Costs may not let industry keep on trucking

I have read in the AJC about the plight of the airlines for months. Their fuel costs have skyrocketed. I have not read one legitimate article concerning the situation of the trucking industry. As fuel prices rise, so do the costs of operating a truck. Everything we consume is at one time or another transported by truck. It used to cost roughly $1 a mile to operate a truck. Now it costs $1 a mile for fuel alone, as trucks get around 5 miles a gallon and fuel is $5 a gallon.

We seem to be more concerned about whether Jimmy can get to Disney World for a good price than the cost of the bread we buy. Our priorities are slightly off center.

In the last four months nearly 300,000 trucks have been parked or gone out of business. When the number of defunct carriers hits critical mass (which may be closer than we know), maybe the trucking industry will get the attention it needs and deserves. With 35 years in this business, I thought I had seen everything. I was wrong.

TIM CHOQUETTE

Cumming

True leaders make tough decisions

The last paragraph in the editorial "Drilling down on oil" (@issue, June 22) nailed the critical issue about our oil crisis: "Overall, the fundamental forces of supply and demand now in play are simply too powerful to be denied. Until alternative energy sources are developed and scaled up, adaptation, not denial, will be the only rational course."

There are no short-term solutions. But because America is spoiled and leaderless, we've been unable to make any tough decisions that would provide long-term solutions. The pandering proposals from our presidential candidates and the members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, such as tax holidays for the public or additional taxes on oil companies, are just plain stupid, violating everything the politicians should have learned in Economics 101.

The ultimate solution, proven many times in America's history, will be technological. It may be hydrogen fuel cells or something not conceived at this point, but America is capable of producing such a solution. What's really needed is true leadership, in the nature of JFK's moon challenge. This means a leader who can propose a credible plan with an accelerated timetable, convince the American public to make the necessary short-term sacrifices and behavior changes, and broker the necessary resources (time, talent and money). Where is that leader?

GARY MAY

Newnan

Consumers pick food over tobacco

With the flooding in the Midwest, I have a possible solution to the impending food problem: Have half the farmers in Eastern and Southern states, such as Georgia, plant corn or soybeans instead of tobacco. True, the cost of tobacco will likely rise, but I have a more important addiction —- eating —- that needs to be satisfied and I've heard that I'm not alone in this.

As we've heard on the news, a rise in corn costs trickles into a lot of food price increases. These are passed on to consumers, so no one is immune. Having more farmers who normally grow tobacco grow corn or soybeans instead should help keep food prices in check.

BRUCE BURNAMAN

Woodstock

Premium on safety at CDC

In the effort to create an impression that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may have done something potentially harmful, your recent article "CDC action at germ lab questioned" (Page One, June 22) puts forward a misleading picture that may unduly alarm people.

Your article fails to inform readers early on that there is no safety requirement or need for doors in this type of laboratory to be sealed during operation. Rather, the overall laboratory design, primarily the lab's air-handling systems, provides the facility safety and containment needed. Careful work practices by the laboratorians themselves and specialized biosafety cabinets offer additional worker and environmental protections. Unfortunately, these critical pieces of information were minimized and, if present, were placed near the end of the article. In addition, the article incorrectly implies that work with smallpox or other Biosafety Level 4 agents would be done in a similar laboratory without sealed doors. Nothing could be further from the truth.

At CDC, protecting our workers and the surrounding environment and assuring safe, effective operations of our public health laboratories are top priorities. Many of the actions noted in the article were done in an effort to go beyond required safety practices. It is unfortunate these types of proactive steps sometimes produce outcomes that can be negatively characterized by the media.

Dr. L. CASEY CHOSEWOOD

Chosewood is director, Office of Safety and Health, CDC.

Let doctors make call on treatment

I applaud the upholding of the importance of state agencies following doctors' orders in the case of the handicapped child whose nursing care was cut back ("Nothing 'special' about proper care," @issue, June 23).

Now perhaps attention will be turned to other "decisions" made routinely against a doctor's orders. I am a state employee. I have a prescription for a medication authorizing me to have 30 tablets a month. Yet the insurance provided by our state refuses to cover more than 18 tablets each month. The rest must be paid from my pocket. This means that instead of a $10 co-pay, I must pay over $45 per month for the full prescription.

How can someone sitting in an office countermand what my doctor has prescribed, a legal medication to treat a recognized condition? Why is this interference allowed?

GINGER MARINE

Ellijay