If the kids are drinking soft drinks - and with their parents' approval - and one of the reasons is the safety and potability of the available water, that should be the place to start combatting it.

There are places in Appalachia and elsewhere where the water has been so contaminated and grossly unappealing that there is no question that government, whether state or federal, should step in and force the mining companies to remedy it immediately. It is criminal to allow a generation of children to grow up in such conditions.