Not all General Hospital activities promote good health

We receive an electronic version of the January edition of Lancaster General Hospital's "By your side.", which describes the many worthy health related events the hospital is sponsoring during the month.

Among them are Boosting Immunity, Weight Loss Surgery, Health Shopping Tour (at Weis Markets), 'Shapedown' (weight loss), Freedom from Smoking, Smoking Cessation Support Group, and Individual Counseling.

(You can sign up for the newsletter by calling 800-341-2121.)

Nevertheless, they have apparently left off the list one hospital sponsored (with F&M) planned health related activity: The excavation of a long buried and wooded over asbestos dump and the trucking of hundreds of loads of potentially friable material to another Lancaster site. (Not to mention the extra cost of moving an asbestos dump to the tax payers of perhaps $10 million.)

Is this worthwhile? Yes, even the neighbors agree provided the old Armstrong dump offers the best site for the relocation of the freight yard, all things considered.

But shouldn't LGH sponsor an engineering study by a neutral authority to satisfy the public and itself that one of the other sites is not safer, more eocnomical and functions just as well?

That's all that neighborhood group TRRAAC is asking. We think such a study is in the interest of all of us.