Pesticides, Additives in Food: ‘Ruined by a Diet of Neurosis’

It has become fashionable in recent weeks to say things like “Let’s not overreact on the question of the dangers of pesticides and additives in foods.” William Plested’s column “Ruined by a Diet of Neurosis” (Op-Ed Page, April 3) is the latest entry to this chorus.

He’s got it all wrong. It is high time we became concerned, and in a serious, sustained way. We really are poisoning our environment and our bodies with an enormous array of substances, no one of which is fatal, but all of which collectively constitute a very serious--and probably carcinogenic--assault.

We are use to this situation because each new chemical has been rationalized as having little effect by itself. But it is precisely the cumulative impact of large numbers of these substances that people are beginning to sense. Some packaged foods have two or three times as many artificial ingredients as natural ones in them. When we find that even “fresh” meats and produce also contain poisons, the feeling grows that nothing we touch or eat is unsullied by its own mini-collection of chemical wonders.

The “panic” of people about additives and pesticides is instead a gut reaction of revulsion, a cry from our bodies of “enough.” We should listen to our bodies.

MARCIA J. BATES

Van Nuys