To the Editor:

Calling the statement by the Food and Drug Administration about the plastic additive bisphenol-A "a shift in position" from the Bush era is an overstatement.

In 2008, the F.D.A. ignored recommendations of its advisory board and several other government scientific bodies when it determined that BPA is safe. That decision, large portions of which were drafted by chemical industry lobbyists, relied on a couple of industry-financed studies. It contradicted hundreds of studies showing that at extremely low doses BPA causes numerous reproductive abnormalities and other health effects related to the endocrine system, like obesity and diabetes.

Published in The San Francisco Gate, Tuesday, January 12, 2010

How can Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger justify making California's coast the sacrificial lamb for state parks ("Trade-off: Use oil drilling cash to save parks, governor says," Jan. 9)?

In the new budget, he proposes funding state parks by using oil lease revenues from opening up California's coast to offshore oil drilling for the first time in 40 years.

He removed $140 million from parks in the general fund to be replaced with oil lease revenues from the Tranquillon Ridge project off the coast near Santa Barbara, estimated to generate $1.8 billion over the next 14 years. Other oil lease projects are lining up for approval - it's a Pandora's box for the coast.