Irony of Chemicals: Friend and Foe Alike

[Guest guest]

As many of you know I have opinions. Usually against the

hegemony of industry secrets and supportive of our individual

right to know so we can take personal responsibility through

informed decisions. To make my point I often conclude my

articles with an ironic twist. Or at least that has been my intent,

occasionally successful.

But my attempts are feable compared to the recent, and

sobering, OpEd piece in the December 28, 2008, LA Times by Al

Meyerhoff. As his story - including the end note - dramatically

illustrates, irony can be ironic.

Excerpts from: " Chemicals: Our champions, our killers, " By Al

Meyerhoff

I have leukemia. Those must be among the most

frightening words in the English language...

...Leukemia was once a death sentence. No more.

Through a combination of chemotherapy and a stem cell

transplant, it now is actually curable. Sometimes.

It's a surreal experience, one day having dinner with

friends, the next in a hospital bed for Thanksgiving,

hoping to stay among the living. But that's where I am

writing this, while having some of the most toxic

chemicals known to man pumped into my bloodstream.

Voluntarily.

There is some irony to this. You see, I am an

environmental lawyer, and I have spent much of the last

25 years doing battle with the chemical companies,

including seeking to ban (sometimes successfully)

various toxic chemicals, some strikingly similar to those I

am now ingesting. Timing is everything...

...All in all, it's hard for me to feel warm and cuddly about

the chemical companies that have resisted reform for

decades. And yet here I sit (or lie), counting on them to

save me from leukemia. [end]

[LA Times note: Al Meyerhoff died Dec. 21, at age 61, of

complications from leukemia. He was a prominent Los

Angeles environmental and labor lawyer, and a former

director of the public health program of the Natural

Resources Defense Council. He was also a frequent

contributor to The Times' Op-Ed page.]

I've attached a PDF of the full article but not everyone will be able

to see it because this distribution list includes both individuals and

groups. For those who can't see the attachment you can read it

for yourself at:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-

meyerhoff28-2008dec28,0,2571030.story

or at any of the dozens of sites returned by a Google search.

Carl Grimes

Healthy Habitats LLC

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