The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

6- The Oakville Beaver, Friday May 2, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com OPINION & LETTERS The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-3824, ext. 224 Circulation: 845-9742 Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: The Oakville Beaver is a division of IAN OLIVER Group Publisher Media Group Ltd. NEIL OLIVER Publisher DAVID HARVEY General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA ANCHOR Circ. Manager Seatbelts save lives It's hard for us to understand why some drivers and passengers still refuse to use their seatbelts -- especially when it is so obvious they save lives. But the stats show there are some of us who just don't buckle up, and it's the older drivers who don't seem to be getting the message. The annual provincial seatbelt campaign, operated by police services across Ontario between April 16-27, revealed both good news and bad news this year. The OPP stopped more than 1.24 million vehicles during this spring's campaign and laid 10,753 charges against drivers, 4,481 charges against passengers and charged 274 drivers for not having a properly installed child restraint. Four people were also killed on roads patrolled by the OPP during the campaign who were not wearing seatbelts. On the positive side, 92 per cent of Ontario drivers were found to have been using their seatbelts. "Ontario has one of the highest compliance rates for seatbelt use of any jurisdiction in North America," OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino said. "But there are still drivers out there who don't seem to get it. We had four people die during the campaign because they weren't buckled up. The few seconds it takes to buckle up could be the difference between living and dying if you are involved in a serious collision." So far in 2008, 27 people who chose not to wear seatbelts have died on OPPpatrolled roads, which is a 28.9 per cent decrease over the same time last year, when 38 people had been killed. In Halton the good news is that 95 per cent of local motorists were buckled up -- slightly higher than the provincial average. A total of 23,900 vehicles were observed and 1,350 people were found not to have been using their seatbelt. However, that didn't prevent 863 people from receiving tickets from Halton officers for not using their seatbelt. Young people, however, seem to understand the importance of seatbelt use. Halton Educational Services officers, working with students, conducted seatbelt checks at local schools and of the 1,475 cars checked only six tickets and eight warnings were issued. Seatbelts save lives. That is no longer open for debate. The sooner all drivers and passengers realize this, the better. The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, ON, L6K 3S4, or via e-mail to editor@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Time for Oakville to ban disposable plastic bags I believe Oakville should ban the use of disposable plastic shopping bags. Think about this -- these plastic bags are used for an average of 10 minutes, to get the stuff we buy from the store to our homes. Then they get tossed into the garbage and eventually end up in a landfill, or our environment (in our parks, forests, rivers, lakes and oceans). And these plastic bags take more than 1,000 years to break down, even then never disappearing completely ­ they simply break down into smaller particles of plastic. These plastic particles contaminate our soil, lakes and oceans, and are eaten by other living organisms. They are passed up the food chain, becoming more and more concentrated, until we, at the top of the food chain, ingest this accumulation of toxins, and are thus exposed to great health risk. Plastic bags contain many industrial chemicals (e.g. lead, mercury, cadmium), including those known to cause cancer, thyroid conditions and other health problems. They are also petroleum-based, a non-renewable resource which is rapidly dwindling. In my opinion, plastic shopping bags are completely unnecessary. They're flimsy, hazardous to our health, and bad for the environment ­ and they hang around for a long time. And for what ­ a few minutes of convenience? There are so many better, safer and more environmentally-friendly alternatives out there ­ cloth bags (many retailers are now making much more stylish and functional bags available), sturdy reusable bins, backpacks...even your own two hands. It's not that difficult to leave a few reusable cloth bags in the car or by the front door for the next shopping trip. It just requires us to change the way we think. Convenience should not be an excuse for irresponsibility. Many countries have already placed a full ban on plastic bags, including Taiwan, Singapore and Bangladesh. Paris has also banned them as of 2007, with all of France to follow suit in 2010. San Francisco became the first North American city to ban plastic bags in March 2007; Leaf Rapids, Manitoba was the first Canadian town in April 2007. Let's join the ranks of forward-thinkers, and do our part for our environment, our health and our future. Let's choose to use reusable bags and bins, and support a ban on plastic shopping bags in Oakville. DAISY TAMPINCO Pud BY STEVE NEASE snease@haltonsearch.com The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone 416-340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline.