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TESTS SHOW Dioxin may be widespread Landing jobs easy for college grads dents living along the Love canal disâ€" covered a virtual ecological time bomb in their backyards. Between 1947 and 1952 the Hooker Chemical â€"Company had buried barâ€" reis of chemical wastes just below the surface of the canal, after which it sold the land to the local board of eduâ€" cation. By 1976 the steel drums in which the wastes had been stored began to become corroded, and the chemicals started seeping out. The reâ€" sults soon became apparent. Residents complained of high misâ€" carriage rates and birth defects. Chilâ€" dren and dogs were said to have been scorched as they played on the conâ€" taminated land. Some people refused to walk on their own lawns, claiming chemicals in the ground ate away the soles of their shoes. Residents reâ€" called neighbours who had suffered from rectal, breast or blood cancer. Backyard gardens and trees withered away. The thing that worried the residents most was the presence of dioxin in the soil, a substance 500 times as poisonâ€" ous as strychnine and a million times more carcinogenic (cancer causing) than saccharin. While the Love canal is believed to represent the most serious dioxin scare on this continent to date, reâ€" search being done at the University of Waterioo indicates the problem may be far more widespread than most According to some studies, dioxin is created any time chlorine and carbon are burned together. It could happen in the muffler of one‘s car, in a garâ€" bage incinerator, or even in the backâ€" yard barbecue. Recent studies by Dr. Frank Karaâ€" sek, UW chemistry professor, into fly ash that comes from municipal garâ€" bage incinerators indicates that no matter what sort of garbage is ment Report. The report assists students in seâ€" More than 91 percent of the 16,270 fullâ€"time students who sought emâ€" ployment after graduatâ€" ing from Ontario‘s comâ€" munity colleges last year had found jobs by midâ€"November. A further 16,570 graduates did not seek work or did not report their activiâ€" ties following graduaâ€" came homemakers or continued their studies. The facts are outlined in the Ministry of Colâ€" leges and Universities annual College of Apâ€" rlied arts and Technoâ€" ogy Graduate Place lecting college proâ€" grams and *making career choices â€" and shows total job place ment across the college mechanical, industrial, electrical and other technologies may soon experience rapid expanâ€" sion. Hospitality and fields relating to data processing have grown faster than anticipated and are expected to conâ€" tinue to provide many The report notes that there is widespread beâ€" lief that civil, electronic, opportunities for qualiâ€" fied graduates. Careers related to the developâ€" Dr. Karasek has been comparing fly ash from Canadian incinerators with fly ash from others in France, and has produced some frightening informaâ€" tion. He finds Canadian incinerators produce 200 times as much dioxin in the fly ash as do those in France. It is anyone‘s guess as to how much of this finds its way into the environment â€" into the soil, rivers and lakes, or the What Dr. Karasek is sure of is that whenever there is a municipal garâ€" bage burning operation â€" even when burning is used to generate electricity â€" there is the risk of having a lot of an extremely poisonous substance about. In order to determine the amounts of dioxin fly ash contains, Dr. Karasek extracts the organic compounds from the fly ash and analyzes these samples using a complex piece of equipment (costing about $100,000) in his lab A sample extract of the fly ash is inâ€" jected into the instrument, where its components are separated by a GC coâ€" lumn and identified by the mass specâ€" trometer. This information tells Dr. Karasek and his research assistants exactly what chemicals are there and how much of each. For many compounds, this isâ€"done automatically with the results in the form of a computer printout. Dr. Karasek is particularly interested in the dioxin isomers. â€" The GC/MS/computer he uses is one of several in Ontario. He feels that by studying the relationships of the various compounds in fly ash he should be able to find out why the dioxins form in the first place. This in turn could suggest some moâ€" difications to incinerators, he beâ€" lieves, so the burning of garbage could become a much cleaner, safer operaâ€" tion than is now the case. This is a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer/computer (GS/MS computer). â€" 8 Construction and certain manufacturing. occupaâ€" tions will need many trainees as a large porâ€" tion of the current work ment, production and consumption of energy are also expected to require increasing numbers of workers. force nears retirement, the report notes. Healthcare program and businessâ€"related programs such as acâ€" counting, managing, marketing, â€" advertising and word processing, the report suggests, should continue to show high placement rates. City taxes for the average Waterloo homeowner whose property is assessed at $5,500 would rise by $20.38. Waterloo residents can add to that : about $13 from a Waterloo regional government levy increase of just under 10 per cent, plus between $57 and $69 from a school board increase of almost 16 per cent. However, the jump is not as high as it could have been. Earlier this month, the city s preliminary budâ€" get called for a tax increase of 22.68 per cent, which could have meant an average increase of $38.90. The By Karla Wheeler Waterloo taxpayers could be facing a $100 jump in their tax bills this year following a decision by the city‘s finance committee Monday to increase taxes by 10.8 per cent. jumr in combined city, regional and school taxes would then have been as much as $120 for Waterloo residents. Mayor Marjorie Carroll has said the 22.68 per cent increase is unacceptable, and felt a maximum tarâ€" get of 15 per cent should be set. t The city‘s first budget cutting meeting held last Tuesday resulted in committee members slashing more than $440,000 from preliminary expenditures totalling $13 million, which reduced the proposed tax increase to 14.5 per cent. Carroll then set a new target of 10 per cent, which council came close to achieving during the fiveâ€"hour budget meeting Monday. Major cuts to the budget included a total of $2.3 million from the fire department budget. Aldermen limited salary increases to 10.5 per cent, the same Tax bite could be $100 more this year increase awarded other employees, and $11,500 was dropped for fire department uniforms as well as $10,000 for firehall maintenance and improvements. Other cuts included $11,000 from the road mainâ€" tenance budget, $58,000 for improvements to the parking lot at Waterloo Arena, $25,000 for street lights along Hallman Road, $25,000 for installation of planters and decorative lights along the west side of King Street, $2,000 from the $52,000 budget for the city‘s e¢onomic and development committee, and $1,000 from the Waterloo Chamber of Commerce‘s request for $32,000. Waterloo‘s contribution to local improvement proâ€" grams is up by more than $37,000 this year over the $220,000 spent last year. Major local improvement projects planned this year include: $33,650 for Central Street reconstrucâ€" tion, $30,800 for reconstruction of Roger Street, $25,600 to repave Dawson Street, and $20,900 for Anndale Road repaving. 1 The final tax increase of 10.8 per cent approved Monday would have been lower if aldermen had apâ€" proved a finance committee recommendation to pay for city hall improvements out of a reserve fund. However, council decided to pay half the $100,000 for such improvements out of taxes. At its next meeting Monday, council is expécted to ratify the budget and tax increase. _ Council was able to further cut the prmtsed tax increase Monday by passing a motion by Mayor Carâ€" roll that $257,000 for streets and sidewalks be debenâ€"