GUEST EDITORIAL You Can Make a Difference

erhaps there are a lot of you reading this editorial who think as I used to think. P I would read editorials about all the j u n k science and scare tactics that are being used against plastics in general and IWC in particular. My bask reaction was: ‘This isn’t right. I t shouldn’t be happening. I wish I could do something about i t .” Well. there is something all of us can do about i t . I Sound out what to do based on a personal experience that 1 would like to share with you.

I was reading an article in the Columous Uispa~ch about a group that had just issued their list of unsafe toys for rhildren. Right there, a s number ten. they had listed toys made from IWC because of possible chemical migration into children’s mouths. 1 decided that enough was enough. and it was time to write to the editor.

My letter was not very flattering to the newspaper. since it accused them of lazy journalism. They had taken a press release from this group and built it into a feature article without checking on the background facts in the case. People will read it in a reputatilr newspaper and accept it as fact. I compared this process t o a game we used to play in school c;allcd ‘telephone.” One child whispers something into the ear of another. arid it i s then passed around the room until the last child announces what he or she heard. Junk science progresses much the same way. Someone says, ‘I wonder if . .. .” The next person says, ”I heard that maybe . . . .” The third person says. “I heard that ....” The fourth person says, “ I t is well-known that ....” The group advocating child-safe toys is only a part of this “telephonr” chain. but the news- paper owes a responsibility to its readers to investigate the facts. It could havr checked t h r . facts by contacting the American Plastics Council.

To my complete surprise. the Columbus Dispatch published my letter in the k t t e r s to the Editor section of the paper. However. my rral intent for the letter was not to be published. I was trying to get the message to the Colurnbus Dispatch that they should check with the American Plastics Council prior to publishing information about plastics. If they don’t get the facts correct. I wanted them to know that there is a constituency of readers who will call them on it.

If all the people who read this editorial will do similar things and talk other knowledgeable peoplr into doing the same, we can produce a groundswell of feed back to newspapers and journals that says we are just not going to sit still for this game of ”telephone” anymore. Suggest that in the futurr, they check with the American Plastics Council to get the facts before publishing derogatory information about plastics. If the media get enough 1ett.ers like that. they will start to behave responsibly. It’s not difficult. and it will make a differenc:c.

I did learn oric other valuable lessori. If a newspaper phones and asks for pennis- siori to publish your letter, ask to put your title nn the lrtter. I would have usctl the titlr: “PVC is safe.“ What I got was “PVC is not a s dangerous as some people think.” Go figure! I t looks like I will h a w to do this again! Soon.

UonaLd E. Witonhqfer Consultant

120 JOURNAL OF VINYL & ADDITIVE TECHNOLOGY, SEPTEMBER 2000, Vol. 6, No. 3