Belmont Site

At last, because of Kaye H. Kilburn (“Don’t Use Kids as Canaries at Belmont,” Commentary, Nov. 15), I have learned why I and my 80-year-old friends can’t remember names and our reaction times slow. It’s because we used to go to the L.A. Art Museum and inhale the fumes from the La Brea tar pits and from oil wells on Pico Boulevard, as well as the fumes from the oil wells above Chinatown and the myriad of oil wells in Long Beach and Huntington Beach. Or maybe it was from the chemistry classes in high school where we were taught how to make H2S. The hullabaloo about Belmont is just that, a hullabaloo. All precautions must be taken to protect not just the children, but everyone. However, the dangers are overblown.

HOWARD NIEDERMAN

San Clemente