One exception to this is the Washington Times. It recently published a column by Dr. Robert Cihak, president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, and Dr. Michael Glueck giving the scientific facts that explain why Americans have not suffered any ill effects from drinking water containing infinitesimal amounts of arsenic since the limit now in effect was adopted 59 years ago. That means that the level of arsenic in the water would have to be four times the legal limit before it would pose any threat to health. Cihak and Glueck reminded the readers of the Washington Times of the old rule that the dose makes the poison. Chemicals that we ingest in our food, such as salt, can be injurious if taken in large quantities, but we don't call salt a poison.
Poisons are chemicals that can cause death or harm in very small quantities.
Bush's critics have been able to excite a lot of people about arsenic because we all know it's a poison. Cihak and Glueck say that almost all poisons, including arsenic, are harmless if diluted enough. There are many chemicals in drinking water, including chlorine, which is added to make it safe, but no one would drink it straight. Absent any scientific evidence that .05 parts of arsenic per million in water is injurious, it would be folly to spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year to cut the permitted level to one fifth of that amount, as Clinton proposed. That should be the media's message.