Inhalants

About 4,500 gallons of chemicals leaked at a swimming pool store Friday, forming a chlorine gas cloud, officials said. Nine persons were treated after inhaling fumes.

EEDS" is back, and it's about time. Showtime's banner dramedy about a pot-dealing suburban mom is one of the best reasons to pay for cable. As Nancy Botwin, Mary-Louise Parker captures the sardonic narcissism of a widow who enters the drug world out of desperation (what else could an upper-middle-class, stay-at-home mom do? Sell Avon?) only to be seduced by early success and her own bad-girl self.

Re "Smoking Goes From Bad to Worse, New Research Finds," June 20: We all know how evil smoking is. But when can we expect to see the results of studies of the effects of 50 years of inhaling combustion-engine exhaust with every breath we've taken? Not, I imagine, any time in our abbreviated lives. Margaret Warren Los Angeles

Not long ago, Jesus Araujo, a cardiology researcher at UCLA, parked a cage full of transgenic mice alongside the 110 Freeway. As a control, he placed another group in a less-polluted space on the Westside. Araujo was interested in learning more about how smog affects the heart and whether bad air could help explain the persistence of heart disease after 25 years of cholesterol management, statins and endless lifestyle advice. On collecting the mice several weeks later, Araujo made a troubling discovery: The mice exposed to freeway air presented a terrible blood profile.

California's winegrowing season started the other day. I had to put on a jacket. It felt like a bucket of cold water down the back of my neck. As a friend said through chattering teeth, "Somebody just opened the icebox door." It might seem odd that a blast of frigid air would herald the opening of fruit-growing season, but that's what makes California distinctive. The day certainly didn't start out in the refrigerator.

A 73-year-old retired woman was overcome by smoke Sunday night when an electrical short caused a fire inside her apartment in a retirement complex. Corrine Barker, who lives at the Heritage Village complex in the 700 block of West Santa Ana Street, was taken to Anaheim Memorial Hospital and treated for smoke inhalation, Anaheim Battalion Chief Rudy Weyland said.

A drug company is voluntarily recalling two prescription inhalers used by asthmatics because the products may not contain enough medication for relief, the Food and Drug Administration said Saturday. FDA spokesman Bill Grigg said the products are the Metaprel Metered Dose Inhaler and Metaprel Asthma Mist, distributed by Dorsey Laboratories of Lincoln, Neb.

Eli Lilly & Co. said Friday that it would terminate development of an inhaled insulin treatment for diabetes, which it was conducting in partnership with Alkermes Inc., after deciding that the product's potential for commercial success wasn't strong enough. Lilly's decision marks the third setback in recent months for inhaled insulin formulations, once deemed potential blockbuster products because of their greater convenience than standard injectable insulin. Cambridge, Mass.

A woman killed in a house fire over the weekend died of smoke inhalation, the Ventura County coroner's office ruled Sunday. Clair Thompson, 57, was showering Saturday afternoon when she was trapped by smoke and flames inside a bathroom at her house on the 2300 block of Medina Avenue, authorities said. The cause of the blaze is still under investigation. Deputy Coroner Armando Chavez said Thompson died of asphyxia by inhalation of smoke and carbon monoxide.

Re "Inhalant Suspected in Death of Boy, 12," March 21: I know it is scant consolation to the family of Tyler Pinnick, the 12-year-old who died presumably as a result of inhalant abuse, but we used the article and tragedy to have a very good discussion with our own 11- and 12-year-olds. Surprisingly, we found out several of our friends with children of a similar age did the same. I doubt we are unique. Although this will not make it easier to bear, perhaps some comfort can be received by the fact that his death may have saved several other children from a similar fate.