Carol Singer writes:
>On Tue, 13 Dec 1994, Mike Machnik wrote:
>> I also found it interesting that several of the players' parents, as
>> well as Heather, said that they had headaches both nights after being
>> in the building and we could only come up with two things to explain
>> it: fumes from the Zamboni (I doubt it), or the intensely bright
>> lights that hang overhead.
>
>This isn't as bizarre as you might think.  There have been cases of
>poisonings in indoor ice arenas from carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide
>in the Zamboni exhausts ...
 
I apologize for not being clear on why I said "I doubt it"...the
Zamboni at UMass is apparently electric.
 
Several other people have written to say that they thought the Mullins
lights were bright, too.  The building is perhaps the same size inside
as the Conte Forum - in other words, larger than almost every college
rink in the country - but the lights are brighter and concentrated on
the ice surface and area immediately surrounding...it seems that
spectators in the lower levels have complained of this problem too
(and this is where the parents sat).
 
I took a walk out from the runway to the Merrimack bench right after
the 2nd MC-UMA game, to check the place out from that location...when
I looked up, they were almost blinding in their intensity.  This makes
me wonder if any other teams (or the UMA players themselves) have had
a problem.  I suppose it is possible although I haven't heard of it yet.
 
There are two banks of lights and all of both banks were on, but even
when they shut down about half of them a couple of minutes after I had
gone out to the bench, it was still brighter than most rinks I have
been to.
 
I don't know, maybe the place doubles as a huge tanning salon when
there is no hockey or hoop. :-)
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93