Ready for rattlers
EDITOR: My compliments to Heather Bailey for her excellent article on rattlesnakes in Sonoma County. Clearly written and very informative. I now have Al Wolf’s number on my kitchen bulletin board. Hope I never have to call him.
Lynn Fitzwater
Sebastopol
What to do if bitten
EDITOR: I really appreciate the article and photos about rattlesnakes versus the king and gopher snakes, as well as rattlesnake bite prevention. However, the article left out what to do if bitten. According to UC Irvine 2017, the guidelines are as follows: Don’t panic. Death from a bite is rare; Call 911; Do not put ice on bite; Lightly wrap wound with gauze (if available); Stay still if you have cell coverage. Moving spreads venom faster; Do not suck out venom. Hope this fills in the missing information.
Lori Lapham
Sebastopol
Taxpayers held hostage
EDITOR: I feel that we the taxpayers are being held hostage by Dan Smith and his associates with the Sonoma West Medical Center due to his large personal investment and future use of this hospital. Our tax dollars are being used as a bailout to keep it open at over $900,000 per month in losses at his direction.
This should not be like a General Motors bailout that our government must approve and monitor, but ran by a lot of well educated group of people with tunnel vision to spend our property tax dollars with no end to accountability. We went to some of the meetings with the governing board and saw how they would not listen reason about the drug testing from Florida.
We saw no common sense being used to deal with the great losses of this hospital. I am for a business/hospital that can sustain itself, but this board has proven that they are not capable of running this facility.
Natalie Peters
Sebastopol
EMF concerns
EDITOR: As a 25-year resident of Sebastopol, I am concerned about the high EMF (electromagnetic field) readings discovered in the Sebastopol Library where my grandchild spends significant time. An old friend, Karl Riley, who wrote the book “Tracing EMFs in Building Wiring and Grounding,” was visiting Sebastopol, and, noticing kids in the children’s area acting agitated, took EMF readings with a gauss-meter.
He reported to the Sebastopol Library manager and to the superintendent of buildings that he found readings in parts of the library of up to 30 times the normal level. An initial review was begun, but never completed and the problem was not addressed before Karl had to leave. He has followed up with emails and phone calls, but has had no report of completion of the analysis.
To those not familiar with the problems associated with high EMF levels, the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer found that at EMF levels of 4mG there is a doubling of childhood leukemia. Some of the readings at floor level in the library children’s area were 30 mG.
It is imperative that this condition, which endangers the health of Sebastopol’s children be fixed. Karl would be willing to work with onsite electricians via conference calls and/or give email instructions about finding and correcting the errors, at no charge.
According to Karl, “Electricians are not trained to use clamp-on ammeters to trace the fields in the wires, but they do know how to correct the errors when found, as they are always code violations, and extremely simple to correct.”
Why the library manager would put off and not follow through with correcting such a hazardous condition with a fairly simple fix is very concerning to me as a longtime resident of Sebastopol, a town which normally prides itself on being interested in protecting the health and wellbeing of its environment and citizens.
We are planning to read Karl’s assessment of EMFs in the Sebastopol Library during the public comments period at the beginning of the next Sebastopol City Council meeting on July 17 at 6 p.m. at the Sebastopol Youth Annex on Morris Street. If you would like to hear the full assessment of this situation, please plan to attend.
Zoe Tassencourt
Sebastopol
