The Fear Factor

The Fear Factor We are paying a high price for irrational fears Isn't it interesting how a culture that celebrates bravado can be so debilitated by fear? We live in a country that has given the rest of the world John Wayne, Mighty Mouse and Superwoman yet we remain myopically paralyzed when it comes to miniscule environmental, medical or dietary risks. Reflect for a moment on the hundreds of substances over our lifetime that were supposed to have caused cancer, but did not. It is a disappointing irony that while media has become continually more inept and scandal ridden, the majority of us still believe everything we hear and read. The millions spent on CortaSlim as a result of an aggressive advertising scam is evidence of how gullible a people we have become. Of course, we should have the individual freedom to spend our money however, we see fit, yet I believe responsible citizens must become astute enough to know where to draw the line when it comes to general funds and tax dollars. It is a national travesty that so many lifesaving programs fail to receive adequate funding while billions are squandered on environmental crusades that typically end belly-up. How quickly we forget high speed transit systems that were never rode, oil tanks that did not need decommissioning, and in my back yard a costly campaign to remove lead from soil without proof anyone is harmed by it. Irrational fear over ruled reason when the Department of Ecology informed school board members in Wenatchee, Washington that children were at risk for lead exposure. As a result, our tax dollars are being spent on a million dollar clean-up campaign to remove top soil from two grade schools constructed, (like the majority of our housing developments in the heart of our nation's apple growing region,) on an old orchard site. The Department of Ecology, a pawn of the lead abatement industry, has determined that traces of lead used in apple pesticides in the 1930's and 40's remain in the soil and could prove detrimental to the health of young children. What they have not determined is if the lead from orchard soil has ever been found in children, let alone harmed them. Obviously, the logical step prior to spending millions to tear up a playground would be to test to see if elevated levels of lead exist in children's blood. That was never an option. I have contacted the both the Department of Ecology and the National Lead Hotline and was told there are no conclusive studies on how much lead tainted soil a child would have to consume to be at risk, but that it would have to be a considerable quantity. Unless there is a new trend I am not aware of, I do not believe grade school children make it a practice of eating large amounts of dirt. If we expect schoolchildren to stay in their seats, raise their hands, and walk, not run in the halls, I imagine they could be taught to refrain from eating dirt on the playground. At the risk of sounding trite, what is wrong with a simple warning sign! A soil scientist I spoke with told me that the risk of lead exposure drops significantly if a barrier, like grass, plants or pavement, covers soil offering the school board another affordable 'rational' solution. It does make me wonder why common "sense" is being sacrificed for "cents", and who is the recipient? Of course the lead episode begs the question of how past generations of children in our region ever managed to turn into accomplished adults having been raised in or around orchards, not to mention the lead many of us came into contact with after biting down on fishing weights or consuming game birds with lead shot? All of this financial waste and folly boils down to fear, irrational fear, keenly leveraged by groups with special agendas. It is my hope that articles as if this will help to diffuse their power over that "still small voice within each one of us" called reason. When it comes to farming, the food we eat, our health and the environment& it is time to let reason reign.