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Pesticides in Food Supply

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This letter is in response to the column by Al Meyerhoff (“Why Stomach This ‘Necessary Evil’ ”? Op-Ed Page, May 15). Your paper apparently considers him to be an “expert” on the food safety issue.

I’m not disagreeing with his opinion, although I certainly could. But once again he deliberately misuses facts or makes up his own, thus giving the opinion he expresses a foundation. Your paper, by giving him space, lends credibility to the opinion. Unfortunately, you also become an unsuspecting partner in the dissemination of false information.

For example, his Natural Resources Defense Council study has been challenged by the scientific community from Berkeley to Johns Hopkins University and from Environmental Protection Agency to the American Cancer Society, who refused to endorse it. The 1987 study of Kansas farmers was similarly dismissed. His exposure figures always assume maximum use, when in fact, real data indicates something entirely different.

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What’s the basis for his statement that more than half of the lifetime risk of developing cancer occurs before the age of 6? It is his report, which again is without foundation.

What $10-million campaign is he talking about? I sit as a member of the management committee for the Center for Produce Quality and as a vice chairman of the Alliance for Food and Fiber. Combined, they total less than $1.5 million and they don’t make false claims.

In summary, Meyerhoff gives you suspected scientific reports, we give you the National Academy of Sciences. He gives you actress Meryl Streep, we offer support from the surgeon general of the United States. His opinions are appropriate, but his rhetoric is not necessarily fact.

JOEL NELSEN

President

California Citrus Mutual

Visalia

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