With the advent of Spring, we can expect the return of the mosquito an insect which can be just plain bothersome or it can be a vector, or carrier, of disease. Mosquitos right now are laying their eggs in salt marshes, backyard puddles, abandoned water-filled buckets and anywhere else they find stagnant water. In a matter of weeks, these insects will mature and the biting of humans and animals will begin. Mosquitos are of particular concern this year in the Northeast because there is evidence that they may carry the potentially deadly West Nile encephalitis virus.

Imagine a delicious, inexpensive convenience food that is low in fat, cholesterol, sodium, and calories and provides all essential nutrients and dietary fibers in optimum quantities. This may seem the ideal food but it would be far from ideal if it were contaminated with pathogenic bacteria.

Last week's withdrawal of Warner-Lambert's diabetes drug Rezulin has provoked a predictable outcry from "consumer groups" who charge that the Food and Drug Administration's laxity and haste permits unsafe drugs into the marketplace. Actually, Rezulin's withdrawal shows that the FDA works exactly as intended. Just because a drug is withdrawn does not mean it should not have been approved in the first place.

To the Editor:
It is distressing that the USDA, by attempting to legally define "organic", has granted legitimacy to the concept that so-called "organic" food is any safer or better than conventionally produced foods (Regulators Nearing Tougher Standard for Organic Food, pg. B13, 3/6/00).

Dietary fat has been receiving bad press for years. At first it was just saturated fats, because they can raise blood cholesterol. Conversely, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats were thought to be good because they did not do so.
Then all fat was deemed "bad", and Americans were urged to consume as little as they could. Some have even gone so far as to advocate giving young children (under 2 years of age) non-fat milk. This is advice that no responsible pediatrician would endorse.

To the Editor:
Without addressing either the aesthetic or constitutional issues raised by Mr. Turley in his Op-Ed "A Bad Canadian Law..." (Feb. 28), I take strong issue with several of his points on smoking and health:

To the Editor:
As Dr. Harold S. Koplewicz points out (Op-Ed, March 1), many children and adults are treated with medications that do not have Food and Drug Administration approval. The doctor is responsible for using clinical judgment to insure that a drug is safe and effective for each patient. However, an equally important issue is the risk to children from potentially dangerous substances, like androstenedione, that can be purchased from a health food store or supermarket without a prescription. Unlike pharmaceuticals, these supplements have not been tested on adults.

Two of the most difficult issues we as consumers of health information confront are who to trust and how much to trust them. There is a lot of misinformation on the Web and even reporters in the mainstream media sometimes get the story wrong.