalon Beach on Catalina Island, Redondo
Municipal Pier and Paradise Cove. The “beach bummers” were locations
that had the worst dry weather water quality.
The group attributes die poor water quality to the heavy rainfall earli
er this year. The rain causes polluted runoff to whirl through storm drains
beaches.
The website offers diis recommendation: beach users should “never
swim within 100 yards of any flowing storm drain, or in any coastal water
during a rainstorm, for at least three days after a storm has ended.”
The pollution not only causes unpleasant thoughts and sights con
corning beach water: it can also be hazardous to one’s health. According to
the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s website, epa.gov, the most
common illness attributed to bacteria in beach water is stomach flu. Other
common illnesses include eye, ear, nose, and throat infections. Fortunately,
these illnesses are usually treatable and short lasting. However, in extreme
ly polluted water swimmers can be endangered by much more serious ill
nesses such as dysentery, hepatitis, cholera and typhoid fever.
The most common way to become infected is by swallowing water or
simply touching contaminated water. Open wounds exposed to polluted
water can also cause illnesses.
The ultimate way to stay safe is to check if the beach you're about to
surf the waves on is monitored and if any advisories are posted.
Many people have felt the tickle of various papers and other trash
while swimming in the ocean. Everyone can engage in keeping beaches
cleaner by picking up trash. Littering accounts for a large part of pollution
and is something that can easily be prevented.
So before leaping into the ocean, take into account what, other than
people, will be keeping you company in the water.
William Halstrom/Courier
Family with Roots at PCC
Donates Aloe Tree to Garden
Chantal Mullins
Features Editor
Many people have probably
passed by the cactus/rock garden
without giving it a second glance.
Students might not even be aware
that PCC has a cactus garden. In
fact, an aloe tree growing in the gat
den has a story behind it, symboliz¬
ing a tale of hope and the true spirit
behind PCC.
The story began in the 1950s
when a poor orphan farmer from
Thailand came to California to pur¬
suing the American dream.
Zhalertnwudh Thongthiraj settled
here and enrolled at PCC. The cant
pus provided a sense of warmth,
despite his fear as a new immigrant.
Thongthiraj completed his associate
degree in 1965 and went on to USC
to complete a doctorate in public
health administration.
Susie Ling, an associate professor
in the social sciences division, said
Thongthiraj believes in the dream
laid out in the Declaration of
Independence and fought for in
American Revolution. She described
him as “a man who saw life in its
many angles and [was able to]
achieve more than just one goal in
life.”
Thongthiraj later married and
had six daughters, who were encour¬
aged to follow their own individual
dreams while working together as a
family team.
One daughter, Arree, is the artist
in the family. She said that her father
"encouraged me to paint figures
from Thai myths right on our living
room wall.” She described PCC as a
Cactus
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