Readers Write: Carcinogenic TCE, Alabama abortion law, conversion therapy

Minnesota is close to banning trichloroethylene (TCE) and becoming the first state to protect citizens from this carcinogen that has been released into the environment throughout the state in excessive levels.

The most recent TCE exposure was announced February. The manufacturer Water Gremlin, which makes fishing sinkers and electrical contacts for batteries, exposed White Bear-area citizens to excessive levels of the compound for 17 years. The company was permitted to release 10 tons per year but was found to have released as much as 10 times that level and up to 100 times the public safety limit.

TCE is a carcinogen and exposure to it is linked to other diseases. Harmful levels of TCE have been found in our water, soil and air, including in Minneapolis, Fridley, Bayport, Edina, the St. Paul Como area, St. Louis Park and many other areas, including the upper northern part of Minnesota.

When TCE contaminates the soil and water, the risks to people increase. In the soil, it vaporizes and enters homes through basement floors, cracks and walls. In water supplies, especially private and unmonitored wells, it compromises water safety.

While citizens have tried to make their voices heard after local exposure issues were announced, we have not been heard — until this year. The Minnesota House and Senate have passed bipartisan bills to phase out the use of TCE.

Ask legislators to drive this bill home and have Minnesota lead the nation. This is critical to help save lives from the long-term health impacts TCE has on citizens, including the most vulnerable — our children.

Dear Alabama,

Yes, well done, Alabama. But now put your money where you mouth is, the true measure of commitment and conviction in this country.

A May 14 letter writer asks some interesting questions regarding legislation that would seek to outlaw conversion therapy. His questions are even more interesting given his years of practice as a psychiatrist. It is the opinion of many, including me, that unless the practice of conversion therapy is prohibited by law, it will continue to be practiced and mental health professionals doing so will be paid for such inhumane practices.

As a mental health professional, I strongly hope that prohibition would mean that insurance companies would indeed deny payment to someone engaging in conversion therapy, and that licensing boards would discipline and/or revoke the licenses of mental health professionals who engage in such practice. This is the manner in which many harmful practices are stopped, just as many states passed laws to prohibit physicians from performing frontal lobotomies.

To suggest, as the letter writer does, that a law prohibiting this type of practice would lead to "shaming" patients/clients and family members is utterly misleading. Data privacy laws would apply to this iatrogenically harmful practice just as they apply in the case of a patient whose doctor engages in a practice that is known to be harmful. The issues are with the provider, not the client and family.

Finally, the writer's suggestion that a law banning conversion therapy would "mandate specific content" for therapists is, frankly, ridiculous. It strikes me as disingenuous and inconsistent with his preface, in which he effectively declares himself a friend of the LGBTQ community.

Prison gerrymandering is a related issue. Felons are counted as residents of the community in which they reside, both while incarcerated and upon release, which affects legislative redistricting and gives voters in districts that include prisons disproportionate influence.

Thank you also for keeping this important dialogue about felons' rights, not just the right to vote, going.

Great counterpoint commentary explaining some reasons why express bus lanes won't work on Chicago Avenue ("Express buses won't work on Chicago Avenue," May 15), but the writer failed to remind officials that Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Children's Hospital and Hennepin Healthcare are also located on that street. Officials must consider ambulances navigating streets.

The ambulance challenge on Park and Portland avenues (next to Chicago Avenue) after a lane of traffic was taken for bike lanes necessitated ambulance traffic to move to Chicago Avenue — and now officials want to make them navigate there on one lane each direction? If those seeking this decision were in an ambulance needing urgent care, they'd need to ask themselves, "What was I thinking?"

I am no fan of President Donald Trump, so I was surprised to find myself in partial agreement with the May 15 letter writer who commended him for challenging the imbalance in our trade with China. One could argue with Trump's actual approach, which is causing much pain in many sectors, and his bull-headed, hyperbolic certainty (trade wars are never "easy to win"). But the imbalance is a serious problem that previous administrations have let slide, and addressing it in some way is a worthy cause.