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4 economist sunsuntribune saturday july 26 2003 a metroland community newspaper 34 civic ave stoufmlie on l4a 7z5 publisher ian proudfoot editor in chief deborakelly business manager robert lazurko director marketing new product development brendalarson advertising director retail fixer sales nicole fletcher advertising director classified real estate events management gordpaolucci letters to the editor easy to become impaired re impaired driving charges triple july 17 its sad to think this is the second time i have felt compelled to write about drunk dri ving but its something that refuses to go away tvvo years ago when i last wrote to the edi tor it was about a friend killed in a drunk dri ving accident since then my anger has turned to frustration i simply do hot understand how people can make such a monumental mistake as get- tingjbehind the wheel of a car when they are druddk vafter reading this article i realized those of us fighting drinking and driving may be a small part of the problem i several times in this article and in my own letter so far this horrific act has been referred to as drunk driving this obviously confuses many people i usually can have four or five drinks before i consider myself drunk however long before mat moment i am impaired and should not even think of driving it is this con cept that seems to be the hardest for anyone to understand ypu do hot have to slur words or have trou ble standing to be unable to respond quickly enough to trouble on the road the bottom line is i beg your readers to think before they act if you are going out and knowyou will be drinking please plan ahead arid have a designated driver or money for a cab do not live as if impaired driving accidents onlyhappen to someone else because i knew someone else his name was shane and he has been gone for two years we miss him dearly and its not something anyone should have to go through carleywayne t markham bike program helps community i have lived arid worked in me markham area for 13 years and last year t learned about the tim hortons earn a bike program it lets children earn a new bicycle by clean- ing up the community for a total of 30 hours the program have noticed a deterioration in the clearilir ness of the markham area as a result i vol unteered to assist with the cleanup and supervision of the children after two years i wanted to thank tim hortons for its corporate participation and financial support and request it continue to support for thisfvaluable program more than ever the community heeds this program to clean up anincreasingly lit tered environment and raise awareness of this issue with our young people i xegularly clean up my neighborhood n0ww1waw isiillilite iffib ip you and inform the town of areas needing atten tion despite this i often feel i am fighting a losing battle as i see people utter without regard and politicians that dont make this issue a priority tim hortons program raises awareness of this issue to citizens who see us inaction people often comment on the importance of the program and are thrilled by the work the children are doing l my hope is this program will result in people taking better care of their environ ment and politicians begin to see the eriyi- ronment as a priority in public planning angela grad1ni unionville why not wait for longterm results re modified food chain grows despite protest july 17 more than 50 per cent of soybeans pro duced in ontario are genetically modified and monsanto controls it all my coricerri is not only the control by orie company but also the consequences of the rnodificatioris in our environments and qrihuriian health roundup ready soy is- not produced through pollination as nature normally does its produced by genetic engineering through gene insertion of extra copies of a synthetase enzyme to elevate aromatic amino acid production in plants and to withstand roundup sprays the synthetase in weeds is suppressed and cannot produce the aromatic amino acids for protein production and growth most weeds die and some genotypes sur vive when the resistant weeds flourish what would farmers do they could increase the dosage of roundupto loll the weeds and risk the possibility of killing soy as well they could switch to another herbicide and be caught in a vicious circle although soy is almost completely self- pollinated corn is windtpollinated corn with bt genes to produce a protein poiso nous to corn borers will produce pollen to pollinate neighbours corn fields with no bt genes while bt corn is not certified for human consumption what will happen to us cori- suming contaminated corn the protein poisonous to corn borers could be poisonous to humans since phys- iobiochemically humans arid corn borers have a lot in common cattle are fed with bt corn and we eat beef r so what the hell is the hurry as dr david suzuki said why couldht we wait for the outcome of longterm studies before we put food on the table ronghho richmond hill david suzuki to use plain language science has an image problem not that science isnt important indeed science and technology influ ences our lives more than ever before the problem is in the way scientific issues are often portrayed and communicated both to the public antito other scientists a common complaint from scientists is the media get everything wrong they sensation alize they oversimplify they draw unwarrant ed conclusions many scientists want more control over their stories a recent european survey found 90 per cent of scientists polled believe reporters ought to provide full scientific details in theirvstories and allow scientists to make changes before they are published of course most journalists would never accept such demands nor should they scientists should not receive special treatment reporters on the other hand complain sci ence stories are often dull irrelevant or impos sible to comprehend ln an analysis published in the journal nature sociologist donald hayes used a formula caued the lex scale to rate readability of journals on this scale the lower the number the easier something is to read and the more understandable it is dr hayes found that chil drens books have a lex score of about 32 easy to read newspapers oh average have a lex score of zero back in the 1940s science journals also scored about zero today these journals reach lex scores well into the 30s and beyond meanirig they are very difficult to understand m fact journals today are ofteri so loaded with jargon scientists themselves have trou ble reading them no single group is at fault for this problem most scientists simply dont receive training in communication plus newspaper chains are firing reporters compressing beats and not giving reporters adequate time and resources to cover scierice issues a new magazine started recently called seed it attempts to popularize science and technology by focusing on easytounderstand prose wim a dash of sex appeal perhaps by making science more hip we can elevate the general level of scientific awareness in society 7b discuss this topic with others visit the discussion forum atwwwdavidsuzimorg letters policy the stouflvflle tribune welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the tribune reserves the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity and space letters to the editor the tribune 9 heritage rd markham on l3p1m3 email ldterseecoiuuncom editorial editor jim mason newsroomeconsuncom advertising retail sales manager steve kane skaneymgcom sales manager new business development distribution dawna andrews dandrewsymgcom classified manager awn campbell acampbeuymgcom real estate manager mikerogerson mrogersonyfngcom production director of production johnfuthey jfutheyymgcom distribution distribution manager barry black bblackymgcom administration office manager vivian oneil voneuymgcom w sfirrrc t r- jr w n tft3r jtsr r-u- york region events 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