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CNN STUDENT NEWS For July 9, 2002

Aired July 09, 2002 - 04:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching CNN STUDENT NEWS seen in schools around the world because learning never stops and neither does the news.

SHELLEY WALCOTT, CO-HOST: Things are heating up for long distance giant WorldCom. Get the lowdown in our "Lead Story."

MICHAEL MCMANUS, CO-HOST: And stay tuned for "Chronicle," there you'll learn how to stay safe in the sand.

WALCOTT: And later in our "Health Report," find out why you may be at risk for diabetes.

MCMANUS: Then Student Bureau gives you the 411 on 911.

WALCOTT: Welcome to the show. I'm Shelley Walcott.

MCMANUS: And I'm Michael McManus.

They allegedly cooked the books and now some former WorldCom executives are feeling the heat up on Capitol Hill.

WALCOTT: Members of the House Financial Services Committee want to know who decided to conceal the fact that WorldCom was nearly $4 billion in the red. The House held hearings yesterday on WorldCom, and later today the Senate begins debate on a bill to promote corporate responsibility.

The WorldCom revelation has lead to thousands of layoffs at the nation's No. 2 long distance carrier. Scores of WorldCom investors have lost money. Lawmakers are even calling for prison time for those responsible. But so far, the people in charge when the company mishandled its accounts aren't talking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERNARD EBBERS, FORMER CEO, WORLDCOM: Although I would like more than you know to answer the questions that you and your colleagues have about WorldCom, I've been instructed by my council not to testify based on my Fifth Amendment constitutional rights. After careful consideration, I have decided to follow my council's instruction, even though I do not believe I have anything to hide in these or any other proceedings.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALCOTT: Corporate responsibility is also a priority at the White House. The president will address Wall Street later today on the issue, a topic he also addressed yesterday at a news conference.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Tomorrow in New York, I'll outline tough new laws and actions to punish abuses, restore investor confidence and protect the pensions of American workers. We have a duty to every worker, shareholder and investor in America to punish the guilty, to close loopholes and protect employee pensions, and we will.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALCOTT: WorldCom is not the only corporate giant under scrutiny. Maggie Lake takes a look at some of the cracks in the American business structure slowly coming to light.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAGGIE LAKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The bigger they are the harder they fall and the more we like to watch. Former Enron Chief Kenneth Lay, once a welcomed guest at the White House, under investigation for illegally inflating company profits.

KENNETH LAY, FORMER CHIEF, ENRON: Therefore, I must respectfully decline to answer, on Fifth Amendment grounds, all the questions of this committee and subcommittee.

LAKE: Telecom king and WorldCom founder Bernie Ebbers subject of a federal probe into $4 billion worth of accounting fraud.

MARTHA STEWART, MARTHA STEWART OMNIMEDIA COMPANY: To celebrate the launch of our everyday garden furniture collection, Kmart...

LAKE: The domestic diva Martha Stewart caught in the middle of an insider trading investigation.

In the last six months, reports of corporate mismanagement and faulty accounting have gone from isolated incidents to almost daily revelations...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you commit insider trading?

LAKE: ... plastered across the front page. It's been a tabloid dream.

But critics say this is not just about juicy headlines but proof that the American business model, held up as an example for the world, is nothing more than smoke and mirrors.

RICHARD SCHROTH, AUTHOR: We have an investor's catch 22. Every investor is being told you need to research the company that you're looking for and you need to understand who is behind it and what their numbers are. When you go to see it, the numbers don't mean anything because no one can stand behind the numbers to verify it.

LAKE: But there are also those who say a few bad apples should not represent the silent majority of honest U.S. companies.

PHILIP LIVINGSTON, FINANCIAL SERVICES INTERNATIONAL: There are 16,000 public companies out there. And by far, the vast 98 percent of them are doing the right things. And in fact in this environment, they're going above and beyond the call.

LAKE: So are regulators. In order to restore faith in the American system, Securities and Exchange Chairman Harvey Pitt has promised to clean house and throw offenders behind bars.

HARVEY PITT, SEC CHAIRMAN: When people lie, if they play games, if they take money that doesn't belong to them, they are going to go to jail. We're working very closely with the criminal authorities.

LAKE: But the track record of these watchdogs is woefully inadequate. Over the last year, at least seven companies under a cloud of financial controversy have cost investors billions of dollars. Among the fallen, Arthur Andersen, one of the very auditors entrusted with protecting and informing the investing public.

Clearly there's been a breakdown in ethics. But Yale professor Robert Shiller says there is also an important lesson in economics.

ROBERT SHILLER, YALE UNIVERSITY: The chain saw (ph) that has taken over the 1990s during the bubble period was motivated by some impressive academic theories that MBAs were getting in their classroom. If you really want to motivate managers right, you should motivate them to push the stock price up. That sounds very good. Unfortunately, we're discovering that it turns -- sometimes turns them into manipulators and show people rather than promoting fundamental value.

LAKE: It is a lesson that investors would be wise to heed.

(on camera): When WorldCom, Adelphia and Global Crossing were skyrocketing, no one cared how the executives ran the business. Now that people are losing money, the stock market is out and the blame game is in.

Maggie Lake, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: According to one study, more than half of U.S. residents live within 75 miles of a nuclear waste storage facility. The government says the current technology will safely shield us from this radioactive material for more than a hundred years. But nuclear waste is deadly for hundreds of thousands of years. So the current solution, build one facility and ship all current and future radioactive waste there for safe storage. This is the Yucca Mountain controversy facing the people of Nevada as CNN's John Vause explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Nevada desert, arid, desolate country, still radioactive after decades of nuclear testing. And it seems almost certain that once again this will be the place for another great American nuclear experiment. This could be the world's first centralized storage area for radioactive waste, the final resting place for all of this country's spent nuclear fuel, the biggest nuclear graveyard on the planet.

SCOTT NORTHARD, XCEL ENERGY: We think the preponderance of evidence does show that, in fact, Yucca Mountain is a suitable site for spent fuel disposal.

VAUSE: The U.S. Department of Energy wants to bury 77,000 tons of nuclear waste under Yucca Mountain, waste from 131 different sites in 39 states, which has slowly and steadily been building up for almost 50 years. Steel drums covered by titanium shields will hold the waste, buried in eight miles of tunnels, 1,000 feet under the mountain.

MAYOR KEVIN PHILLIPS, CALIENTE, NEVADA: It may be the very best place in our nation at this time to do this thing.

VAUSE: The Department of Energy is convinced that a combination of nature and high tech engineering will keep Yucca Mountain a stable, waterproof, airtight warehouse for the next 10,000 years. There are many who disagree.

GOV. KENNY GUINN, NEVADA: I think the preponderance of the science would show that at this point it hasn't been proven to be safe.

VAUSE: Environmentalists have found unusual allies in Nevada's governor and the mayor of Las Vegas.

MAYOR OSCAR GOODMAN, LAS VEGAS, NEVADA: If they want to say that's safe, they are nuts.

VAUSE: Yucca Mountain rises on the western edge of the nuclear testing range. Scientists estimate between 12 and 15 million years ago, continental plates collided. The volcanic activity which followed former the rugged, sharp peaks. There are layers of tightly packed granite like rock, old and young rock fused together. It all adds up, say supporters, to an ideal location to store radioactive waste.

MICHAEL VOGELE, CHIEF SCIENCE OFFICER, YUCCA MOUNTAIN: And so all the way down there you're going to see the same types of experimentation.

VAUSE: For the past 20 years, about twice as long as it took to put a man on the moon, the U.S. government has spent billions of dollars studying Yucca Mountain.

VOGELE: This is the tunnel up here.

VAUSE: In the past five years, digging a network of tunnels, conducting experiments, building computer models and trying to predict the future tens of thousands of years into the future.

VOGELE: We're doing tests on how the heat from the nuclear waste could affect the behavior of the rock. We're doing tests about how the chemistry of the rock and water in the tunnel would affect the behavior of some of the components that would be in that repository.

A 10,000 year period is what's really of interest to model.

VAUSE: Michael Vogele is the chief science officer for the Yucca Mountain project. These days, he's more tour guide and salesman, convincing reporters and Nevada residents that the project is safe, that the Department of Energy has it right. For a few days every month, the site is open to the public.

(on camera): And the importance of that is what?

VOGELE: It gives people an opportunity who want to see what's going on out here a chance to come out and talk to the scientists and see what this tunnel looks like.

VAUSE (voice-over): In the battle over Yucca, the P.R., it seems, is just as important as the science.

VOGELE: Every experiment we're doing here is to understand how to build a computer model which will allow us to predict the behavior of this rock with a repository in it over 10,000 years.

VAUSE: Scientists have built a smaller replica repository with heat from electricity instead of nuclear waste, running heaters for 36,000 hours at about 300 degrees Fahrenheit. And so far, no surprises. The mountain and the rock, they say, have reacted exactly as predicted. But there are still some concerns.

VOGELE: Well, I think the biggest danger would be that if were completely wrong on how much water could move through this mountain. I think that is the situation I'd be most worried about. We take the earthquakes into consideration in our models. We take the volcanism into consideration in our models and we do the best we can trying to take the movement of ground water into consideration. And I think that if there were something that could cause a significantly larger amount of water to move NEVILLE: rough the mountain, I think that could be of concern.

VAUSE: Scientists estimate that for the next 600 years, less than five millimeters of water will move through the mountain every year. But if they're wrong, more water could cause the manmade canisters holding the waste to corrode and break down faster than thought, allowing radioactive particles to wash into the water supply.

Yucca Mountain is about 90 miles from Las Vegas, the fastest growing city in the United States. And here, among the 1.4 million residents, there is overwhelming mistrust.

The director of Nevada's Nuclear Agency, Bob Loux.

BOB LOUX, NEVADA NUCLEAR AGENCY: I certainly think that they're very politically motivated. I think there's incredible political pressure from the nuclear industry, from the Congress, to get these things going, and I think that in many cases they're probably willing to say anything in order to try to get the project in a more favorable light.

VAUSE: The State of Nevada has been fighting the repository for years, and the battleground has been on the scientific front. It's a confusing, often heated argument with both sides accusing the other of blatant misrepresentation.

One example, the containers which will store the radioactive waste, made of Alloy 22, a new nickel and titanium based metal. The Department of Energy has faith the containers will stand the test of time.

(on camera): And do we know how long that would last before it's corroded?

VOGELE: The Alloy 22?

VAUSE: Yes.

VOGELE: The models show it would last tens of thousands of years.

LOUX: The Alloy 22, the material that will be used for the waste packages, scientists again, corrosion people working for us say no metal is going to survive more than 1,200 years underground at Yucca Mountain, they don't care what it is. It's a reducing, oxidizing environment because of lead and mercury and other heavy metals in the water at Yucca Mountain. It will chew up any sort of metal underground at Yucca Mountain.

VAUSE: There is also debate about the potential volcanic activity. In mid-June, the region was struck by a magnitude 4.4 earthquake. Scientists at Yucca Mountain, 12 miles from the tremor's epicenter, say they found no damage. Opponents say that is proof the region is unstable and even without an earthquake, they say the mountain itself will not offer complete protection from the radiation.

So what's the truth?

KEVIN CROWLEY, NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCE: There is no yes or no answer to that question.

VAUSE: Kevin Crowley is a scientist with the National Academy of Science in Washington, a think tank formed by Congress to give independent information to the government.

CROWLEY: All of the science is not in. There's more work that needs to be done.

VAUSE (on camera): So right now the best that can be said about Yucca Mountain is that it's potentially adequate?

CROWLEY: In my personal opinion, yes, it's potentially adequate. VAUSE: That's it?

CROWLEY: That's it at this point.

VAUSE (voice-over): Hardly a ringing endorsement, but enough, say supporters, to move this process to the next stage, to get congressional approval to just apply for a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

CROWLEY: So I think it's important to recognize that if Congress decides to move forward with Yucca Mountain, that does not mean that we will have a repository there. What it means is that the Department of Energy will be allowed and given the funding to develop a license application.

VAUSE: The Department of Energy must then prove overwhelmingly that the project is safe. If it does, the NRC will authorize construction. But there is a feeling in Nevada that the decision has already been made. No matter what is said or done, the repository will be given the go ahead. And for many here, there's good reason to doubt anything the federal government says when it comes to anything nuclear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two, one, zero time, area four.

VAUSE: Forty years ago, the people of this state were assured that above ground nuclear testing was safe, not only was it safe, but they were invited to sit on park benches to marvel at the blinding flash of light, the bright orange and red colors in the sky, the spectacular mushroom clouds.

GOODMAN: Now, they are paying those folks $50,000 for double mastectomies, for dying of horrible cancers.

VAUSE: Oscar Goodman is the mayor of Las Vegas. He is brash, outspoken, has even threatened to use his police force to arrest truck drivers carrying nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain. That scenario is unlikely, but the mayor knows how to get publicity.

GOODMAN: I don't believe Washington. I don't them one minute. They're trying to create a fraud upon Nevada and it's going to backfire because it's going to affect other parts of the country.

VAUSE: If Yucca Mountain is approved, it's unlikely to be operational before 2030, so right now Mayor Goodman and other Nevada politicians are trying to convince the rest of America it, too, is at risk.

GOODMAN: The nation's problem is how you get the junk out here. It has to travel through the entire United States. So it's a national problem.

VAUSE (on camera): One of the main arguments for Yucca Mountain is national security. U.S. officials say after September 11, it's crucial that the country's nuclear waste is kept in one safe and secure location. But opponents are also arguing terrorist threats, only they say the transportation of radioactive material, thousands of shipments by road and rail every year for 30 years, is far more dangerous than leaving it where it already is.

SEN. HARRY REID (D), NEVADA: The only way it can get here is through the highways and railways of this country. And remember, they're talking about hauling over 100,000 truckloads and over 20,000 train loads of this stuff. It goes through people's neighborhoods, through their school yards or by their school yards. Everything we do in America is going to be affected by this stuff.

VAUSE: Even the Department of Energy concedes there will inevitably be accidents during transportation. But it says the special lead lined canisters like the one seen here in this video have undergone rigorous testing, through fire and collisions, dropped from cranes.

Marvin Fertel represents the Nuclear Energy Institute, a Washington lobby group pushing hard for Yucca.

MARVIN FERTEL, NUCLEAR ENERGY INSTITUTE: There's been about 20,000 shipments of used nuclear fuel over in Europe and actually if you think about it, Europe has had terrorism for many, many years. Nobody has attacked their shipments because they're well protected and also it's very hard to damage it. I mean these are in very robust containers of steel and concrete a foot and a half to two feet thick. They're designed to withstand almost any kind of accident that you can foresee.

So, I mean, yes, the answer to your question is yes, we can protect it if we ship it.

VAUSE: In the United States, there have been 2,700 shipments of radioactive material over the past 30 years, all without public harm. Today, most of the nuclear waste is being stockpiled at the nuclear power plants, medical facilities and military bases. And if the anti- Yucca forces had their way, they'd leave it there until a better alternative can be found. And it could remain there safely, officials say, for the next hundred years, maybe longer. But when it comes to radioactive waste, which remains deadly for hundreds of thousands of years, a hundred or so years can pass very, very quickly. After all, the waste has already been piling up now for almost half a century.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: That was an interesting report. Tomorrow, our look at this continues. We hear from the opposition from Las Vegas, which sits southeast of the proposed storage site. Stick around, you don't want to miss that.

(ph), the first Wimbledon tennis tournament is played.

WALCOTT: If you're anything like me, you love the summer. But along with the sun, the season brings its own baggage, namely lots of safety warnings, how to prevent heat stroke, how to avoid bug bites. And if you're beach bound, how not to get bitten by sharks. But for those sunning on the sand, there may be one warning they're not getting.

Rhonda Rowland reports on a hidden danger lurking underfoot.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RHONDA ROWLAND, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Like many families, the Mullaney's enjoy summer vacations at the beach. And like most parents, Paul and Nancy are on high alert while their kids are in the water.

PAUL MULLANEY, FATHER: You let your guard down a little bit when they're out of the water.

ROWLAND: And why wouldn't you, what could go wrong when you're digging in the sand or building sand castles? Mark Mullaney found out something could go wrong, very wrong, even on dry land.

MARK MULLANEY, SAND TRAP VICTIM: Me and my brother were digging holes and we -- and I was getting buried feet first. And then I jumped in and did like going like butt first.

P. MULLANEY: I got up and just saw two legs out of the sand like that. The walls had collapsed in on him and that's all you saw were two legs. And in trying to dig him out by my hands, not knowing what to do or how to -- how to react to the situation, those legs slowly just kept slowing down.

ROWLAND: Lifeguards managed to dig Mark out by creating a vacuum with a nearby trash can. Mark had been buried for about 10 minutes, according to eyewitnesses. Doctors say irreversible brain damage can occur after just three to five minutes. It took the work of paramedics performing CPR and doctors at a Boston hospital before he was OK. That was three years ago.

NANCY MULLANEY, MOTHER: I just couldn't believe it could happen, basically, because they were just playing in the sand and you know it was right in front of us.

ROWLAND: Mark was the victim of what's called the sand trap or sand hole.

BRADLEY MARON, RESEARCHER: People who are in a recreational environment such as on the beach may be focusing their attention on other safety hazards, most prominently water safety and drowning, may be unaware of the hidden risks associated with digging holes on the beach.

ROWLAND: No one officially tracks sand hole incidents, but Bradley Maron gathered national media reports from the last five years and found an astonishing death rate of 61 percent for people trapped in sand. Compare this to highly publicized shark attacks where worldwide statistics indicate a 15 percent death rate during the last six years. Maron wants to see sand hole accidents tracked and suggests posting warning signs.

Additional things to keep in mind while heading to the beach: always choose a lifeguarded beach, stay away from holes deeper than your knees, call for emergency help immediately if someone gets trapped. And if someone is buried, for safety, keep other people away.

The Mullaney's still go to the beach, but...

M. MULLANEY: I don't dig (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and I don't get buried and don't jump into them (ph).

ROWLAND: Good advice for anyone on dry land.

Rhonda Rowland, CNN reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Exploring our world, here now is CNN STUDENT NEWS "Perspectives."

MCMANUS: The United Nations is a place of politics as well as diplomacy. Decisions made there affect the world, and it was for that reason young people from different countries assembled together at the U.N. They wanted the world's attention to bring issues affecting the young to center stage.

Kathy Nellis was there and filed this report on the Children's Forum.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(CHILDREN SINGING)

KATHY NELLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Children's Forum provides a voice for young people from around the globe and they have a lot to say.

LAUREN HANNANT, AGE 16, CANADA: When you are talking about different issues, you always invite the experts. When you talk about medicine and you invite doctors, when you talk about science you invite scientists and you talk about children and it's never been natural to invite kids. We're the experts on children's rights and we have to be involved.

RESHAM PATEL, AGE 16, UNITED STATES: Governments have to not only just protect children and do things for children but work with children to protect them.

(CHILDREN SINGING)

NELLIS: These young people have come from around the world to discuss the issues which they believe are most important for the health and welfare of children everywhere. So what's on their minds?

ABIGAIL FABRIGAS, AGE 16, PHILIPPINES: The street children -- street children. Many children are very visible in every street, especially in the Philippines and I know, of course, also here in America. In the USA it is very evident. And I think it is very important for children to have a good start, for them not to be exposed mostly in the streets wherein they would get mostly negative things.

KARLIS ROKIS, AGE 18 (ph), LATVIA: Well once they're (ph) thinking of drugs. These problems are connected each with one another because people start to use drugs and then (UNINTELLIGIBLE) money to buy the drugs he starts to do a crime.

NELLIS: Many of these delegates have seen the problems up close. Karlis, for example, was mugged by a junkie who broke his nose. Now he's started a youth organization to help poor children. And Wisdom Murowa, orphaned at 14, has become a child rights activist and works for AIDS education.

WISDOM MUROWA, AGE 17, MALAWI: I feel HIV/AIDS is a big issue because it's killing the multitude of people then any country, even international disaster.

RHYS CAMPBELL, AGE 17, JAMAICA: In the Caribbean we are very intense on fighting HIV/AIDS. The Caribbean has the second highest AIDS rate, second only to sub-Saharan, Africa. But you know, more afflicted countries you know in the Middle East, in the Eastern European countries, their focus is on exploitation, particularly in children, from violence, preventing children from taking part in armed forces.

NELLIS: The issues may seem overwhelming. They are serious things for children to be thinking about. But this gathering does more than pinpoint problems, it also spotlights solutions.

(on camera): The Children's Forum provides an opportunity for young people from around the world to share their hopes and dreams and to work for change.

HANNANT: I think the biggest thing is to believe in yourself as a child. Around the world the rights of children are being violated. Twenty-eight thousand children die each day and many of them from things that we prevent.

But a big issue also is that children around the world are not being listened to. Many children are told that because we're young we have no voice, no opinion and no rights, and that has to change. If anything's going to happen to improve the situation of children, children have to be involved. My call to you is to stand up for what you believe in, for what you are passionate and whether it's at home or in your school or in your community or in the world.

(APPLAUSE)

FABRIGAS: I think the world would be a better safe -- a better place and a safer place if only every child would have a chance to be heard. Who knows, that simple thing that a child might say could be the greatest solution among all problems.

(CHILDREN SINGING)

NELLIS (voice-over): Young voices raised in a chorus of concern, working for harmony around the world.

Kathy Nellis, CNN, The United Nations.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: As you just heard, health and welfare are top issues for many young people, and they'll also a recurring theme in our show today. Earlier in "Chronicle," we told you about the dangers of sand holes. Well time for another safety check, this time the health threat is Type 2 diabetes.

Christy Feig reports on why an increasing number of teens are at risk for this dangerous disease.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTY FEIG, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Suhey Dominguez was diagnosed with type II diabetes three years ago, she had the classic symptoms.

SUHEY DOMINGUEZ, DIABETES PATIENT: Numbness. I had to drink a lot of water. You felt always thirsty. Peed a lot.

FEIG: It's called adult onset diabetes, because it generally strikes people in their 40s and their 50s. But Suhey is just 18, and managing this disease as a teen is tough.

DOMINGUEZ: You go out, and you know, you can't eat what you want to eat. You go to the movies, you can't have a popcorn. It's very hard. You have to take your own rice crispy cake, you know, low fat.

FEIG: But she isn't alone. The American Diabetes Association says type II diabetes in teens is reaching epidemic proportions. The triggers? Being overweight and sedentary.

DR. ELDA ARCE: The kids are no longer playing. They are watching television, they're playing video games. They don't go out to play with their friends.

FEIG: If diabetes isn't managed, it's bad news for these kids down the road.

DR. CHRISTOPHER SAUCEK, AMERICAN DIABETES ASSOCIATION: Long-term complications include blindness, they include kidney failure, they include trouble with your feet, and potentially amputations. And the biggest long-term complication that really has not been adequately emphasized, I think, is heart disease.

FEIG: Doctors say the best way to reduce your teen's risk is exercise. And for the non-athletic teens, they recommend activity that is fun, not competitive.

In Washington, I'm Christy Feig.

(END VIDEOTAPE) WALCOTT: In today's show we talked a lot about staying out of harm's way. Now we turn our attention to the folks you call upon in times of trouble. They are emergency workers, and they need your help.

CNN's Student Bureau explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTINA BEHR, CNN STUDENT BUREAU (voice-over): Emergencies happen every single day. But imagine calling emergency services and they can't find you. Believe it or not, it's a problem EMS workers face with every 911 call.

Small or hidden house numbers, mismarked streets and traffic, all of these are problems that hinder the amount of time it takes emergency workers to get to a call.

JOANNE DANCE, BOSTON EMS: During the day, you can't find it. The people have painted over it with the same color as the house. You have to look at the mailbox, the front porch, the front door, the screen door. You've got to pretty much come up to a street and observe the whole house to try to find a house number somewhere. And half the time, the numbers aren't even there.

BEHR: We spent a day with Holland, the deputy superintendent of Boston Emergency Services, who pointed out the many problems he and others face when they go out on a call.

TIMOTHY HOLLAND, DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENT, BOSTON EMS: In terms of identification of the house, I mean you walk down the street, you're driving, so your emotion and you know a fixed number becomes kind of blurry. You have to really train your eye to focus on it and that could be really difficult. The same location where that red light is is where the number needs to be.

BEHR: Holland has worked for the Boston EMS for approximately 30 years and has adapted to the daily obstacles when he goes out on call.

HOLLAND: As you go down the road, the numbers become blocked by the polls up front. This one here, you don't have any number.

BEHR: Officials say on average 30 seconds are lost when emergency workers respond to a call and can't find the house number.

CHIEF RICHARD SERINO, BOSTON EMS: But it will save, you know, crucial minutes and seconds if people can, you know, help us by putting the right numbers on the house and putting -- you know making sure it's well lit.

DANCE: We wonder how people can be so lazy that they can't go out and buy two numbers or whatever numbers that they need to find their house.

BEHR (on camera): After visiting some Boston neighborhoods on our own, we discovered that many house numbers are no larger than the size of your thumb. But emergency workers say that's not big enough. And it may be even more of a problem at night.

HOLLAND: At night there's not enough contrast with that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

HOLLAND: Would you ever read the numbers on the mailboxes? Can you read that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

HOLLAND: No, I can't read that.

BEHR (voice-over): Since these problems occur every single day for emergency workers, should the Boston legislature step in and make an ordinance that requires a certain height and width regarding house numbers? We contacted the assistant secretary of the Boston Public Safety Department to ask these questions, but they canceled our interview and never returned our phone calls.

Still, there may be other ways to solve these problems.

SERINO: I think a lot of it is public education. I think we start, you know whether it be in the schools very young age when kids are a great way of getting messages to the home, whether it's through news stories such as this, whether it's through sending out education during, you know, EMS week or you know, fire prevention week.

LAUREN JONES, BOSTON RESIDENT: Yes, probably should be larger. Also, I don't think it's in the best location for someone to find it right away. I usually describe my house by the color for friends that are coming over.

COLIN LAPUYADE, BOSTON RESIDENT: I don't think it'd be a bad idea to have the city do something because it's really confusing when you're driving around looking for a certain house number and there's absolutely no way of finding it. You know neon signs might be...

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

LAPUYADE: ... would be stylish too.

BEHR: Emergency responders believe that having bigger house numbers will save them time which will inevitably save lives.

This is Kristina Behr, CNN Student Bureau, Boston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

"Where in the World" the driest state in the nation, the State Bird is the Mountain Bluebird, the nation's gaming capital? Can you name this state? Nevada, U.S.A.

MCMANUS: And that's the show for Tuesday. I'm Michael McManus.

WALCOTT: I'm Shelley Walcott. We'll catch you back here tomorrow. Bye-bye. MCMANUS: Bye-bye.

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