Eye Disease

CORRECT CHRISTMAS Dreaming of a "green" Christmas doesn't make you a Grinch. "It's as simple as, when you're setting your dining-room table, choosing beeswax candles because they're not made of petroleum; cloth napkins instead of paper," says environmentalist Annie Berthold-Bond. For gifts, "instead of something plastic that may break and be disposed of in a month, be more thoughtful. A book. A wooden toy. Natural-fiber clothing made of replenishable resources. " SOBERING UP Good news as we approach the holiday-driving season: The number of alcohol- related traffic deaths has declined steadily since 1982, even during holidays.

Every morning when Gwen Riling, coffee cup in hand, stands at her Lower Gwynedd kitchen window to gaze out at the finches landing on her backyard feeders, she is helping scientists figure out a puzzling mystery. Her task is to note how many finches she sees that have crusty eyes. The symptoms signal avian conjunctivitis - an eye disease that curiously has struck only the East Coast finches and is spreading. While the illness doesn't threaten the viability of the species - there are far too many house finches for that - it has provided biologists with an unprecedented opportunity to study how diseases evolve and spread through a wildlife population.

A new sickle-cell anemia treatment-and-research center, named for South Philadelphia operatic great Marian Anderson, will be dedicated on Jan. 20 at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children. The singer's nephew, James De Preist, in town to conduct the Philadelphia Orchestra, said his aunt had lent her name to the unit because of "the humanitarian status of the project, because she feels the center will be helpful to a lot of people, and because she hopes that her name may be catalytic in gaining support for it. " De Preist, a Central High grad, is spending Thanksgiving with Anderson at her Danbury, Conn.

As Larry Ruttenberg left the green after a round of golf in 1982, an errant ball struck his left eye. Ruttenberg had lost sight in his right eye when he was in his early 20s. The 1982 accident left him totally blind at age 68. He heard that the person whose shot hit him put down his clubs and never golfed again. But neither the accident nor his blindness kept Ruttenberg from the game. Last week, the Middle Atlantic Blind Golf Association (MABGA) held its second annual charity golf tournament at LuLu Country Club in North Hills.

KURT JENSEN REFUSED TO LOOK at his young life as a tragedy. And so, as the nurse slid an inch-long needle into his arm to begin the process of cleansing his blood, Jensen, a diabetic, spoke of how kidney dialysis was a way of buying time until he received a transplant. "For a diabetic, illness is the norm," he said evenly. "It sort of inverts the natural experience of life in which illness is the aberration and health is the norm. You're simultaneously sick and healthy all of the time.

Detroit's loss to the Twins aside, was there a sadder television sight this week than that of Raquel Welch, still a struggling actress at age 40-plus, watching a clip of herself on the "Today" show and breaking down? This really happened. It was Monday morning. The clip was from Welch's dismal made-for-TV disease movie, "Right to Die," which aired the same night, in which she mostly wore no makeup and did serious scenes. After Welch watched herself emote, she was temporarily incapable of chatter.

The University of Pennsylvania yesterday said it planned to use a $5 million gift to set up the first research center in the world devoted to studying the molecular causes and prevention of eye disease. The F.M. Kirby Foundation in Morristown, N.J., recently presented Penn's School of Medicine the gift to explore the treatment of the hereditary causes of blindness - including cataracts, glaucoma and retinitis pigmentosa, an inflammatory condition of the retina that affects about one in every 3,000 children and young adults in the United States.

WE FIGURE Phillies fans probably need a bit of good news after the weekend's disappointing losses to the Marlins. To that end, we take you back to Friday night when Ryan Howard hit a home run at the request of A.J. Moncman, a 7-year-old who is blind. It was Teacher Appreciation Night and A.J. was at the game because his teacher, Bethann Molinari - who he had nominated - was being honored in a pregame ceremony. A.J. attends Hopewell Elementary School in Upper Saucon Township and Molinari taught him how to read and write in Braille.

A nationwide program that offers free eye examinations and treatment to disadvantaged older people got under way yesterday in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. Under the program, called the National Eye Care Project, people 65 years or older who are not covered by Medicare or other medical insurance can be examined free of charge by ophthalmologists participating in the project. For patients who have insurance but cannot afford the cost of deductibles or co- payments, the ophthalmologists will accept the insurance coverage as payment in full.