Opinions

Letters to the Editor: Lynbrook, East Rockaway

July 7-13, 2016

Posted

Poor Supreme Court decision

To the Editor:

The Supreme Court vs. Texas Abortion Law based its ruling on the assumption that the cost to upgrade the clinics would cause many clinics to close. How erroneous!

Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortions, is a mega-billion dollar industry, receiving millions of tax dollars, charges clients hundreds, and pays its CEO a half a million dollars annually.
Planned Parenthood is building a mega abortion clinic, costing millions, in Washington, D.C. right under the Supreme Court’s noses. Who is kidding whom? How much medical research did the Supreme Court do before rendering this decision?
Abortion is a little more than minor surgery. If the abortionist pierces the uterus, the surgeon — if he is a surgeon — has minutes to switch to an abdominal procedure. Are these clinics set up for that kind of emergency? What woman with half a brain would undergo a surgical procedure knowing that the medical staff is unqualified, the clinic ill-equipped and surgically unclean?
Is this how Planned Parenthood protects womens’ health? There are many resources to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
Keep in mind that Joan Rivers died in an outpatient clinic similar to the abortion clinics — and she only had a colonoscopy. When things went wrong, apparently they were ill equipped to save her.
Ladies, if you think the Supreme Court did you a favor, think again!

Eleanor Moffatt, R.N.
Lynbrook


Cleaning up the water supply

To the Editor:

The health and safety of our communities should be everyone’s top priority. Yet, until recently, health and environmental agencies apparently have not made the presence of lead in our water a priority. Recent  testing has turned up lead at alarming levels in many school districts.
Exposing children to lead in water at their schools is a huge problem, but what about in their homes? If the school water is contaminated, that is the same supply for local homes. Long Island CAWS (Clean Air Water Soil) is very concerned not only by the presence of lead in our schools, but also in our homes.
Lead is a highly toxic metal that can cause a range of health problems, especially in young children. When lead is absorbed into the body, it can cause damage to the brain and other vital organs, like the kidneys, nerves and blood. Lead may also cause behavioral problems, learning disabilities, seizures and, in extreme cases, death, according to the federal government.
Lead paints have been taken off the market since 1978. Public health laws regulate methods of handling lead paint in homes, including encapsulation, replacement, enclosure or removal. Yet, somehow, testing our water supply for lead has been haphazard, uncoordinated and ineffective.
Now, because of the health disaster in Flint, Mich., owing to lead in its water, our drinking-water supply is finally being taken seriously. The New York State Legislature recently passed legislation requiring school districts to test for lead in their drinking water. Twenty school districts on Long Island were reported to have excessive levels of lead in their water. We believe it’s even more widespread.
In a May 19 email to parents, the Bellmore School District reported that lead that exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended levels for lead at two drinking-water sources at Shore Road School. Those sources were taken immediately offline and replaced. However, since the Bellmore School District was not even included among the 20 school districts cited in the news, we question whether the problem is even more widespread than is being reported.
On June 29, CNN reported that more than 5,300 water systems in America violate the EPA’s lead and copper rule, a federal regulation in place to safeguard America’s drinking water from its aging infrastructure. According to CNN’s report, more than 18 million Americans live in communities where water utilities are in violation of the law, including water districts on Long Island.
Common violations include failure to properly test water for lead, failure to report contamination to residents and failure to treat water properly to avoid lead contamination.
Now is the time to act.


Claudia Borecky and David Denenberg
Directors,
Long Island Clean Air Water Soil