September 20, 1997

Letters

Narcotics use and immunosuppression

In reply to Robert A. Palmero's question of whether narcotics cause immunosuppression independent of HIV (Letters, SN: 7/19/97, p. 35), the answer is unequivocally yes. This has been proven in HIV-negative addicts. Furthermore, addicts progress to AIDS much more quickly, on average, than do other HIV-infected people.

By the way, the obverse has also been observed. HIV-positive addicts who kick their habit increase their time to AIDS development and have better prognoses for long-term survival than those who continue to use drugs after testing positive.

Robert Root-Bernstein
Professor of Physiology
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Mich.

New life for rocks

I truly enjoyed "Global Graveyard" (SN: 7/19/97, p. 46), but I must offer some friendly criticism regarding the title and the words on the cover, "Where Rock Goes to Die."

You have it all mixed up. Rocks experience rebirth, not death, when they plunge into Earth's center. The melting, degassing, and mixing in the mantle are highly dynamic. In fact, the experience of mechanical erosion and chemical weathering at the surface more closely resembles a petrologic graveyard. I suggest the title "Peering into Our Lively Planet."

Dave Haffner
Washington, D.C.

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