I will start by expressing my sympathy for Rene Becker and Susan Regis, owners of the restaurant Shepard (“Cafe’s smoke has neighbors fired up,’’ Page A1, May 15). I lived in that part of Cambridge for 19 years, and I know how uncompromising local residents can be. I also know how disappointing it can be to have a great idea, only to have someone later point out the fatal flaw. Nevertheless, Becker’s position reminds me of the position the US auto manufacturers took when emissions-control regulations were first proposed. Those arguments did not work 50 years ago, and they are not likely to work today.

Has Becker done an Internet search on the health hazards of wood smoke? He should think carefully about where he is going with this.

I have experience with both scrubbers for vent systems and cooking over wood fires. Keeping a scrubber working properly is no harder than cooking over a wood fire. If the scrubber was properly engineered, he should have data on its effectiveness. I assume the capture efficiency of his ventilation hoods is also known. Using that data, it should be possible to equate the impact of Shepard’s emissions to some additional number of diesel trucks driving past the restaurant on Mass. Ave. That might be a better starting point for negotiation with the neighbors.

Meanwhile, if Shepard were a manufacturing operation, its owners probably would have been contacted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the state Department of Environmental Protection, and the Environmental Protection Agency by now.

James Slack

Lexington

The writer is a chemical engineer.