Letters to the editor

A case could be made that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is hopelessly swamped. But one reason is that whenever the FDA's reach exceeds its grasp, it seeks to do more.

When it takes years to achieve certainty about the efficacy of a new drug -- sometimes while terminally ill patients are not allowed to use the drugs -- the FDA loses sight of safety issues, which require a different set of priorities and use of resources, not more staff. The FDA's usual response to safety failures is to demand more power to control additional products, such as vitamins and supplements.

The FDA cannot hire a large enough army of inspectors to visit every foreign drug manufacturer and supplier with adequate frequency or effectiveness. It should not try. U.S. drug companies must take on most responsibility for such inspections, and if the FDA must do spot checking, testing can be done once drugs arrive in the U.S.

Richard E. Ralston

Executive Director

Americans for Free Choice

in Medicine

Newport Beach



Leadership is all about setting priorities, because revenues always fall short of needs. The inspection rate for foreign-produced food and drugs is pitifully inadequate.

FDA Commissioner Andrew C. von Eschenbach told Congress that his agency could use another $275 million a year to keep our food and drugs safe for consumption. For perspective, that is a little more than the cost of a single day of the Iraq war.

Ensuring the safety of our food and drugs should be a priority. Congress needs to resist the pharmaceutical companies' efforts to dampen the FDA's effectiveness.

Larry Donohue MD

Seattle

No good way out for oil firms' execs

Re "Oil chiefs scolded over gas prices, high profits," May 22

What's an oil company CEO to do? Unilaterally lower gas prices and be accused of predatory pricing to gain market share? Persuade industry leaders to lower prices and be accused of price-fixing? Or leave prices where they are and be accused by Senate leaders of price-gouging?

If Exxon Mobil's senior vice president, J. Stephen Simon, donated his entire 2007 salary of $12.5 million to gas price reduction, it would lower Exxon Mobil's pump price by 0.03 cents a gallon, or less than one cent per tank.

Richard J.

Stegemeier

Anaheim

The writer is the former chairman and chief executive of Unocal Corp.



Instead of whining about the high price of fuel, why aren't we doing more to reduce waste?

For cars on the road, put left-turn signals at every major intersection, re-time all traffic lights for optimal flow and schedule road construction at night to avoid gas-wasting traffic jams.

In the air, we need an air traffic control system that allows airplanes to fly directly to their destinations instead of zigzagging from one point to another, and stricter FAA scheduling of departures at airports so planes don't sit on the tarmac burning precious fuel.

We can no longer afford the luxury of being inefficient.

Stuart Singer

Inglewood

Watching those senators castigating the oil execs for high gasoline prices made me laugh -- their own failed energy policies are the culprit. No new drilling for oil in Alaska, in our mainland or off the coast, and no new refineries -- all to mollify the environmentalists.

Let's get some people in Washington who have the guts to admit their mistakes and start reversing course.

George Teats Sr.

Downey

Don't lose sight of need for infill

Re "Tejon Ranch as a model," Opinion, May 19

Two official environmentalists soft-pedal the opening of a sensitive ecological habitat to negotiated development as a model for preserving what is left of the natural world in California's despoiled land and airscape.

Years ago, Italian architect Paolo Soleri invented a concept of providing for increasing populations on decreasing land space while enhancing urban living and preserving natural habitats. He coined the word "arcology" for his vertical cities amid mountains, forest and wildlife refuges.

Italy is like California in many ways, but it has learned how to provide for a greater population in denser cities and towns that grow organically from its land. We should study Soleri as a guide to developing urban space that will not hold nature hostage until we live on a cement planet.

Environmentalism is not for the fainthearted and the corporate sellouts. If we save all of Tejon Ranch, we just may save our imperiled Earth for our grandchildren. Otherwise, we may as well prepare ourselves to live underground after the developers are done with despoliation and calling it "progress."

Jean E. Rosenfeld

Pacific Palisades

Make better use of legal residents

Re "New work visa rules to cut bureaucracy," May 22

Reading your article, one would not know that the U.S. is sliding into a recession, that 75% of our cash welfare recipients nationwide are between the ages of 20 and 39, or that we still have millions of nonviolent prison inmates and other unemployed low-skilled legal resident workers we should encourage to work in restaurants and other jobs that foreign-born "temporary" workers will be brought in to fill. Lawmakers who support the new visa rules obviously don't mind forcing American workers to pay for costly social services to be rendered to those low-wage "temporary" workers and their families.

Yeh Ling-Ling

Executive Director

Diversity Alliance for

a Sustainable America

Oakland

Voters still trip into image trap

Re "McCain: So wrong, so what?," Opinion, May 22

I disliked an earlier Op-Ed article by Rosa Brooks about Hillary Rodham Clinton because it focused on a perceived image of Clinton. But I'm in agreement with Brooks' observations about John McCain's popularity among voters.

Many claim to be in favor of a well-thought-out and reasonable timetable for getting out of Iraq, but they nevertheless lean toward supporting McCain in spite of his well-documented stay-in-Iraq position.

Apparently, a voter's choice of candidate rests significantly on image rather than substance. Brooks has fallen into the image trap in evaluating Clinton, and apparently a large number of voters are falling into the same quagmire in sizing up McCain.

Ann Olive

Strauch

Rancho Palos Verdes

Kitchens remain underutilized

Re "Your friend, the kitchen," Opinion, May 21

How refreshing to read Paul Roberts' article about the ironies of America's food culture. Given that we are inundated with 24-hour TV food programming and the rise of celebrity chefs, a visiting foreigner might think that Americans take a great personal interest in cooking, but the opposite is true.

Considering that the heart of our nation's food basket lies in Central California, it is ironic that people haven't taken a greater personal interest in food, cooking and the art of celebration. Instead, people have allowed corporate America to direct and define our relationship with food. It's unfortunate.

Martin Mulvihill

Huntington Beach

Watch Montana

Re "Arnold's purple reign will be missed," column, May 21

Steve Lopez writes that big-name California Republicans such as state Sen. Tom McClintock "would be more suited to statewide office if they lived someplace like Montana."

Montana's governor, attorney general, state auditor and superintendent of public instruction are all Democrats, as are both of its U.S. senators. The Republican lieutenant governor ran on a unity ticket alongside the Democratic governor.

Dan Laidman

Los Angeles

Less is mower

Re "In America, we reap what we mow," Opinion, May 20

Cancel the order for the spring and sell the power mower. Have the kids do what my friends and I did in the '50s when we mowed our parents' and neighbors' lawns: use a hand-powered mower. It is economical and ecologically sound (no gas needed), and when used, provides a good workout.

Gary Nagy

Gardena

'Idol' amusement

Re "With Davids, 'Idol' still Goliath," May 22

It appears that the transformation of The Times from a respected newspaper to a daily version of People magazine is almost complete. Not only is the report of who won "American Idol" considered news, it is considered news that is worthy of front-page exposure. I guess the only surprise is that this "news" was below the fold.

Michael Byrne

Oxnard