Just a note on current politics to any other babes in the woods (besides myself) who might be out there. The New Yorker of Aug. 30 had a 10-page article on the Koch Oil Co. and the millions it gives to mostly Republican Party candidates and to various research foundations trying to prove among other things that global warming isn’t happening and that one of Koch’s products, formaldehyde, is not carcinogenic. The company is the second-largest privately held U.S. company next to Cargill. It has 70,000 employees.

A few specifics: The family has given $180 million for cancer research. While doing this, the company has been lobbying to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from classifying formaldehyde, which the company produces in great quantities, as a carcinogen. One study by the National Cancer Institute tracked 25,000 patients for 40 years and found that those exposed to formaldehyde had a significantly higher incidence of leukemia. The Koches have given significant support to members of congress who have stymied the EPA’s efforts to classify the chemical as carcinogenic instead deferring such action pending further study. The company’s Georgia Pacific branch produces 2.2 billion pounds of formaldehyde per year. (It’s used in making plywood, among other things.) One of the Koch brothers serves on the National Cancer Advisory Board, which various environmental health people feel to be disgusting.

In 1999, under the Clinton administration, the company was indicted for covering up the discharge of 91 tons of the carcinogen benzene and fined $21 million.

In the year 2000 the Koches contributed $900,000 to George W. Bush and other Republicans.

The Koches are now working with Tea Party groups at different levels. They will give a combination of these groups $45 million before the November elections. Other contributions over the last couple years include $15 million to the New York Presbyterian Hospital, $125 million to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for cancer research, $20 million to Johns Hopkins University and $25 million to the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. President Bush named David Koch to the National Cancer Advisory Board.

One can hardly avoid being cynical about the commitment of today’s politicians. In D.C., 150 former legislators are lobbyists. Are there any Jeffersons or Madisons or people like that out there now?

George Ehrhardt

Albert Lea