Jan 09, 1998

International Telecom

International Telecom, a Seattle-based discount telecommunications company, has expanded its European network by implementing a high-capacity digital switch in London. The London switch is the first step in International Telecom's move to provide more economical services throughout the region. International Telecom serves 160,000 customers in 225 countries. Primary services include Kallback, a call re-origination service, and Faxaway, an email-to-fax broadcast fax service.

Nth Dimension

Paul Kowalski has joined Nth Dimension Corp., a Bellevue-based online publisher of customer information services, as vice president of finance. Kowalski formerly served as chief financial officer for Orca Medical Systems, a developer of emergency room information systems. Nth Dimension publishes SharpShopper.com.

Windermere

Windermere Real Estate has added sales staff in three Seattle-area offices. Shane Ristine has joined the Lakeview office after working seven years as an airport planner. Susan Stern is the new hire in the Magnolia office. She previously owned a real estate development and sales company in Reno, Nevada, for eight years. Shahla Tipton has joined Windermere's Woodinville office. Prior to that she worked one year with John L. Scott and four years at Microsoft.

Jan 08, 1998

International Telecom

international Telecom, a discount telecommunications company, has expanded its European network by implementing a high-capacity digital switch in London. The London switch is the first step in International Telecom's move to provide more economical services throughout the region. The London switch, a Northern Telecom DMS 250, will allow the company to originate and terminate traffic remotely, allowing significant cost reductions. International Telecom serves 160,000 customers in 225 countries. Primary services include Kallback, a call re-origination service, and Faxaway, an email-to-fax broadcast fax service.

Nth Dimension Corporation

Paul Kowalski has joined Nth Dimension Corporation, a Bellevue-based online publisher of customer information services, as vice president of finance. Kowalski's responsibilities will include overseeing administrative and financial operations, strategic business analysis and planning and investor relations. Kowalski formerly served as chief financial officer for Orca Medical Systems, a developer of emergency room information systems. Nth Dimension Corporation publishes SharpShopper.com, the only online consumer electronics shopping guide to help people research and locate the products that best meet their individual needs.

Jan 06, 1998

Hanford thyroid study enters analysis phase

SPOKANE (AP) -- A federal study to find out whether people exposed to radioactive iodine releases at the Hanford nuclear reservation have a higher incidence of thyroid disease has entered a new phase, an official said last week. The data-collection phase of the $18 million Hanford Thyroid Disease Study by the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center in Seattle ended in September, when the last clinic was held, project manager Peggy Adams Myers said. Now, data collected from medical exams and telephone questionnaires will be analyzed and sent to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Myers said. A draft report is expected by the end of September 1998, with final conclusions at the end of the year or early 1999. The results should give the study's 3,566 participants an answer to the question of whether they are at a greater-than-average risk of thyroid disease. "We will never be able to tell an individual, 'Your disease was or was not caused by Hanford emissions,' " Myers said. "But we will be able to tell people either they are, or are not, at a greater risk of thyroid disease. It's a peace-of-mind issue." Researchers used Washington state birth records to identify about 5,200 people born in seven counties near the federal Hanford reservation between 1940 and 1946. From 1943 until the mid-1970s, radioactive chemicals and gases were released -- accidentally and intentionally -- from reactors and plants that made uranium and plutonium for nuclear weapons. Radioactive iodine-131, a short-lived byproduct of those processes, attacks the thyroid gland. Children living near the reservation were exposed to iodine principally through milk from cows that ate contaminated grass, or through leafy vegetables from local gardens. The majority of the study participants, about 2,350, live in Washington state. The remainder now live in nearly all 50 states and outside the United States. Participants were asked to fill out questionnaires about their health, to undergo physical examinations by physicians who are thyroid experts and to submit to blood and thyroid ultrasound tests. Researchers then called the participants' mothers or other close relatives to try to determine their early eating habits -- especially the amounts of local milk and vegetables consumed in childhood, Myers said. The information was then plugged into a computer model developed by the Hanford Dose Reconstruction Study to come up with individual estimates of iodine doses based on where the participants lived, what they ate and other factors, she said. "If we find the most thyroid disease in people with higher doses, it is an indication that means the higher the dose, the more disease," she said. "If we find there is no correlation, then the dose doesn't have anything to do with thyroid disease." One of the difficulties was getting people to remember their daily lives 50 years ago, Myers said. "When you're asking someone's mom what their child ate as an infant, how much milk they drank ... it's hard to remember," Myers said. The study staff worked with a psychiatrist to help people remember, she said. Another difficulty was locating people who have moved. The researchers found about 95 percent of the 5,200 people they set out to locate, "which is astounding," Myers said. Of those, she said about 700 refused to participate in the study. "Some were anxious to find answers, some we had to talk into participating, and others didn't really feel they had been affected," Myers said. "It ran the whole gamut."

Dec 31, 1997

Foster Pepper & Shefelman

Robert Kaye has joined Foster Pepper & Shefelman as of counsel practicing corporate and real estate law in the firm's Bellevue office. Kaye has experience with agreements related to telecommunications and satellite video transmission, technology transfer, licensing, marketing and sales agreements. Richard Busch has also joined the firm's Bellevue office as of counsel practicing telecommunications and corporate law. Busch has over 19 years experience in the telecommunications industry, focusing on commercial, communications, and antitrust law. Andrew Ognall has joined the Portland office as an associate practicing corporate and real estate law. Karen O'Connor has joined the Portland office as an associate practicing employment and labor law litigation.