Harvard silk-screening students are concerned that the poor ventilation is a hazard to health and a symptom of inadequate organization of Harvard graphics.
The hazard is caused by the solvents the students use to wash their screens, Keith Courtway '76 said yesterday. These solvents, in excessive quantities, cause "liver and health damage," he said.
Real Damage
Kathryn Miles, a Visual and Environmental Studies (VES) research fellow, suffered from a respiratory infection for two weeks last summer, after prolonged exposure to the solvent toluol. The solvent "did some real toxic damage," she said.
Courtway said he told an environmental inspector for the University about the hazard a few months ago, but the inspector seemed more concerned about the flammability of the solvents than about the health threat they posed.
Disunited Graphics
Peik Larsen, teaching fellow in VES, regards the ventilation problem as symptomatic of the disunited status of graphics at Harvard, Ideally, graphics--lithography, silk-screening, and etching--should be united under one professor and organized into a course, he said yesterday.
Larsen added that such a reorganization would coordinate decision making and priorities, as well as ensure a unified graphics budget and a strong faculty vote.
Steady Entrance
Alex Griswold '76, said yesterday that a graphics course and instructor would also facilitate the steady entrance of new students interested in the field.
A list of other proposals regarding possible improvements of VES were drawn up by a group of students yesterday. The list will submitted to the visiting committee, the VES department, and the Harvard administration by next week.
Robert G. Gardner, senior lecturer on Visual Studies and chairman of the VES department, said yesterday that as long as the VES budget is limited, there is no possibility of making the graphics appointment without "eliminating something else," Such a decision to trade, he added, has not been made.
Limited Budget
Gardner said he would report the poor ventilation conditions to the Buildings and Grounds department. The ventilation of buildings, he said, is not included in instructional budgets.
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