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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim McMannis who wrote (134842)	3/23/2001 5:35:52 PM
From: Windsock	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1571207

Jimbo - Re:"I'm sure you are aware that pressure treated lumber is high in arsenic content, too. Tear down that deck?" Wow, when did you start eating lumber. Arsenic is good for you, and there is only a 1 in a 100 chance that you will get cancer. Really neat stuff!! star-telegram.com Molly Ivins March 21, 2001 Meanwhile, in the rest of our notoriously a-historical country, we are being dragged backward toward the past at a truly impressive clip. President Let's-Bring-Back-1950s thinks the 1942 standard for arsenic in drinking water is plenty good enough for government work, and so has decided not to enforce the new standard that called for an 80 percent reduction in arsenic in drinking water. Arsenic causes cancer. This led to the fetching sight of Sen. Frank Murkowski of Alaska defending the right of mining companies to dump arsenic into the water table. Reminds me of the time a nominee to the Texas water pollution control board was trying to defend what a steel company was then dumping into the Houston Ship Channel. "Cyanide," he intoned, "is a scare word," to the mirth of those in attendance. And that's pretty much the reaction you touch off when you tell people, "Don't worry about the arsenic in your drinking water." While both the mining and the lumber industries use arsenic for commercial purposes, it also occurs naturally in drinking water, mostly in the West. According to the `Charlotte Observer,' in 1999, the National Academy of Sciences did a study concluding that the current standard for arsenic "could easily" result in a 1-in-100 cancer risk. Goody, only 1-in-100. How come we can't get odds like that in the state lottery? We note, as always, that the mining and lumber industries were particularly generous contributors to President Bush's campaign last year. In addition to this apparent yearning for the days of yesteryear, we also seem to be in some danger from what used to be called "historical revisionism" when it was done by the Soviets, who were fond of announcing things like, "The airplane was invented by Serge Novotny." When Bush decided to renege on his campaign promise to cut carbon dioxide emissions, first he claimed his original stand on carbon dioxide was "a mistake," then it was just a couple of words in a speech, then somebody looked it up. The news media used not to able to remember anything past last Tuesday, but they're down to three news cycles. In fact, Bush had made the promise a major campaign issue. Of course the real reason we won't clear up arsenic in the water supply or the carbon dioxide that is causing global warming is because it would cost money. Especially it would cost money to business interests that invested heavily in the Bush campaign. But we keep ignoring the question that is the insistent prod toward sensible government: "How much does it cost not to do it?"

To: Jim McMannis who wrote (134842)	3/24/2001 9:52:43 AM
From: Dan3	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1571207

Re: I'm sure you are aware that pressure treated lumber is high in arsenic content, too. Tear down that deck? And cars contain tanks full of poisonous gasoline. What does that have to do with what's permitted in drinking water? Dan PS - OTOH, if you've taken to gnawing on your deck to increase your daily intake of fiber, perhaps you have a point. May I suggest oat bran or beans instead? Depending on your deck, they'll be safer and possibly better tasting. :-)