Letters To The Editor

HEALTH AND SAFETY

YMCA pool checked and found safe

I was distressed to read of Michele Kiesz’s allegations (Letters, March 6) of wrongdoing on the part of Spokane Regional Health District during the E. coli 0157 outbreak at the YMCA.

When we were informed that the infected child attended the YMCA child care facility, we contacted the management and made initial inquiries concerning the toddlers and their activities. Answers to these questions confirmed that toddlers were not in the pool for any scheduled activities during the day. The infected children were only in the toddler room, so we did not find necessary to close the pool.

While there have been outbreaks of E. Coli 0157 associated with swimming in contaminated water, these cases have only occurred in lakes or untreated water. The one reported incident of transmission by swimming in a pool was in England, in a pool in which the levels of chlorine were inadequate. Records at the YMCA were clear: pool chlorine levels were at or above required levels and are checked and recorded every two hours.

The primary interest of the Spokane Regional Health District is the health of our community. At no time during the E.Coli investigation did we lose sight of this goal. We were confident about the pool from the start. In fact, as quoted in the Feb. 26 Spokesman-Review article, I was impressed with the YMCA procedures and record keeping. This added to the certainty with which we addressed the issue of closure of any part of the facility. Kim Marie Thorburn, M.D., M.P.H. health officer, Spokane Regional Health District

YMCA put safety first

In a March 6 letter to the editor, Michele Kiesz accused the YMCA and the health district of thinking money was worth more than our children’s lives.

The YMCA and the health district certainly do put public safety before monetary issues. Because of this concern for public safety, the health district and the YMCA immediately took steps to contain the bacteria within the toddler rooms. A letter was sent home with all children and phone calls were made to parents of toddlers not in attendance that day. If there was a chance of transmission of the bacteria through our pool, the health district would have issued instructions to close it and the YMCA would have complied immediately.

Inspections of the pool water and filtration systems were part of a massive gathering of information to try to assess the origin of the bacteria. While it is standard for the health district to check every aspect, district professionals from the beginning were quite confident of the YMCA’s clean bill of health. This confidence stemmed both from information gathered from the doctors and parents of infected children, and from the fact that toddlers do not use the pool during their daily activities in Y child care.

From the beginning, the YMCA followed health district recommendations to, where appropriate, get the news out about this incident in order to ensure public safety. We sent a news release to all major media in the area and opened our doors to reporters throughout the investigation. Rich Wallis, executive director YMCA of the Inland Northwest, Spokane

Y director deserves no criticism

Re: “YMCA withheld danger information” (Letters, March 6).

I am aghast at Michele Kiesz’s accusations that Rich Wallis or the YMCA would ever put even one child at risk for a few dollars. This is ridiculous and couldn’t be more wrong. I am equally frustrated with this newspaper for giving Kiesz a forum to unjustly accuse a man who has worked so hard for children, of putting them at risk.

I appreciate the need for a forum where even contrary voices can be heard. That is one of the roles of the press in our great country. I also expect your letters section to contain a wide range of ideas and opinions, not be a place where a decent man and a fine organization can be dragged through the mud by inflammatory rhetoric.

Please don’t allow your fine paper to be sucked into bashing folks who have dedicated their lives to children by people who know how to string words and phrases together that tug at our emotions: Sunday school, heartsick, children at risk, hide life-threatening situations. This is wonderful fictional writing that demands an emotional response. Does it belong on the letters page of a great newspaper? I think not. Art Crum Pullman

Only one sprinkler model in doubt

Recently, The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a potential blow to the fire protection industry in the form of a recall order for a particular type of fire suppression sprinkler.

That order was followed by a report on NBC’s “Dateline.” The validity of the claim is yet to be determined, but there are other points to consider.

The Omega sprinkler is only one of many models available, and the only one in question. Two other manufacturers make and market sprinklers that look very much like the Omega.

Do not confuse Reliable Automatic Sprinkler Co.’s ZX sprinklers or Grinnell Equipment Manufacturing’s Aquarius sprinklers with Central’s. They are not in question.

Sprinklers have proven to be more effective and reliable than any other form of interior fire protection. There has never been a fire-related death in a building fitted with a system properly designed for the occupancy and diligently maintained. Unlike the systems we see in Hollywood movies, each sprinkler operates independently from others; they do not all go off at once. This means water is applied to the fire area only.

Most fires in sprinkled buildings are controlled, and generally extinguished, by the flow of one or two sprinkler heads. The flow from one or two sprinklers is a fraction of the flow that a fire hose will deliver, once the fire department arrives. Fire, water and smoke damage in sprinkled buildings are usually so limited that business down time amounts to hours, maybe days, rather than weeks, months or permanently. Daniel V. Shier senior engineering technician, Spokane

Drivers, slow down - and live

I recently attended a funeral in Spokane. Afterward, everyone got into their vehicles and proceeded to the cemetery behind the hearse.

Assisting the funeral procession were patrol guides. They stop traffic at each intersection. When everyone makes it through, the patrol guide rushes to the next intersection, passing all the vehicles in the procession line at great speed.

Much to my surprise, a driver stopped at a stop sign didn’t have enough patience to wait and sped through the procession - missing the patrol guide by just inches. If their vehicles had collided, a serious accident would have happened because they were both going so fast.

My father is a mortician. I have seen the results of many tragic automobile accidents because of careless mistakes and bad decisions people make. Please have patience and take it slowly, because life really is too short. Debbie J. Kucklick St. John, Wash.

WASHINGTON STATE

Bill waters down tobacco sale checks

I was dismayed to hear that House Bill 1746, weakening the Minors’ Access to Tobacco Act, has again reared its ugly head. At a time when the deceptive advertising and underhanded practices of the tobacco industry have come to light, it infuriates me to see that some of our legislators are still willing to sell the health of our kids down the river.

This bill would make it easier for minors to buy cigarettes by essentially gutting Washington state’s successful compliance check program. It would also get retailers off the hook who sell cigarettes to minors by merely posting a few signs and an occasional “training” of employees how not to sell to minors. HB1746 would take the teeth right out of the laws that keep cigarettes out of the hands of young people.

Let’s be honest about the impact of this product: tobacco is highly addictive and deadly. The tobacco industry spends $6 billion every year on advertising, much of it targeted to kids, and every day 3,000 teenagers begin smoking in this country. One thousand of these teenagers will eventually die early from tobacco-related illnesses. Cancer, emphysema - everyone knows someone who is ill or who has died as a result of using tobacco.

I urge everyone to call their legislators and urge them to stand up to the tobacco industry and speak out against HB1746. John A. Moyer, M.D. Spokane

Use closed bases as prisons

We need more prisons for our criminals. We have closed military bases, which have kitchens and beds and are fenced with cyclone fencing. Why can’t we use these closed military bases as low-security prison facilities? R.K. Merrick Loon Lake

THE ENVIRONMENT

No chain saw rule counterproductive

I disagree with environmentalists about trail cleaning methods. The Forest Service and volunteers should use chain saws to clean and maintain back country trails.

Let’s be practical. For years, chain saw use to clear and maintain wilderness areas has been banned. Many trails have fallen to disuse, with only the main trails kept open. Why? Because a federal law prohibits using mechanical equipment.

Maybe it was OK then, but as the population keeps increasing, all trails - including those that have fallen into disuse - should be maintained by the easiest means available, which is mechanized equipment.

But, according to environmentalists, we should go someplace else if certain areas are closed due to fallen trees.

The resulting situation is one of more and more people using fewer trails more intensively each year, and having greater impact on the wilderness those maintained trails cut through. This doesn’t make sense because having more easily accessed and maintained trails will spread people out over greater areas, reducing impact.

Handsaws are now obsolete and not the answer. Public lands are supported by all taxpayers and should not be ruled by special interest groups for their selfish ideals. These lands are public domain for anyone who wants to hike or ride horseback to enjoy them.

The federal law prohibiting mechanized equipment should be repealed and the Forest Service should not have to prepare an environmental analysis just to clear and maintain trials. Viola G. Garrison Colbert

Wild lands about to be sacrificed

Congress aims to spoil millions of acres of national forest and wilderness lands.

The American Recreation Coalition - with members like Exxon, the National Hot Rod Association and American Council of Snowmobile Associations - submitted a statement to politicians that urges turning wild lands into motorized developments, stating that wilderness is not a “free good.” First step: a fee program that would charge you to visit federal parks, even for hiking. A hearing scheduled today of the House Subcommittee on National Parks and Public Lands will consider making this law.

It gets worse. Sen. Larry Craig is drawing up Bill 1489, the Outfitter Policy Act, and Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, the Omnibus Recreation Bill. These will transform our quiet, wildlife-rich havens, where a person might take their family and rejuvenate themselves, into profit-oriented businesses full of intensive-use machines, noise and pollution.

Years ago, Congress moved to eliminate funding for wild lands. Now, they demand these places earn their keep, at any cost. Out of 100 million wilderness acres nationwide, only 20 million would be kept from road, hotel or concession development. Mammals like elk and moose will disappear, lacking necessary biosystems.

To oppose these actions, contact Rep. James Hansen, chairman of the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Lands, 814 O’Neill House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515; Michael Dombeck, U.S. Forest Service Chief, 14th & Independence Ave. SW, Washington, DC 20250 (phone, 202-205-1661); and Sen. Ron Wyden, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC 20510 (phone, 202-224-5244).

These are our natural lands, not a commodity for their profit. Patrick M. Murphy Elk

OTHER TOPICS

Debate should involve all information

Russ Moritz (Street Level, March 8), in contrasting faith and science in the debate on creationism, has completely missed the central point of this conflict.

It is not faith versus science. It is fact versus fact, the facts that support evolution versus the facts that support creation.

Those who favor the conclusion of intelligent design have simply desired to enter their supporting evidence into the public courtroom of harsh, scientific scrutiny such that an opinion regarding our origins can be formed with all of the information available. We can only deduce that Moritz and others who deny this opportunity for the creationist’s evidence, do so because they presume there are no underlying facts supporting intelligent design. They expose an embarrassing prejudice against the creationist in thinking that faith alone must be the only underpinning of the creationist’s conclusion. Why else would Moritz waste his eloquence illuminating us on the incompatibility of faith with the methods of science, a fact no one disagrees with, unless he carried that prejudice already?

An objective, scientific debate on our origins must center on the larger body of relevant facts. Moritz would dismiss that opportunity with tiresome, irrelevant excuse about the “apples and oranges” incompatibility of faith and science. Jim F. Catlin Veradale

WEA gets comeuppance at last

Finally, unions are getting their just desserts. With the Washington Education Association being ordered to pay $430,000 in fines and refunds to its members, which it illegally used in various political activities, unions are getting the message that not everything is negotiable.

These Public Disclosure Commission actions have helped lay the foundation for campaign finance reform. Involvement in politics should be a matter of individual choice. The WEA clearly violated this separation by using members’ “community outreach” dues in contributing to various campaigns. Maybe now the WEA will get its own bit of political education. Steve Thosath Spokane

Violence sets pro-life cause back

I was disturbed when reading the recent article, “Anti-abortion tactics on trial in lawsuit.” Accusations were made against the Pro-Life League and Operation Rescue, suggesting that these organizations head “a nationwide campaign to shut down abortion clinics through acts or threats of physical violence and arson.”

If that’s true, pro-life activists have circumvented their purpose by abusing their rights of free speech.

I consider myself pro-life, but violence is not an option for defending or communicating my opinions. For citizens, especially women, to listen attentively, arguments must be presented rationally and in a peaceful way. Threatening, bombing and harassing clinics only promotes hatred. Furthermore, when pro-life organizations start turning to violence they lose sight of their ultimate goal: saving unborn babies’ lives. Activists are, in essence, killing the foe to raise attention to the subject of abortion. Shutting down clinics soon becomes more important than obeying the law, respecting human rights and saving lives.

This trial raises questions about the pro-life organization’s motives and goals. Mindy S. Noble, age 15 Spokane

How could Review miss great singer?

A musical bomb went off in February at the Fort Spokane Brewery, where Jillian sang to a packed homecoming party for this Spokane native. She’s the featured vocalist of Los Jovenes del Barrio, a popular salsa band in New York City, where she and husbandband-leader Johnny Almendra live.

I’m astounded to have read nothing in The Spokesman-Review before or after the appearance of this sensational bilingual singer. Didn’t anyone at the newspaper know ahead of time, or did you casually dismiss just another singer? Jillian had the No. 1 song in Cuba last spring. She’s an Anglo woman blending into the array of Latin jazz’s greatest musicians, including Tito Puente orchestrating her backup at a 1996 Carnegie Hall sellout. What does it take to get Spokane’s major newspaper to be on the lookout for real diversity in musical culture?

Years ago, I managed Ahab’s Whale, a popular entertainment club in Spokane, and I’ve listened to many diverse singers. Jillian’s vocal ability blew me away. She has a range any singer would admire.

Let’s hope The Spokesman-Review pays attention the next time this rising superstar comes to town. Musical diversity fills a hunger for intercultural beauty here in Spokane. Kent B. Leach Spokane