Friday, January 10, 1997
UC Berkeley fraternity fire injures four
A candle may have ignited a fire at a University of
California-Berkeley fraternity house, injuring four people
Thursday.
Three residents of the Psi Upsilon fraternity house were treated
for smoke inhalation at Alta Bates Hospital and were later
released. A firefighter suffered a minor back injury.
It took firefighters about two hours to control the three-alarm
fire, which began on the second floor of the off-campus house.
Investigators said a fraternity member admitted accidentally
setting the blaze.
"He basically said he went to sleep with a lit candle and woke
up and the things around the candle were on fire," Berkeley Fire
Chief Gary Cates said.
There reportedly was no sprinkler system installed at the
two-story house. A city law, enacted after a 1990 Berkeley
fraternity fire killed three people, only requires indoor
sprinklers for Greek houses three stories or taller.
Damage to the house was estimated at $300,000 with an additional
$75,000 damage to contents, fire officials said.
SIDS reduced in babies who sleep with moms
IRVINE, Calif. — Babies who sleep with their mothers appear to
have a reduced risk of sudden infant death syndrome, a small
University of California, Irvine, study shows.
But study authors and outsiders said it’s too early to recommend
parents immediately adopt the practice. All stress more research is
needed.
Lead researcher Sarah Mosko, an associate professor of
neurology, as well as other experts, said the report was important
in examining new ways to prevent occurrence of the syndrome, called
SIDS.
According to the study appearing in the current issue of the
medical journal Sleep, the practice of bed-sharing may prevent long
episodes of deep sleep, known as "stage 3/4."
During this period, infants, particularly those 11 to 15 weeks
old, are most vulnerable to SIDS, which is believed to occur when
infants inexplicably stop breathing and die.
Although the cause of SIDS remains unknown, some scientists
believe it involves an inability of the brain to wake up the
sleeper when oxygen levels drop too low.
Marianne Willinger, a SIDS expert at the National Institute for
Child Health and Development, said more study was necessary to
assess the risk of a parent inadvertently turning and crushing the
infant. The study researchers said that never occurred among the 35
mothers they studied.
Willinger said the authors’ conclusion that sharing a bed may
guard against SIDS "may be a stretch" that would need to be
corroborated with further investigation.
"The bed-sharing environment has to have certain constraints,"
Willinger said.
She said previous studies have indicated that mothers who smoke
and share their bed with their infants appear to pass toxins to
their babies.
Nevertheless, Willinger praised the study as an "important
beginning for looking at infant sleep" and SIDS. She said
researchers at the institute planned to meet this week to review
the data.
Mosko said bed-sharing is more common in Latin America and some
Asian cultures where interdependence among children and parents is
more prevalent. In the United States and other Western
industrialized nations, the practice is less common because "we put
a premium on favoring immediately, or as soon as possible, the
independence of the infant."
Also, some religions discourage parents and children sharing a
bed, she said.
Of the 35 mother-infant pairs studied by Mosko and three
colleagues, 20 routinely shared a bed at least five nights a week,
while 15 shared beds less often.
Breast-feeding is thought to reduce SIDS risk while the
face-down position is known to increase it. Prone sleeping has lead
to a reduction in SIDS deaths nationally from 6,000 to about 4,200,
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in
Atlanta.
Compiled from Daily Bruin wire reports