Express 614; Sweating It Out / All About Cleve

A health clinic and several dollars for treatments may not work. I know medical internationally acclaimed AIDS has put him once again at the center of day politics. Good evening I'm ginger Casey exposure to toxic chemicals is a growing public health concern whether it's drinking water contaminated by chemical solvents in Silicon Valley or farm workers exposed to pesticides in the fields. But where does a person turn for treatment when his or her health is endangered. As Steve Talbott found out some treatment programs offer more hype than healing the town of Warren Bill about 60 miles north of Sacramento looks innocent enough.

But look closer and you'll find an environmental disaster. The coppers come in with treatment. Has contaminated this area with Panta chloride Fino a chemical used to preserve wood and now known to cause cancer. The Environmental Protection Agency has placed the copper's company's site on the site where one of the worst toxic spots in the country. Norma Prince raised a family here on a small farm just south of the coppers. In 1983 she discovered her well was tainted and to feel you know it's a known fact that it affects your immune system so anything that you might have wrong with you that you're going to have wrong with you it's going to affect that part and cause it to appear sooner than it would have otherwise because it actually breaks down your immune system. Matter of fact there are a group called a chemically induced AIDS. We're not aware

of any symptoms from exposure to low levels period the low levels of people are having their well-water and from the animal studies that are acute and chronic illness. We would not expect any symptoms but Mrs. Kranz was convinced that the Penta chloroform was ruining her health causing everything from severe headaches to bone deterioration frustrated by local doctors who would not treat her. She finally went to the only clinic that claimed it could help. All right go ahead and take your time. The health med clinic in Sacramento claims its treatment program can reduce the levels of toxic chemicals in their patients and thereby improve their health. We decided we'd go seven of my family three daughters and three grandchildren myself. When was this. We're not Tober of 85. My over there for two weeks.

It was expensive but I think it was well worth places right here and you know the helpmate treatment begins with a battery of tests supposed to determine damage caused by chemicals. Tell me what you got next. Patients undergo a daily routine of supervised a robotic exercise combined with repeated sessions in a sauna. The program also includes supervised nutrition and special doses of oils and vitamins including niacin. During the clinic claims the vitamins exercise and sweating help eliminate chemicals stored in the body's fat tissue. Oh OK. I wish in this in the family and I was twittering and black material come out of the pores of my skin and then it hardened they're just hardened when they do and when I went into the shower and it was just thick on the shower floor you know there was a lot of

people coming over a body system. It's sounds very simplistic on the surface but it really is a very sequin shaly time sequenced series of operations it isn't something that a person could do on his own at home by doing a robot exercise and jumping into a sauna that might mobilize it might get rid of a little bit but it certainly would not do what we're doing here. I felt great when I came home. But when you come back to the same situation you know everything's bad again. Norma Prince and her family ran up a bill for more than $15000. Much of it paid by insurance companies. But state health officials say it was all money down the drain. I know of no medical value to it. None whatsoever. Dr. Goldman is investigating the contamination of Oroville residents and she's convinced that hell the mad is treating a problem that doesn't exist. There's no evidence that they really do create senior

levels pool or faculty shore and in fact the evidence and the medical costs Aquatica literature really doesn't seem right. We'll grab all the formal state health officials say there is no credible scientific evidence that the health med treatments actually work. They accuse health med practitioners of blatantly false advertising and of taking advantage of the fears of workers and the public about toxic chemicals. The health med treatment known as the Hubbard method was developed by the late L. Ron Hubbard the founder of the controversial Church of Scientology Hubbard was a science fiction writer who also wrote Dianetics a popular self-improvement book. Critics consider Hubbard's church to be a cult and Scientology has had repeated run ins with the federal government particularly the IRS. The man did come up with a program and I think it would be a travesty to change the name.

I think he should get credit for it. We have no ties at all to Scientology and there's nothing to hide it's the name of the treatment program and that's what we use. Dr. Ruth doesn't like to admit it but the time is between health med and Scientology are very close. The interviews that you go through before you start the program I was handed a piece of literature that was very suggestive of about Scientology. And I did notice in the front of it it did say one L written by Ron L Hubbard. So I asked around and they said that they had no connection with the Church of Scientology they used to but they don't now. But I do know that the two of the employees here are Scientologists. In fact the man who runs Health med is a Scientologist. Keith Miller Miller acknowledged to us that help is owned by a nonprofit organization whose president Jacques German is also a Scientologist. And there is also help from its close relationship with a small research foundation in Los Angeles.

You're speaking of the foundation for advancements in science and I'd write a show right. It's an independent. Not for profit research foundation that has done probably some of the more important work in the field of detoxification and this is quite a quite a busy functioning foundation in and of itself. And they publish some of your work. Yes they have. And in fact that is the organization which sponsored the original work that was done to prove the Hubbard technique they provided the funds for that study to be done. That's not a scientology operation that's an independent organization totally independent. But this supposedly independent foundation is actually controlled by Scientologists express obtained the original incorporation papers which state that the foundation's purpose is to research the advocacy of and promote the use of the works of L. Ron Hubbard.

Not surprisingly the foundation studies conclude that the Hubbard method is effective in treating chemical contamination. I think that they have made false statements as to what they know and what they found. Also some of the mark a little bit too perfect unlikely that you can get that perfect statistically. And so that always makes me wonder why Jim didn't count she was a member of the Church of Scientology's inner circle for many years. He says the Hubbard method has never been scientifically examined. It certainly takes some studies and Scientology has never been willing to do that. Have those studies done by anyone but Scientologists so you can get a double blind study done in the 970 used in count she was L. Ron Hubbard's medical aid Hubbard was obsessed at the time with the dangers of LSD. He he had something about LSD

being really bad and he wanted it out of people systems. So well he could have the person just you could have the person run you know a few miles you know a certain amount of time maybe a half hour or something like that and then take a lot of vitamins you know and I'm sure they'd sweat it out and lose a lot of weight and you know something would occur. And the next day I heard that what I had said had been told to Hubbard and he decided that that was the program. And so the Hubbard method was born. Suddenly Scientologists who had taken LSD or other drugs were told to start jogging and sweating and sauna. And these people all did feel better. Now I would not I would never go to say that they had gotten rid of the acid in their system or any of the other drugs. But they did feel better. And.

He would then take that and go. Well look at this. I'm still the most brilliant man in the world. It's part of his megalomania. Eventually Hubbard decided that all scientologists could benefit from his detox program. He called it the Purification Rundown and it is still being used by the Church of Scientology today. The program features exercise sauna nutrition and vitamins. When pressed health met director Keith Miller admitted to us that the Purification Rundown is exactly the same as health meds treatment for toxic chemicals. The difference is that the Purification Rundown brochure makes no medical claims only a vague claim of future spiritual improvement. And the people who took part of the Purification Rundown might be able to survive

atomic fallout. This may be the basis for a good science fiction story but it doesn't make for very good medical science. State health officials ridicule Hubbard's claims for niacin and insist there is no real evidence that the health treatment works. But that hasn't stopped the health than 300 people at an average cost of $3000 per person. Much of that has been paid for by insurance companies and workman's compensation. Health officials with the Board of Medical Quality Assurance but the investigation was closed in large part because there were no consumer complaints. Patients generally better after going through the program. Sure I would too. I do every day I'm sure. Why not go and spend twenty five hundred

dollars thirty five hundred dollars to go through the health med program just to make yourself feel better. Think about the other things someone could do for twenty five hundred thirty five hundred feel better. You could take a trip to Hawaii every day and you'd feel a lot better. I would say to any detractors or people that feel it's the placebo effect what have they got to offer these people who are chemically exposed. What have they got to offer. Nothing except taking them off work. That was Jim heck's problem. He quit his job at an electronics factory after becoming convinced that exposure to solvents and other chemicals was causing him severe persistent headaches. Weight loss and other health problems. Doctors who could find no traces of the chemicals in his blood told him his problems were psychological. He was desperate for a cure when he found health med but he was disappointed. I was on the program for eight weeks and I did not complete it. They still want me to

come back and finish the program. Jack is still trying to payoff the thirty five hundred dollar bill. He said the treatment seemed to help for a while but now he and others he knows who went to the Healthnet clinic are not feeling well. They would get sick again. And no I don't know. The reasons for that are that they all went down hill again a month or two months after they got off the program. While health and that hasn't cured him he's still ready to try almost any kind of treatment that might help him recover his health. And there are a growing number of people like you people been exposed to toxic chemicals and who in their fear and desperation are willing to seek help from any source that offers them however unproven the treatment might be. Two weeks ago we broadcast a documentary class struggle about education

in the California in this book history teachers wanted to make a point about minority dropout rate. If you take the incoming class of black students at Berkeley High School you know how many end up from the freshman class and I don't know how many hundreds there are but how many black males graduate from this institution. How many across that stage do you know how many. It's less than 30 folks in the last class. In fact that number is incorrect. The actual number of black male graduates last year was 97 or 41 percent of the black males were at her Brooklyn high school. Ten years ago from the

time in the White House seven months for the murders of George Moscone one of the leaders of the march that preceded the riots was a young man named John. Since then Jones has been busy channeling his anger in other directions most recently into developing a national memorial for the thousands of people who have died of AIDS. It is good for the loved ones that we have. And whenever we display the quilts we dedicate it to the memory of those who have gone. But we are here for the living Cleve Jones is fighting the AIDS epidemic the only way he knows how. With his skills of bringing people together and it should be no surprise he has another hit on his hands. As founder of the NAMES Project He's the creator of the AIDS quilt a gigantic tapestry of three by five foot panels each of which memorializes a life lost to a it's in

three years it has grown into an internationally recognized symbol of love and compassion as a street organizer and political dead fly. Jones isn't using a bullhorn to make his case against AIDS. He's found a far more powerful political. The weapon people's hearts broken something that it's made collaboratively out of different pieces of fabric and it's stitched together and then it's usually given as a get have a palate tradition for just such a perfect image to match with this horrible disease that nobody wanted to look at or talk about. People who know Jones are not surprised at the success of the quilt since arriving in the Castro in the mid 70s. He's been at the forefront of gay politics present at every major juncture in the community's history over the past 15 years. It's as if he seemed to have a knack for being in the right place at the right time just like Willie

Mays can hit a baseball out of the park with an extraordinary gift that few other people have. I think Cleve has an extraordinary gift for being able to tap into the need for inner expression that people may have around political events and leading the events in a way that are productive and substantive and and problem solving. Those gifts were not evident though in his hometown of Scottsdale Arizona. There his gayness made him different. He was known as a sissy a locker room punching bag. Someone to tease and torment. I got beat up a few times I got teased a lot. I still really. When I meet young people that are coming out now you know I really feel for them because I think that even with this horrible epidemic going the most torturous thing that people go through is just the coming out process trying to figure out who they are and explain it to the people in their family and their friends that's very painful. It was difficult

for you. Yeah. After graduating from high school Jones hitchhike to San Francisco and the Castro he found was far different than the Castro of today. It was before AIDS when sex was safe and the Castro District was a Mecca for the gay liberation movement. On a sunny afternoon this place would be just packed with people and on weekends at any excuse people would block the street and put their loudspeakers out in their windows. You know it was just wild became politically active in the gay movement working both against the system as a street activist and for it as a political aide his role model was Harvey Milk the city's first gay supervisor who became Jones's mentor and friend. He came from a position of strength and honesty always very clear and open about who and what he was. But reaching people on their level on the day to day issues that mattered in their lives and trying to make a difference. Did you want to be like him. Yes very much.

Life was good. The future seemed hopeful. And then on November 27 1978 Dan White walked into City Hall and. Mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk. For many gays it was the day the dream died and the rage was born. Cleve was there in City Hall the day Harvey was murdered and as the anger built in the aftermath of the assassinations and the gay community Clave was at the forefront of that in fact he bled the the throng that went down to City Hall on the night after the Dan White verdict and that of course ended up becoming the riot. It was called the white night riot ended protest of the light sentence Dan White received after the jury found him guilty of voluntary manslaughter rather than murder. In a quick succession of events Civic Center Plaza turned into a battleground. Supervisor Sylvan which didn't live to run I did lead the march to city hall. I committed no act of violence myself.

I can't say that I feel regret for what happened. I do feel immense gratitude that no one was killed but that was a very important time in our history. We were up against a wall and people felt so incredibly frustrated and abused. The reaction I think was inevitable. Angry. Yeah. Anger and fear and rage. Jones turned that rage into action. He bought a suit and tie and signed on as a political aide with Assemblyman Leo McCarthy and then Assemblyman EGNOS who became another mentor and a close friend. We share some things in common we're both idealists. We're both very idealistic We both enjoyed laughing. He loves to laugh. He's got a great sense of humor. How have you seen him change over the years. I've gotten older I've do that the tease.

He's not as pretty as used to people but he's a real driven man and he has to be very handsome he's still pretty good looking but he's getting old now. He's in his 50s lost his looks. Yeah they're going fast. Jones came back to San Francisco and found many of his friends getting sick from the disease being called the virus. Still the activist band of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation began fighting for more political and financial support to battle against AIDS. As more and more of the leadership within the community began to die Jones emerged as one of the new leaders he was telegenic and popular. But fame had its price. While none of his detractors are willing to publicly criticize him they will grumble that Jones's political agenda seemed to be based more on the need for self-promotion than human service. It's been said you're an opportunist. Yeah so what. I mean I

have critics but I know I do a good job and I guess that's what it comes back to. Am I doing it right. Am I hurting or am I helping. And I think I'm helping. While his public persona was growing Jones his personal life was starting to collapse around him. His social drinking bloomed into alcoholism. And then when it seemed things couldn't get any worse. Jones had himself tested for the AIDS virus. What was it like for you when you found out it tested positive. It was awful. I had assumed you know I told everybody I know I'm positive I know how the test is going to come out you know I'm totally prepared for this but you never are. You know you just never are. It was at that point it seemed everything and everyone dying around him. That Jones came up with a plan to keep on living. I am never going to be a retroviral I just I flunked biology in high school you know there is no way that I'm going to solve this thing and save my life with a microscope.

So you've got to feel that you're doing something. And with the quote we reveal that these are people these are human beings and they live next door to you or they were your children or they were your parents. I was never prepared for the beauty. I'm not an artist I'm a political hack you know I can't even so I can't even. This thing is so beautiful. It's just it's going to be remembered for generations as extraordinary or something like that. The Names Project has become a worldwide organization made up of thousands of volunteers. While Jones remains very publicly the director of the project it has become a well oiled machine capable of running without him. The quilt now has nine thousand panels. Too many to fit. At a recent display at San Francisco's Moscone Center but the quilt has also angered individuals within the gay community who have written to local

newspapers claiming Jones has forgotten his roots. You've been criticized by some people within the gay community of not having the quilt being gay enough that it should be by gays for gays. You know I find that kind of frustrating for all the White House lawn. What is the absolute most. How are your weapons. Just put them up for trouble. What scares you Clee. Well I'm scared of dying I'm scared of it and that's about Arbet really scares fear right now. I don't want to get sick I don't want to die. I've seen what it does it's a horrible disease very painful and you know I'm very

very frightened of it. There are many times in every day when I just feel like I'm falling off a skyscraper. But for the death around him Cleve Jones sometimes allows himself to look ahead to a future where he and his friends are very much alive. What do you want to be doing 10 years from now. What do you see yourself living. All of us who have joined together to make the code a reality. Doing so in the hopes that we will change the hearts and minds of the country and that in doing so we will save our lives. And I might get back into politics if this fall over. Let me go around the corner you know. Next we can express our

story about elderly people who can't find a place to spend their last days and the system that's struggling to find nursing home beds they can't afford. And we'll profile Allen Dunn deal is a band who spends his life talking about the jokes we tell each other and what they tell us about ourselves. That's all for tonight. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you again next week. Good night.