In your Sept. 24 Viewpoint “Sound science blind to opposing views,” you state that, “… the report also legitimized concerns raised by Health Care Without Harm and other groups. It noted critically ill infants can get 20 times the safe levels of DEHP and raised concerns with infants undergoing some blood transfusions, adults receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation or some cardiopulmonary bypass procedures, and people receiving enteral nutrition solutions.”
My question is this: Who set the “safe level” of DEHP? Is not this “level” the crux of the debate?
We've known for years that DEHP plasticized products leach DEHP into exposed liquids, but I'm not so sure there is a real danger in such migration. Maybe 20 times or even 200 times the “safe level” is not a problem for the critically ill infants that the group cited! Where's the toxicology data on dioctyl phthalate? That's the real issue. Does it potentially harm anyone (human) at the levels reported?
Len Horst
Uniontown, Ohio
