Supervisors Mistaken in Fining Doctors

I resent the suggestion of the Orange County Board of Supervisors that I am in any way responsible for despoiling the beaches of Orange County (“Medical-Waste Mess Leads to Fees for Health Professionals,” Dec. 29).

Evidently, someone is illegally dumping used syringes and needles and other potentially contaminated medical waste in the ocean, and this dangerous debris has washed ashore.

Faced with the frustration of the inability to find the perpetrators, the board has decided to solve the problem by imposing a fee on all 2,000 independent doctors and dentists in the county.

During World War II, it was a favorite Nazi retribution to respond to sabotage in an occupied village by arbitrarily choosing 10 or 100 innocent civilians and shooting them. Although nothing so violent is purposed, similar nonselective punishment of the innocent along with the guilty is apparently not beyond the philosophy of the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

The fine, for that is really what it is, of $35 a year is trivial. The suggestion that 2,000 professionals have formed a sinister conspiracy to have someone collect medical detritus and haul it out in the ocean is insulting and ridiculous. Most of us can show receipts for payment of much larger monthly fees to special hazardous-waste collectors.

As I walk the beaches of Orange County, I am offended by the number of empty Coca-Cola cans and crushed hamburger containers littering the sand. Would anyone seriously consider levying a fine on McDonald’s or Wendy’s?

ARTHUR D. SILK, M.D.

Member, Board of Directors

Orange County Medical Assn.

Garden Grove