Word: radial
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...state-by-state action has its limits in policing product safety. Says Texas Consumer Protection Director David Bragg: "The expert time, the tests and the lab procedures required are far too expensive for most states to take on. The Firestone 500 case [in which 7.5 million radial tires were recalled for defects] is an example of an action too big for state government to handle." Roberta Lynch, who helped lead an unsuccessful fight in the Illinois legislature for a workplace chemical warning regulation similar to the national rule canceled by OSHA, agrees that states can play only a selective role...
...neither metal nor spruce but laminated birch stuck together with glue. Everything is enormously outsize. At their thickest point the interior of the wings is 11 ft. high. A big man can walk out easily inside the wings to inspect the eight 28-cylinder Pratt & Whitney engines, the largest radial engines ever built. For that matter, it is possible to crawl up inside the rudder structure for 20 ft. or so. There is no crack or corrosion anywhere. The plane could...
...operation that was inspired by the accident, a procedure called radial keratotomy (a cut or slice into the cornea), the surgeon makes 16 or so incisions into the cornea. The cuts, varying in length and depth, extend from the outer edge of the cornea toward the center like spokes of a wheel. The internal eye pressure will stretch the nicked regions, thus flattening the center of the cornea...
Fyodorov and his colleagues have performed more than 2,000 "radial ks" with, they claim, most of the cases improving to at least 20/25 vision. So far, about 2,000 operations (average cost: $1,000) have been done in the U.S., but the procedure, which takes between 15 and 45 minutes and can be performed under local anesthesia, is so simple its popularity is increasing among doctors and patients alike. Some people, like pilots, policemen and firemen, are clamoring for the surgery to pass required visual tests. Others are seeking it for reasons of vanity...
Nonetheless, many ophthalmologists believe the enthusiasm is premature. Aside from Fyodorov's claims, which some Americans find suspect, there is little solid information on long-term benefits or problems. Though limited studies confirm that radial ks improve vision at least temporarily-although not to any great extent-many patients seem to be bothered by glare at night. Also, as much as half of the initial improvement vanishes within three months. Moreover, because the surgeon is cutting through almost nine-tenths of the cornea's thickness, there is the risk of perforation, an injury that could lead to blindness...