Left and Wrong

When I read the article “Left-Handers Die Younger, Study Finds” (April 4), I was appalled to find it full of prejudiced and superstitious thinking.

Comments such as “but much of it (left-handedness) is also associated with some disturbance of brain development” and “because left-handedness is correlated with low intelligence, which is, in turn, correlated with low income” are exactly the kind of backward, Puritan thinking that perpetuates myths such as that left-handedness is a mark of evil or being sinister. The medical community, even today, uses the term sinistrality to refer to left-handedness and sinistral to refer to the left side.

Perhaps a reason that left-handed people die younger is one that is true for any member of a minority in this society who dies younger--because of stress-related illness caused by the pressures put on people because they are different.

In my household, two of the four of us are left-handed, as are my sister, brother-in-law, and three nephews and nieces. I have not noted any lack of intelligence in any of us.

In my opinion, this article was written in very poor judgment, and the so-called “facts” are not backed up and seem to be mostly opinion. A survey conducted only in San Bernardino and Riverside counties over a period of “several” months is hardly enough evidence to substantiate the need for higher medical and automobile insurance premiums.

JUDITH J. ATCHISON

Brea