RE your Last Word brief item about a pollution problem in Vancouver “in the US state of Washington” (Echo, April 14).

How long has Vancouver been in the US? Time your reporters learnt their geography. Do you not use proof readers these days?

Alan Dixon, York.

■ Footnote: Seems it is not our reporters who need the geography lesson, Mr Dixon. A quick internet check will reveal that there is a Vancouver – founded in 1825 on the north bank of the Columbia River and with a present-day population of about 162,000 – which is the county seat of Clark County in the US state of Washington, some 300 miles from its more famous namesake in British Columbia, Canada. It was, indeed, the US city to which our story referred.