Ridiculous, even for the Journal

This was the top letter to the editor in the WSJ today. Apparently, if trial lawyers would just stop suing, then companies would voluntarily make safer products. Sure.

Trace Toxins and the Public Health
August 11, 2005; Page A13

I read the first installment of your "Toxic Traces" series ("Levels of Risk: Common Industrial Chemicals in Tiny Doses Raise Health Issue," Page One, July 25) with great interest. It is somewhat alarming to read how quickly industry rushes to dismiss new health concerns regardless of innovation in diagnostic capabilities and analytical techniques, but it shouldn't surprise anyone.

As long as the legal system allows for random punitive punishments that can far exceed actual damages and may very well bankrupt a company, there should be no expectation that a company will be a cooperative partner in reassessing the safety of products that have been in use for decades. Any company that does so voluntarily only opens itself up for punishment, not praise. The preservation of legal rights for individual plaintiffs has come at the cost of the greater good.

Kevin Poehlmann
Oak Ridge, N.J.