Letters to the Editor
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The Shuttle welcomes letters of interest to the Weavers Way community. Send to editor@weaversway.coop. The deadline is the 10th of the month prior to publication. Include a name and email address or phone number for verification; no anonymous letters will be published. Letters should be 200 words or less and may be edited. The Shuttle reserves the right to decline to publish any letter.
What’s That in the Soup?
Reading the ingredients list of hot-bar items at the Chestnut Hill store last month, I noticed some of the offerings contain sugar, corn syrup and monosodium glutamate — all no-nos for me. The sugar and MSG were in the chicken noodle soup, the corn syrup in the hearty vegetable soup.
I’m now wondering if there are guidelines for hot-bar items regarding additives (processed foods, chemicals), and would like to see these guidelines. I rarely buy from the hot bar, but will now be more savvy in checking the ingredients lists when I do.
I would hope that healthful alternatives to all three of these would be found, such as fruit juice concentrate for the sugar and corn syrup.
Also, is MSG back in favor? I thought it was phased out of Chinese food years ago due to deleterious effects on some, including myself.
— Lynn Mather
Please be Careful with Kids & Mowers
The Amputee Coalition of America (amputee-coalition.org) and a Facebook post by the Philadelphia Department of Health inspired a cyber-search that yielded information I wanted to share with Shuttle readers.
Lawn-mower injuries are the leading cause of amputation for children in the United States, more than 600 a year according to the Amputee Coalition.
The Pennsylvania Trauma Systems Foundation, which collects statistics on trauma injuries, says: “Among the traumatic wounds treated by surgeons who care for children, few are more dreadful than those associated with lawn mowers. The young child admitted with lawnmower-related injuries typically has sustained high-energy trauma analogous to a blast injury.”
The American Journal of Surgery stated in 2016: “The estimated annual incidence of lawn-mower injuries in children has remained unchanged over the past decade.”
Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research stated in 2016: “If children younger than 6 years had not been near the lawn mower and those younger than 12 years had not been operating one, at least 69% of the accidents might have been prevented.”
’Tis the season to frolic, have fun and please be careful when powering up your lawn mower.