Ruling helps California residents – and invasive moth – breathe easier

Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger did the right thing when he called a time out so scientists could study the potential effects of a chemical pheromone that was scheduled to be sprayed on parts of the state to combat the invasive light brown apple moth (LBAM).

Some background: About 18,000 moths have been found in the state. They represent a serious threat to California’s $32 billion ag industry. California had been granted an exception to environmental review on an emergency basis because of the moth’s potential to destroy crops. The state was scheduled to begin aerial applications, as it had done last year. However, in Santa Cruz County, a state judge ruled last week that an environmental report should be done before spraying resumes in that county. Hours before that ruling came down, Schwarzenegger halted all spraying until a state agency could look into potential human health effects of the material, called CheckMate.

When CheckMate was sprayed last year, more than 450 residents of Santa Cruz and Monterey counties complained of a variety of ailments, including breathing trouble.

LBAM can destroy crops, but also can bring about quarantines and trade actions by other states and countries. So the risk we’re talking about is not just a loss of agribusiness profits; the livelihoods of many thousands of California workers could be at stake.

Wisely, Schwarzenegger halted the spray program statewide until at least Aug. 17, even though the court ruling would have allowed spraying in other counties. Given the widespread protests and the uncertainty of the chemical’s effects, the governor should continue the delay even if the judge’s ruling is overturned on appeal.

This is definitely one of those times when “better safe than sorry” is sensible advice.

-- Kevin

Comments

[Mim]

Greetings Project Green Folks!

Thank you for giving this space on your blog.

While it is a good thing that the governor has called for some tests to be done, there are 2 vast problems with his order that aren't allowing any of us to catch our breath or stop fighting.

1) The toxicity studies are going to be short term. They will not measure the short or long-term effects of chronic exposure CDFA is threatening us with. Remember, their plan is to spray us 5 nights a month, 9 months a year for 10 or more years. So, unless the tests include long term studies of what happens to a person after they are sprayed with pesticides and fatal PM10 pollution 450 times over a decade, testing will not give an adequate picture of the actual harm that will be done to us.

2) These tests will be overseen by - guess who - CDFA, author or the spray, in conjunction with OEHHA, the corrupt group that dismissed the hundreds of reports filled out by families who were sickened by the 2007 spraying. They didn't speak to a single victim or doctor. They just threw the data in the garbage and glibly announced that they couldn't make a connection between pesticide poisoning and spraying pesticide on people.

Because the governor is allowing these criminals (CDFA was just convicted by a superior court of violating CEQA) to be in charge of the testing, their findings are a foregone conclusion. They will say the spray is safe, when our doctors and scientists have come forward one by one to say it is incredibly toxic and will result in human fatality.

CDFA has made it their policy to deceive the public in order to receive federal funding for their program of spraying human beings with pesticide.

So, we can't breath easy. We can't stop fighting this.

These things need to happen:

1) The moth must be declassified. It is incorrectly classified as a Class A pest, according to modern science. It needs to be downgraded, and then all this would just go away.

2) Testing MUST be conducted by independent third party experts...not groups like CDFA that stand to benefit financially or professionally from spraying.

3) Our governor and any future governor needs to get the message that human experimentation is a violation of our state and US constitutions, as well as the globally-upheld Nuremberg code. It will not be permitted to happen here and suggesting that human experimentation is acceptable will be immediate grounds for dismissal from public office.

I really appreciate you covering this issue and urge your group to do everything you can to stop America from going down this road. We cannot go green while we're turning blue from pesticide poisoning.

Mim
VeganReader.com

[Karen Watts]

Unfortunately, our governor has flip flopped again. This pheromone has been studied and it is safe. The citizens of Santa Cruz county would protest the spraying of water as a control mechanism. This pest has the potential to damage a number of the state's crops. In a year where food prices have sky rocketed and vegetable and fruit growers are struggling to survive - this is a bad move. We live longer and better than we ever have in the history of mankind. Why - because we have relied on science. I am sure that we will find a natural predator for this pest but in the meantime we need to spray and the pheromone route is less invasive than spraying traditional pesticides which may be what will need to be used if the outbreak gets worse because we don't use the pheromone. Spend some time in Santa Cruz County - many of the residents are anti-everything. We need to use sound science and not approach everything from the precautionary principle that everything is dangerous until proven 100% safe. If that was the case, we might still be living in sod houses and scraping horse manure from the streets.

People that go to bed hungry at night are not concerned with the use of natural pheromones.