High
Jamie Aslin, right, a fitness specialist at the Wellness Center (ESH-2), demonstrates the NuStep recumbent stepper, while Phyllis Webb of ESH-2 demonstrates how a wheelchair can be manuevered into place to use the Hoist multiple station resistance machine. The two machines are part of six new pieces of fitness equipment at the Wellness Center specially designed to accommodate the disabled and others who have mobility problems. Photo by LeRoy N. Sanchez, Public Affairs
Improvements make Wellness Center more accessible for the disabled and non-athletes
Laboratory workers who have a physical disability or impairment that limits their mobility but want to work out at the Wellness Center can now do so more effectively, thanks to the help of the Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO) and Johnson Controls Northern New Mexico.
People who use the center, located at Technical Area 3, have probably noticed that the men's and women's locker and shower rooms are being renovated to be handicap accessible. Sinks have been lowered, showers were installed and access ramps out of the locker rooms are being constructed to accommodate the disabled in case an emergency warrants evacuation, said Debbi Wersonick of OEO and the Lab's coordinator of Americans With Disabilities Act services.
All told, the six new pieces of fitness equipment and the renovations to the Wellness Center cost OEO about $90,000 in accommodation funds (see accompanying story).
The equipment is designed to accommodate people with upper and lower body physical limitations and people in wheelchairs, explained Phyllis Webb of the Wellness Center, which is part of Occupational Medicine (ESH-2).
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The new equipment includes a seated leg curl machine; a Stairmaster Gravitron more suited to people who have suffered or are recovering from an injury; two recumbent bicycles especially useful for people with multiple sclerosis or cerebral palsy; and a machine called a Hoist multiple-station resistance machine that can be modified to accommodate a person in a wheelchair. Webb said a person using a wheelchair can maneuver the chair into proper position to do upper back and shoulder exercises, rows, chest presses and other exercises that work the upper body. There's also a recumbent stepper with a chair that swivels, allowing a mobility impaired individual to transfer easily onto the exercise machine. Fitness specialist Jamie Aslin of the center said the machine has controls for setting resistance workout levels and can be used to work out the upper and lower body together or separately. The new fitness equipment also helps the Wellness Center meet federal Americans With Disabilities Act requirements, added Wersonick. "A lot of the impetus for this is over and over what we were hearing is 'I don't want to go to the Wellness Center because only athletes go there,' " said Webb. "We're trying to dispel that myth. The Wellness Center is for anyone trying to improve their health and fitness." More than 600 people on average use the Wellness Center daily, including members of the protective force and Los Alamos County Fire Department employees, who must meet certain physical fitness requirements as a condition of employment. Webb said the Wellness Center also will have new front doors installed that open automatically, also designed to accommodate the disabled. Webb is conducting a workshop on how to use the new fitness equipment at 11 a.m. May 22 at the Wellness Center. It is free and open to all Lab workers. --Steve Sandoval |
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Clearance Processing and PSAP offices are on the move
Due to the impending demolition of the Sherwood Building, adjacent to the Administration Building in Technical Area 3, the offices of Clearance Processing and the Personnel Security Assurance Program (PSAP) are moving. Both are part of Personnel Security (S-6).
As of Monday (May 14) both offices will be located on the second floor, west wing, of the Otowi Building, in the area previously occupied by the Lab's Payroll and Travel offices (BUS-1).
This week, the Clearance Processing Office will be open from 7:30 a.m. until noon. The office is closing early to facilitate the move. The office does not expect to be back at 100 percent until next Tuesday, May 15. It should be business as usual for employees with appointments on Monday, but clearance processing personnel warn that the office is likely to be chaotic; visitors should take care in watching our for tripping hazards.
The Badge Office, which is part of S-6, won't be moving.
For more information on the Clearance Processing and PSAP office moves, contact Tony Mondragon of S-6 at 7-1866.
--Kevin Roark
Asian Pacific Heritage Month events slated at Lab
"Americans of Asian Pacific Heritage: The Profile of Challenge," is the subject of a talk by Rutgers University professor Manoranjan Dutta at 10 a.m. next Tuesday in the Materials Science Laboratory Auditorium at Technical Area 3.
The talk is sponsored by the Lab's Asian American Diversity Working Group and the Diversity Office (DVO). The talk is free and open to University of California Lab employees, subcontract personnel, students and the public.
Dutta is professor of economics at the New Jersey university. He also is editor of the Journal of Asian Economics and president and chief executive officer of the American Committee on Asian Economic Studies.
May is Asian Pacific Heritage Month nationally and the working group plans other events centered around the observance, said Manvendra Dubey of Atmospheric and Climate Sciences (EES-8) and chairperson of the working group.
Dutta said that in March 1999, the country's Asian-Pacific American population was about 11 million, or 4 percent of the total population. But very early on in this country's immigration history, Asian Pacific immigrants came to the United States to work. They worked in construction, farming, railroad and gold mining jobs, according to Dutta.
Things changed however, when European immigrants began migrating to America, elbowing out Asian-Pacific immigrants working in a myriad of jobs, Dutta said. "Immigrants from Europe came here under historic circumstances of religious, political or economic persecutions and found a welcome home in this land, never exposed to exclusion acts," said Dutta. "Immigrants from Africa, of course, came as labor and remained slaves for years.
"Asian-Pacific Americans continue to share the experience of challenge. Even when one is a member of the cabinet, his fellow Americans question how he came to speak fluent English and succeed in his high office. Even when one is a member of the U. S. Senate, his patriotism is rudely questioned when he exercises his right to ask a probing question to a witness," Dutta continued.
"Much has been written about the high average family income of Asian-Pacific Americans and their challenge has been to show that their years of education in four year colleges and beyond remain far above average. They must be proud of being called upon to prove what they are making is what they should make. They must earn their place in their adopted homeland and they must be happy for being able to do that."
Another scheduled event for Asian Pacific Heritage Month at the Lab is the screening of the film, "We Served With Pride," a one-hour length documentary-feature film by Montgomery Hom about the Chinese American experience during World War II. The screening begins at 11 a.m., May 23 in the Jemez and Cochiti rooms of the J. Robert Oppenheimer Study Center and also is open to Lab workers and the public.
"The film was shown in Washington, D.C. on Veteran's Day . . . Five years in the making, the film provides a powerful and insightful first-hand look into the lives of Chinese American veterans who participated in major battles overseas, as well as Chinese American civilians who worked on the home-front, service organizations, and in defense work," said Dubey. "Their untold stories, interwoven with period re-creations, original news footage and rare photos, brings to the screen a visually moving portrait of the Chinese American veteran experience. The film is consonant with the role of APIs in national security and at [the Laboratory]."
--Steve Sandoval
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Discovery
of mercury in sink traps and drains
