The ‘setup’ makes no sense

In regards to the Aug. 24 article, “Lawyer: Fire cadet was ‘set up,’”: I seldom feel hot anger about most news stories, but the lawyer spouting about Fire Department personnel setting up their own people did it. I spent 10 years as a firefighter at the now defunct Bethlehem Steel plant at Sparrows Point. Among firefighters no such situation is allowed to exist.

When you are continuously exposed to life threatening conditions as part of your daily work you cannot concern yourself with front office backstab routines.

If people who depend on each other for their very lives play “set up” games it breaks trust — the only true life support that exists for firefighters.

You may not personally like the guy backing you up and the feeling might be mutual, but you better be able to trust each other. Behavior of the kind claimed by the attorney is intolerable to all firefighters — who refuse to work with and will report anyone who exhibits a hint of such behavior during training or the real thing.

You must have faith in your crew. Allowing workplace political games to enter hazardous conditions is anathema to rules and to the culture of fire fighting. If they do start, they will be the end of the engine house. After all, someone who doesn’t want you around may decide to play “set up.”

John Lewis
Baltimore

Cigarettes more dangerous than smokeless tobacco

Your article about the risks of smokeless tobacco is misleading and does a disservice to smokers who might read it. (“Tobacco study finds chewing more harmful than smoking,” Aug. 28) The cancer rate among smokeless users is a small fraction of that of smokers. This is true even for cancers of the oral cavity, larynx and tongue. Cigarettes are far more hazardous than is smokeless tobacco.

Given the fact that quitting cigarettes is so difficult — less than 20 percent successfully stay off smoking for one year after quitting, despite all the available gums and patches — using smokeless tobacco as a cessation aid may be an effective option for some. In Sweden, a high percentage of smokers have quit by switching to smokeless tobacco, called “snus” there. Reading the misleading headline — not even the study authors would state that their results show that smokeless is “more harmful” than smoking — some addicted smokers may be fearful of trying to quit by using smokeless, and subsequently go on to develop a lethal smoking-related illness.

Dr. Gilbert Ross
Medical and Executive Director
The American Council on Science and Health

Camden Yards’ workers deserve a ‘living wage’

In regards to Dan Gainor’s Aug. 21 column, “Poorly Called Strike at Camden Yards,”: As the Aug. 31 deadline for stadium workers’ demands for a living wage draws near, I feel compelled to write. Since the state, and the county in which I reside, requires a living wage for government contracts, why is the Maryland Stadium Authority exempt? Because the Stadium Authority receives its funds from the Maryland Lottery, which is essentially a tax on the mathematically challenged, it has the funds to pay a living wage and comply with the spirit of the O’Malley administration.

Philip M. Wright
Elkridge

What benefits does the church enjoy?

In regards to Walter E. Williams’s column, “The Pope sanctions OECD thugs,” (Aug. 30): Does the church have a program for buying private business and hiring the owner to run it for them, earning a comfortable sum for their services made possible by the tax exempt status of the church? If this is so, isn’t the church aiding tax evasion? I’d like to hear Mr. Williams comment on this.

W .G . Yingling
Sykesville