Put Everyday Fears in the Proper Place

As you probably know, USpharmaceutical stocks havebeen hit. Apparently, everydrug on the market is unsafe,or at least suspect. Just look at the warninglabel on a bottle of aspirin: Cancause stomach bleeding among other ailments,including Reyes syndrome inyoung children. The obvious solution isto take all drugs off the market.

Par for the Course

Even a simple product like VaselineIntensive Care bears the warning,"Discontinue if signs of irritation or rashappear." There is not one food, drink, ordrug that doesn't cause harm to somebody—not one.

Logic

at its illogical worst:

Ever wonder why you're not servedpeanuts on airplane flights anymore?Somebody onboard might be allergic tothem. So, serving pretzels—which millionsof Americans are allergic to—coatedwith heavy doses of salt is a betteralternative than serving peanuts. Airlines can't servepeanuts because some people are seriouslyallergic to them, but they can servepretzels even though some people areseriously allergic to them.

Toxic Necessities

What about your water? Don't drinkit. It's filled with chlorine and otherpotentially toxic elements like lead. Andthere is no filter on the market that canremove every contaminant. Even if youdrink distilled water, you shower orbathe regularly, which means your skinstill absorbs chlorine. Don't eat fish orother seafood either. All fish and seafoodcontain small amounts of mercury, andwe all know mercury is bad for you.

The air you breathe is filled with pollutants,regardless of where you live.You've got to stop breathing to avoidany problems. And caffeine is a drug, sono more coffee, tea, or soft drinks foryou—not even decaf varieties, since theyalso contain this evil toxin. You can't eatbeef, chicken, or turkey because theymay have been injected with antibioticsand you don't know what they ate ordrank while they were alive. Plus, theybreathe the same polluted air as you do.

What's a person to do? Relax andenjoy life. You can give up eating andbreathing, but frankly that's not a goodchoice. By the way, drug stocks arecheap nowadays. In fact, you may neversee them this cheap again, so buy.

is chairman of Staton

Financial Advisors LLC, a money

management firm. Contact him to

join his free weekly Dollar-Bill

Club and receive a no-obligation

trial to his weekly "E-Money

Digest." He welcomes questions or comments at

704-365-2122, [email protected], or via fax at

704-365-1910. Mary Staton recently coauthored

with Bill Worry-Free Family Finances (McGraw-Hill; 2003), which is available at www.billstaton.com and at all bookstores.

Bill Staton