Greening the Jails
This letter reaches out from a faithful Journal reader. I also happen to be a prisoner.

I have used the knowledge I have gained from the Journal to introduce a recycling program that helps keep the local landfills from being over-burdened with the volume of garbage generated by the prison. It is an uphill battle, but the benefits to land and wildlife are worth the effort.

If anyone would like to contact me with ideas I can introduce -- or just to bless my world with caring support -- please don't hesitate to pick up a pen and write.

Sonny Wheat K36531
C4-250 P.O. Box 921
Imperial, CA 92251-0921

HDTV or Not HDTV?
HDTV technology ("HDTV: Who Needs It?" Summer '98 EIJ) is going to be the worst environmental problem of all because the towers are so tall and the power output is so great.

Legally and politically, HDTV is an enormous issue.

Arthur Firstenberg
Cellular Telephone Task Force
Brooklyn, NY

Fluorides vs. Sugar
Society could do better subtracting sugar than adding fluorides. That simple truth is lost in an era where three out of three dentists I've had insist that even adults should heavily treat their teeth with highly concentrated and expensive special fluoride gels before retiring each night -- in addition to drinking water and beverages of all sorts and using fluoridated toothpaste, of course.

Per capita consumption of sugar continues to soar as soft drinks are pushed in bigger and bigger gulps and every holiday season becomes a ritual of sugar, fat, and plastic.

I'm glad the Journal has the courage to say what no other environmental magazine does. Thanks again to Gar Smith and everyone working on the Journal and at Earth Island.

Jim Doherty
Oakland, CA

The Nazis Did It: So Do We
You report correctly about a proposed settlement (50 years after the fact) from MIT and Quaker Oats [for secretly feeding radioactive cereals to] unsuspecting retarded students ("Hot Oatmeal," The Eco-Mole, Summer '98 EIJ).

There is no penalty for non-compliance with federal laws concerning human experimentation. Only three states have laws regulating human experimentation -- New York, California, and Virginia.

The National Bioethics Advisory Commission has 17 medical and academic members. One is the chief business officer of a pharmaceutical company and the chair is president of Princeton (one of several universities that get millions in federal grants each year for human experimentation).

Nonconsenting human subjects are customarily designated "mentally ill" to protect the researchers. Mental patients and former mental patients are frequent choices for nonconsenting human medical experiments.

We have a vocal People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) but no PETHumans. Media outlets regularly report abuses to animals but they remain reluctant to publish any instance of human experimentation until 40 or 50 years have passed.

On December 18, 1990, James S. Benson, Deputy Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and Louis Sullivan, Secretary of Health and Human Services, exempted the Department of Defense (DoD) from "informed consent" requirements for Operation Desert Storm. During the Gulf War, untested antibiotics were administered to U.S. and British troops. Today, many of them suffer from Gulf War Syndrome. The DoD denies any knowledge of its source. These men and women were human guinea pigs.

Individual researchers are not held accountable for the irreparable harm they do. Severe penalties and individual responsibility for doctors and researchers are needed.

Roy Bercaw
Cambridge, MA

Thanks for Y2K Coverage
Thanks for including some good material about Y2K in your Fall '98 issue. We are currently putting together a special issue on crisis and preparedness and are glad that finally an environmental magazine has spoken up about it. I still hear from some local enviros that they believe Y2K to be a hoax.

Bob Banner
HopeDance Magazine
San Luis Obispo, CA

Panama Clarifications
Some clarifications on the brief item about our report on the history of U.S. chemical weapons tests in Panama ("Test Tube Republic," Around the World, Fall '98 EIJ). The way the brief is written leads readers to believe that testing is still going on in Panama. Tests on the island ended in late 1947.

The brief also says that tear gas was tested on human subjects in San Jose when tear gas was not tested there. Our report quoted some veterans about the possible testing of lewisite and nerve agents on San Jose, but this was not backed up with any documentary evidence. The Journal brief states flatly that lewisite and nerve agents were tested in San Jose.

We are trying to use the November 8 "60 Minutes" program on the contamination of Panama with chemical weapons to get some attention in the mainstream and activist media to get some movement from Washington, but it's going to be tough.

John Lindsay-Poland
Fellowship of Reconciliation
San Francisco, CA

Battery Scam Scam
Regarding your "Battery Scam" article (Fall '98): When a 1.5 volt battery measures 0.37V on a voltmeter, it is functionally dead.

In fact, when the output level of a 1.5V battery has decayed to 1.38V, most flashlights and other equipment operates poorly.

Grant S. Lyddon
Cyberspace

Editor's note: In other words, standard batteries are designed to become "non-functional" when they have lost as little as 8 percent of their rated power. Thanks, Grant, for pointing out yet another reason to avoid using nonrechargeable batteries.

Corrections & Further Notes:

• Research assistance for Chris Bryson's exposé of the Donora Fog ["A Secret History of America's Worst Air Pollution Disaster," Fall '98 EIJ] was provided by Ellie Rudolph.

• In the Summer '98 ReThink Paper project report, the reference to a meeting of the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry's Nonwood Plant Fiber Committee in October 1997 should have referred to the meeting of the Advertising Print and Production Association in April 1997. Update: According to the 1998 North American Pulp and Paper Factbook, annual U.S. consumption of pulp and paper products has reached 735 pounds per person!

• The excerpt from the Cincinnati Enquirer report on Chiquita Banana's environmental record in Central America ("Chiquita Peeled," Fall '98) included a quote from Tim Hermach that was obtained by the Campaign for Labor Rights and did not appear in the Enquirer's published version.