Should companies pay to pollute?

In the June 28 article“U.S. Steel to Settle Appeals of Clairton Violations,” Matt Mehalik of the Breathe Project said of the agreement between the company and the Allegheny County Health Department: “The agreement lends itself to perceptions of ‘ pay to pollute’ ...” Going back to 1868, when city council passed the first smoke control ordinance, such laws were met by concerns that they might squelch economic growth. In several noteworthy court cases of the time, the courts sided with industry.

The success of smoke control in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County came not from legislation or improved methods for burning coal but from readily available, clean natural gas from the Southwest after World War II.

To coin a phrase, we’ve come a long way. The famous multivolume Mellon Institute smoke study, conducted decades ago, could only define smoke as a nuisance and an economic factor.

With advances in science following the Donora incident and the London smog events, we have an understanding of the health effects of smoke ( now known as air pollution). We have the technology to limit emissions, and we have national and local regulatory agencies to balance the health effects of smoke and the need of industry to sustain and promote our economy.

This is not pay to pollute, it’s the American way. Be thankful for the agencies and the cooperation of U.S. Steel to resolve this issue. Don’t chastise them and insult them and their efforts by accusing them of allowing industries to pay to pollute. ANTHONY GAGLIERD

Baldwin Borough

The writer is a retired Allegheny County Health Department environmental health administrator.

Poor treatment

This is written from the perspective of an elderly woman who took the ending of the consent decree between UPMC and Highmark literally. ( To give you an idea of just how elderly — Howard Hanna was my paper boy on Neville Street in the 1960s. He was a much nicer young person than the UPMC board member he became.)

I was a satisfied member of a Highmark HMO. To change providers involved numerous visits to my home by a qualified insurance broker. It was stressful, worrisome and, at this point, it would be unnecessary.

We policyholders were treated by UPMC as those condemned prisoners on death row, ready for an injection and waiting anxiously for a lastminute reprieve. Luckily it came, but keep in mind, not for all.

I am appreciative that the stalemate was broken, but would like to add another pejorative for UPMC — sadistic.

Please republish the list of UPMC board members so that the public may choose to boycott their products and services. They, in addition to CEO Jeffrey Romoff, are deserving of public vilification.

Once again, capitalism rears its increasingly ugly head. LUCRETIA BIORDI ELSON Squirrel Hill

Dangerous trade war

President Donald Trump tweeted on March 2, 2018: “… trade wars are good, and easy to win.”

Since Mr. Trump made this ill- informed statement, he has initiated or threatened tariff wars with China, Mexico, Canada, Japan, the European Union and India.

Mr. Trump doesn’t understand tariffs. A tariff is a tax on goods coming into a country. Who pays the tariff on Chinese goods subject to Mr. Trump’s tariffs? It’s the U. S. consumers who want finished goods or U. S. companies that want materials in order to build their products. When U. S. manufacturers’ costs go up, U. S. consumers pay more.

When China retaliates by imposing tariffs on U. S. exports, like soybeans, what happens? China buys its soybeans from Brazil. U. S. soybean exports to China have dropped 80% since the trade war. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue recently admitted that American farmers are “one of the casualties” of tariff wars. Because farmers were important Trump supporters, Mr. Trump is giving soybean farmers a $ 28 billion bailout to compensate them for the harm his policies have caused.

To summarize: ( 1) Americans pay Mr. Trump’s tariffs, ( 2) prices for U. S. goods rise, ( 3) U. S. exporters lose sales, and ( 4) Mr. Trump bails out his supporters with our tax dollars.

In 1930, President Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot- Hawley Tariff Act, which greatly increased tariffs on foreign products. Experts believe that these tariffs worsened the severity and length of the Great Depression. Hoover, Sen. Reed Smoot and Rep. Willis C. Hawley were all thrown out of office in 1932. KARL KLINE

O’Hara