To the editor:
I am responding to a piece you ran in The Item’s Mar. 23 edition, “City Council tables rDNA decision.”
It was an article about a meeting to discuss the rules life-sciences companies that use recombinant DNA technology (rDNA) would have to follow if they were to come to Lynn. The best point made: A $300 fine for breaking safety rules was far too low. The rest was just plain garbage.
Envision this scenario: Logan Airport wants to rewire its air-traffic control system. I have an opinion on how it should be done. Have I done this kind of work before? No. Am I an electrical engineer? No. Am I an electrician? No. Do I have any electrical experience at all? No. But my opinion is just as valuable as anybody else’s.
Ludicrous? Of course it is, but when it comes to any topic connected to science, all views are somehow equal. An example is the claim that the rDNA procedures at a proposed facility could cause genetic mutations in people.
I understand that the moon is made of green cheese as well. Both opinions are equally worthless.
Then there was an assertion that facilities operating at bio-level safety Level III would be allowed. Not true. Level III is for “serious or lethal human disease for which preventative or therapeutics may be available.”
What is planned is Level II: “disease which is rarely serious and for which preventative or therapeutics is often available.” That is a huge difference.
Another critic suggested, “maybe we want to be underserved….” The same people who complain about paying taxes or who want to know why we don’t spend more on schools, fire and police want to be underserved?
In the United States, expertise is regularly ridiculed. Yeah, right? We need more outsiders — people who know nothing. I think I should walk up to that cockpit and fly that plane. How hard could it be!
We should consult people who actually know something on the topic rather than being villagers with pitchforks. It’s not that hard – we just have to admit when we don’t know much.
Bill Morrill
Lynn
