‘Acceptable Risks’ With Pesticides Used on Fruits and Vegetables

In response to Dr. Whelan’s column, I’ve always had trouble understanding the disproportionate increase in childhood cancers. When I was growing up in the ‘30s, cancer was considered in illness of old age; cancer in children was so rare it was considered on aberration.

And, even allowing for the fact that our population has more than doubled in the last 50 years, there still doesn’t seem to be an explanation for today’s hospital wards full of children with cancer, unless the combination of man-made toxins in our water supply, in our food supply and in our air is simply more than some young immune systems are able to tolerate.

ELEANOR TAYLOR

El Cajon