Plastics have become health hazard for man and beast alike: your say
Avoid plastics
Our world is being choked by plastic. Marine life is dying and probably also some humans. We have some nine 9.2 billion tons of plastic with us. 6.9 billion tons of that exist as waste. Less than 20 percent is recycled, 3 percent is incinerated.
Packaging is the most numerous and the most abused plastic use. The European Union Plastic Strategy launch this year at the G-7 aims to make all plastic packaging recyclable by 2030. U.S. and Japan refused to support the declaration.
We hear about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, but there are four others almost as large. Together they cover 40 percent of the ocean surface.
Marine life suffer from ingestion and other accidents from association with plastics.
Human effects of ingestion of micro plastics or nano plastics are uncertain. Fish grown in waters with micro plastics are smaller and slower. The World Health Organization working group concluded that styrene a component of polystyrene foam probably causes cancer; 83 percent of drinking water in some locations contain micro plastics. Micro plastics are often found in toothpaste and other products we use.
Lewis Robinson, Fort Myers
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Report fairly
A recent Mailbag contributor took umbrage at the president's lambasting of the press saying it encourages anger against the press and leading to chants like "CNN sucks".
The publisher of the New York Times went further and said the President's inflammatory rhetoric was putting journalists' lives at risk.
I don't necessarily like the president's frequent outbursts either but just where is the fairness?
Has the press called out Congresswoman Maxine Waters when she said people should follow anyone in the Trump administration wherever they are and tell them they are not welcome there? Has the press defended Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders or Director of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen when the were verbally assaulted in restaurants? Has the press come to the defense of Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chou when she was verbally assaulted outside her home? Has the press come to the defense of Candace Owens and Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA when they were verbally assaulted in a Philadelphia restaurant? This could put peoples' lives at risk also.
The liberal press has not been fair or balanced in their coverage of Donald Trump in any way, shape or form.
Rick Manuel, North Fort Myers
Poor stewards
In a recent visit to Stuart, Gov. Scott toured the river with his DEP Secretary, Noah Valenstein. The News-Press had an excellent article about the visit and gave a summary of Scott's significant contributions to the sorry state of water in SWFL.
As is usual with Republican politicians, these days, he ducked the press citing something about security, and would only answer questions by email. Now that he is running for the Senate, and trying to don his environmentally concerned persona, he doesn't want the press to ask all those pesky questions enumerated so well in the article that justly show up his Johnny-come-lately approach.
After describing how Scott cut 134 jobs at the DEP when he became governor, the article said that "DEP also relaxed rules to make it quicker and easier to get permits, and shifted from enforcing rules to helping violators to comply."
To my mind, that is a perfect summary of the attitude of the Trump administration and the GOP toward the environment. Kill the rules and help the polluters. Republicans love to wrap themselves in the flag, but they have proven to be very poor stewards of the land.
Brooks Harrison, Fort Myers
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Dog pollution
Red tide has many known causes and factors that can stimulate its' growth. It is known that dog beaches pollute and effluent (need I say more) from these beaches adds to and stimulates the growth of bacteria and algae.
These beaches have in the past been closed for this very reason but are not in the current mix of possible solutions. All along our Gulf Coast dog beaches continue to knowingly pollute but remain open?
During these critically sensitive times we should be doing everything to mitigate all factors contributing to red tide, large or small and even if they are politically sensitive or offend any special interest group: this is not a pick and choose situation.
Denial in the relationship between red tide and dog beaches must end now and not reopen until this problem subsides and it can be proven no relationship exists between red tide and dog effluent.
Stan Hrincevich, Venice