Letters: A dignified display of remembrance at a time of tumult and division

SIR – It was so reassuring to watch the Remembrance Sunday wreath-laying ceremony, and see the Armed Forces veterans march past the Cenotaph.

What a contrast with the shameful events the day before.

Dominic Shelmerdine
London SW3

SIR – We have witnessed a Remembrance weekend like no other: protests, counter-protests, civil disorder and, most shocking of all, the Cenotaph under 24-hour police guard.

The time has surely come to ban all protests, of whatever kind, during this most sacred of weekends, allowing the vast majority of us to mark the occasion in quiet reflection, and to give thanks to those who defended the freedoms we enjoy today.

Lt Col Stephen J Whytock (retd)
Fleet, Hampshire

SIR – It was a relief that Sunday’s commemorations were carried out free from disturbance. It was, however, very disappointing that the SNP’s Stephen Flynn ostentatiously remained silent throughout the singing of the national anthem.

This was disrespectful, but probably only what we should expect of his party. 

Alan Quinton
Eastbourne, East Sussex

SIR – I hope I’m not alone in finding the pro-Palestinian protesters chanting “from the river to the sea” and the ghastly, far-Right “counter-demonstrators” as contemptible as each other. 

Neither even remotely reflects mainstream British opinion. One group abhors Jews; the other is made up of uneducated racists.

Sebastian Monblat
Surbiton, Surrey

SIR – Those of us raised during the two decades following the Second World War were told, quite rightly, of the hideous crimes perpetrated by the Nazis on the Jews of Europe. The presumption was that rabid anti‑Semitism was the preserve of the ultra-Right, the fascists and Nazis. Perhaps because Stalin had been our ally, no mention was made of the fact that he too was ardently anti-Semitic, and so was the Soviet government.

Six decades on, recent events have shown a deep streak of this bigotry inside the hard Left, even in this country, long hiding in plain sight and now emerging into the open. It seems this racism is shared by both political extremes, not just the one.

Frederick Forsyth
Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire

SIR – I am a Tory party member and Brexiteer, and fanatically anti-woke, but I attended Saturday’s march because I care about the deaths of innocent civilians, as well as a two-state solution. 

How can such actions be described as anti-Semitic?

David Evans
Brill, Buckinghamshire

Plastic and health

SIR – This week world leaders are meeting in Nairobi to negotiate the next iteration of the Global Plastics Treaty.
Earlier this year, the UN published a “zero draft” of the treaty in which cursory information was provided on the future shape of the agreement. This draft mentions the known science on human health impacts, but falls far short of what is actually needed to protect human and wildlife health.

An international team of health scientists has therefore drafted a Health Scientists’ Global Plastics Treaty, focusing on those elements of the treaty that must be addressed fully in its final form to make it strong enough to protect the health of future generations. Anything short of these elements will consign the treaty to failure.

Exposure to chemicals used in plastic such as bisphenol A, perfluorinated compounds and phthalates is virtually ubiquitous. Indeed, research by the European Environment Agency determined that all European adults carry levels of bisphenol A in their bodies at concentrations above those considered to be safe.

Many of the 16,000 chemicals used in the manufacture of plastic are hazardous and possess characteristics causing endocrine disruption, mutagenicity and carcinogenicity. In the most comprehensive review to date of over 3,500 studies on how chemicals in plastic detected in the human body can affect human health, the Minderoo Foundation determined that less than 30 per cent had been assessed for their human health impacts. 

Moreover, mounting evidence demonstrates that plastic particles pollute the air, drinking water and food, leading to an ever increasing risk of inhalation and ingestion on a global scale. Plastic particles have been found in human blood, lungs and the placenta, posing a serious public health threat.

That is why today we’re joining the Plastic Health Council in calling for a Global Plastics Treaty that heeds the known science of the impact of plastic chemicals and plastic particles on human and wildlife health. This means delivering a treaty that will reduce the production volume of plastics overall, eradicate all but verifiably essential single-use plastic items (and commits to funding sustainable chemistry research to innovate safe replacements), mandates proper testing of all chemicals in plastics and unequivocally prohibits “chemical recycling” of plastics.

The Global Plastics Treaty is a once-in-a-century opportunity to protect human health from pollution. World leaders cannot afford to leave their populations vulnerable to the toxic effects of plastic.

John Peterson Myers 
Chief scientist, Environmental Health Sciences 

Professor Dr Dick Vethaak
Emeritus Professor of Water Quality and Health, VU University Amsterdam

Terrence J Collins
Teresa Heinz Professor of Green Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University

Professor Barbro Melgert
Professor of Respiratory Immunology, University of Groningen

Linda S Birnbaum
Scientist Emeritus and Former Director, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and National Toxicology Program

Philip J Landrigan
Director, Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good, Boston College

Shanna H Swan
Professor, Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Michael H Depledge
Emeritus Professor and Chair of Environment and Human Health, European Centre for Environment and Human Health, University of Exeter Medical School

Frederick S vom Saal
Curators’ Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Division of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri

R Thomas Zoeller
Emeritus Professor, College of Natural Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Professor Laura N Vandenberg
University of Massachusetts Amherst

Barbara Demeneix
Professor Emeritus, French National Museum of Natural History

Taisen Iguchi
Professor Emeritus, National Institute for Basic Biology

Professor Bruce Blumberg
University of California, Irvine

Professor Ana Soto
Tufts University School of Medicine

Professor Hugh Montgomery
Professor of Intensive Care Medicine, University College London

Professor Jeanette Rotchell
Professor of Environmental Toxicology, University of Hull

Åke Bergman
Senior Professor, Örebro University

Professor Bethanie Carney Almroth
University of Gothenburg

Professor Andreas Kortenkamp
Brunel University

Juan Baztan
Université de Versailles

Professor Trisia Farrelly
Senior Editor, Cambridge Prisms: Plastics

Help a hedgehog

SIR – It’s that time of year again when hedgehogs are looking for lodging over the winter months.

Our spiky friends seek places where they can bed down. These will ideally be under cover, beneath a shed, say, or a hedge – any sort of environment where they have protection. Perhaps there is such a spot in your garden.
Ray Powell
Shefford, Bedfordshire

Cystic fibrosis relief

SIR – I was shocked to discover that drugs capable of providing relief for sufferers of cystic fibrosis have been deemed “too expensive for the NHS” by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (report, November 11). 

Cystic fibrosis is a cruel condition that nobody should have to endure when potential help is available. I suggest that everyone who has a heart contributes to crowdfunding the life-saving drugs.

Gillian Tester
Axminster, Devon

Poppy-spotting

SIR – In London on Saturday to meet a dear friend – a highly decorated Falklands veteran – for lunch, I was astonished by how few people I could spot wearing a poppy (Letters, November 12).

Travelling back home through St Pancras, which was busy with hundreds of people, I counted just 15 of us. Most were older than 50.

Surely the quality of education on this subject in schools needs to improve.

Shirley Parker
Market Harborough, Leicestershire

SIR – Angela Sissons (Letters, November 12) is mistaken: there is no “correct” way to wear a poppy. 

It is merely a convention favoured by many to wear it with the leaf pointing to 11 o’clock. Metal poppies with text beneath have this arrangement, but the Royal British Legion does not stipulate any particular direction for the leaf. 

Some wearers feel it should point to their heart.

Michael Bacon
Bordon, Hampshire

The ultimate gravy

SIR – I cannot quite agree with Mary Briggs (Letters, November 8) on the best way to make gravy.

My wife, after removing the meat from the pan, pours away most of the fat – but not all, as you want stars on the gravy.
Water from the boiled green vegetables, which contains vitamins, is added to deglaze the pan. She then puts some cornflour in a cup, moistens it with a little milk before adding a shake of Worcester sauce and a little Bovril, and adds it to the pan. 

This, in my opinion, is the ultimate gravy, and is suitable for most meats. If the meal is roast wild duck, a glass of port is added.

Jeffrey Bowden
Stowmarket, Suffolk

The serenity of the seasoned pipe smoker

SIR – To be a successful pipe smoker (Letters, November 11), one needs to be organised, methodical and patient. 

Furthermore, pipe smokers are rarely seen scrabbling to light up when suffering from stress or anxiety; it is more likely that enjoying the pipe is a relaxing reward after a job well done. I am not surprised that so many of them seem to live so long.

Stuart Harrington
Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset

SIR – I am 74 and lost my wife last year. I was a pipe smoker long ago. Alone in the house, I came across my pipe and some tobacco, and started smoking in the evenings. 

As Dr John Taylor says (Letters, November 10), it has a beneficial effect, and gives me a period of calm distraction from my stress. I will stop when the time is right.

Dr Christopher S Holmes
Clitheroe, Lancashire

SIR – The waft of my father’s St Bruno pipe tobacco in our family home lives with me to this day, 60 years on.

Denis Findlay
Waltham Chase, Hampshire

SIR – My father smoked a pipe during my childhood. I recall several occasions when his jacket pocket began to smoulder because his pipe had been too hot to stow and he had to be patted down to prevent full ignition.

Janet Haines
Reading, Berkshire

Not all shoppers resent self-service checkouts

SIR – Unlike Michael Deacon (Comment, November 11), I would be disappointed to lose the option of using a self-service checkout at the supermarket.

I am very happy to bypass the queues at the manned tills. These are often held up by customers chatting with the staff. In some shops, moreover, the person on the till passes your shopping on to you so fast that it is impossible to pack it at anything like the same rate – not a pleasant experience. If the self-service checkout is removed from my supermarket, I will go elsewhere.

Oliver Stewart
Sutton Coldfield

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