Concerns over NH 'end of life' bill; praise for bottle bill: Letters

End of life bill has great potential for abuse

Jan. 22 − To the Editor:

We are deeply concerned about the proposed legislation, HB 1283, End-of-Life Options (aka physician-assisted suicide) in New Hampshire. While proponents say providing individuals with the right to end their own lives is a compassionate option, it’s only one side of the story. If this bill passes, there is great potential for abuse and coercion. Vulnerable individuals, including those with chronic illness or disabilities, will likely encounter undue pressure to choose death to alleviate the burden on their families -- or NH’s medical bottom line. Legalizing assisted suicide creates a slippery slope that jeopardizes the lives of those who cannot easily articulate their views. Once passed, it can be expanded to include those living with chronic conditions like MS or ALS. We have seen physician-assisted suicide expand in other states and it has led to lawsuits, including those filed by California’s disability community.   Many patients decide to discontinue medical treatments, put DNRs in place or stop eating or drinking while their physician keeps them comfortable at the end of life.  Palliative care and hospice services are available to address pain and improve the end of life for terminally ill patients. These are choices that do not involve helping to kill a patient through physician-assisted suicide.

Instead of embracing a path that risks the well-being of vulnerable individuals and alters the fundamental principles of medical practice, NH should focus on strengthening palliative care and hospice services to ensure that every individual receives the compassionate care they deserve in their final days.

Sarah Tollefsen, Bedford, NH, Executive Director, ABLE NH

Lisa Beaudoin, Concord, NH, Disability Policy & Equity Professional and Principal, Strategies for Disability Equity, LLC

John W Richards, Peterborough

Let's bring a bottle bill to New Hampshire

Jan. 21 − To the Editor:

Manufacturers and distributors earn profits from products that produce trash, and municipalities pay the disposal fees, which have been greatly increasing.  Current House Bill 1636 aims to change that, with a “Container Deposit System.”

A number of states have such a system (AKA “Bottle Bill”), which is actually designed and run by those manufacturers and distributors through a “Producer Responsibility Organization” (PRO).  Customers pay a deposit of 10 or 15 cents when purchasing a beverage in a bottle or can.  The deposit is fully returned when the customer returns the empty container to the store or any “redemption center.”  Hannafords in Maine participates in such a system.  Let’s bring it to New Hampshire!

What are the benefits?  Municipalities are spared the cost of handling and transporting these containers, even to recycling centers.  Beverage containers tossed into regular trash cost our communities a tipping fee, which is considerable for heavy glass bottles.  Deposit containers remain in good condition, unlike those that are often broken or contaminated when tossed into the municipal recycling bin.  Uncontaminated, unbroken containers are truly recycled, the materials used over and over at a fraction of the expense of extracting materials to manufacture new containers.

Return rates can be as high as 91%, as consumers seek the return of their deposit.  The U.S. recycling rate is stagnant at 24% for beverage containers not on deposit – meaning more bottles end up as litter, useful aluminum and glass is tossed out.  There is no cost to customers who return their bottles.  States with these systems find it is paid for by the customers who don’t collect their deposits.

Please contact your NH Representative and urge support for HB1636, which would open the discussion on this important avenue for our communities to save money.

Susan Richman

Durham

Let's not replace fossil fuels with plastics pollution

Jan. 18 − To the Editor:

Plastic is under fire because we know its insidious and omnipresent dangers. We’ve found plastic particles in placentas, human brains tissue, animals of all kinds, saturating the oceans, on the highest mountains and lowest trenches.  We know plastic harms our immune and respiratory systems and causes cancer and birth defects.  Much of plastic’s dangers has become common knowledge.  Even if we recycled 100% of all plastic, recycling cannot solve this problem.  But it gets worse.

Fossil fuel companies see gasoline phasing out because they also see e-cars flying off car lots. Fossil fuel companies have, therefore, bet the house on plastic as their post-gasoline profit- maker.  They plan to make THREE TIMES (!) the plastic they have already produced.

Their plastic onslaught threatens everyone.  Fossil fuel companies have known for 50 years that recycling plastic is an economic failure.  Rather than admit that their product is unrecyclable, they have (1) lied to us about the plastic recyclability, and (2) placed the burden on us by engaging multimillion dollar PR campaigns to guilt us into recycling plastic.  For example, Scouts now have badges for plastic recycling.  This leads to whole troops dutifully Hoovering up plastic trash as they unwittingly do the work fossil fuel companies should do themselves.  Fossil fuel companies tie civic duty to picking up plastic garbage by pretending to turn Single Use Plastic garbage into community benches.  But it’s all smoke and mirrors.

Recycling plastic gives toxic material a second chance to retoxify our lives.  If it missed you the first time around, it’ll get you the next.  This retoxification makes recycled plastic worse than virgin plastic for several reasons.:

Aggregation: retoxified plastic has all the dangers of virgin plastic but adds its own twist.  Complacency: retoxified plastic fools us into thinking everything is fine, when it’s not.

Responsibility: retoxified plastic lets companies off the hook for cleaning their own mess.  Extraction: retoxified plastic tells fossil fuel companies to continue drilling for a toxic material better left in the ground.

Pollution: retoxified plastic appears shiny and clean when, in reality, it sheds plastic nanoparticles every second of the day.

The danger is clear:  Recycled plastic and retoxified plastic endangers people and planet.

J. Michael Atherton

Dover

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Concerns over NH 'end of life' bill; praise for bottle bill: Letters