Aerial spraying in California put public at risk
November 12, 2008 by Susie Collins
In the Open Forum at SF Gate, Mike Lynberg writes that “Aerial pesticide spraying put people at risk.”
Lynberg is referring to the spraying that occured in the fall of 2007 when the State of California sprayed pesticides over Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties to control the potentially invasive Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM). Thousands of Californians participated in a grass roots effort called Stop the Spray, and asked Governor Schwarzenegger to investigate the health complaints and end the LBAM Eradication Program. And in June 2008, the State announced a moratorium on aerial spray of urban areas. However, according to the Stop the Spray website, the LBAM Eradication Program still continues with the use of controversial toxic ground treatments and aerial pesticide spray of rural/mountainous areas.
Writes Lynberg:
The state’s long-awaited report on the human health risks of aerial pesticide spraying for the light brown apple moth was released last week. The report says what thousands of outraged people from Monterey to Marin County had feared: the product sprayed put some people at risk.
“We cannot exclude the possibility that one or more ingredients in the LBAM product could cause an allergic response in sensitive individuals,” reads the report, issued by the Department of Pesticide Regulation, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and the Department of Public Health.
The report acknowledges that some of the ailments suffered by people in the Monterey and Santa Cruz areas - namely asthma and reactive airway disease - “may be associated with exposure to a sensitizer or allergen.”
[...]
Seventy-four doctors filed pesticide illness reports. Several people ended up in emergency rooms.
There is more in the new report to validate the outrage many people felt about aerial spraying. State agencies now say there is a “paucity of data” on long-term exposure to the pesticides. Lab animals were tested for very short periods of time, whereas people in the Monterey and Santa Cruz areas were exposed to chemicals that persisted in the air for 30 to 60 days.
The report also admits that laboratory tests on a small number of animals might not be an adequate predictor of human health effects when large numbers of people - with different levels of sensitivity - are exposed to a pesticide.
It amazes me everytime, that people still think pesticides and spraying like this is OK, healthy and a good idea.
Doesnt even seem rational to me… and i am glad they had the science to back it up - but a little late for everyone who got sick.
This report made me mad as Hell when I read it!!!!! I can’t even speak about this.
You can’t believe what I read about the schools and Pesticides in California during my last course on holistic Nutrition. Dr. Gabriel Cousens talks about how bad it is on the kids and schools there. It is horrible.
I hope you are doing well, I have been feeling pretty OK at the moment.
Hugs and Love
Anna
I’m so with you guys, I was stunned to read about this. Can you imagine? Wouldn’t you just flip out if your neighborhood was sprayed with pesticide from the sky?! But the spraying was stopped by grassroots efforts, people literally in the streets demanding it be stopped (at least in urban areas). And as they say, as goes California, so goes the country…
Anna, I’m happy to hear you are getting though school and feeling okay. Kudos to you, girl! {aloha hugs}