LBAM Aerial Spraying on California’s 315 Million Tourists

Thinking of visiting California in 2008? Think again.

Quick Facts About California Tourism

• The state of California is the nation’s #1 tourist destination
• In 2003, Travel and Tourism expenditures in California totaled $78.2 BILLION dollars
• The tourism industry provides nearly 1 MILLION jobs for Californians
• Tourism in California generates $5 BILLION yearly in direct state and local tax revenue
• Los Angeles, alone, receives 53 MILLION visitors a year
• San Francisco receives 15 MILLION visitors a year
• The Monterey Bay Aquarium receives more than 1.5 MILLION visitors annually
• In Total, California Receives some 315 Million Domestic and International Visitors Annually

Let’s Not Go To California This Year

“Honey, where shall we go this year?”
“How about California? We can walk on the beaches, take the kids to Disneyland, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, go see that great new museum in San Francisco.”
“Only if the airlines will give us gas masks when we step off the plane, dear!”
“What do you mean?”
“Haven’t you heard? The government is spraying poison from airplanes all over the coast of California and the drift from it is probably going to make that whole darned state a toxic nightmare.”
“Gosh, then that’s about the last place I’m taking our family!”

Travel agents, airlines, hotel owners and every local attraction that depends on the 315 million annual tourists that make the tourism industry the 3rd largest employer in California are going to be on the receiving end of conversations like the above that are happening across the country and around the globe as the word gets out that CDFA is planning to aerially spray California with carcinogens and synthetics encapsulated in particulate plastic. The plastic will be inhaled deeply into the lungs of anyone unlucky enough to be here, causing documented side effects of respiratory failure, primary asthma attacks in people who’ve never had asthma in their lives, horrible skin rashes, damage to skin and eyes, menstrual irregularities and vomiting. Have a nice trip? I don’t think so!

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California Department of Agriculture intend to begin spraying California in June of 2008, every 30 days, for an undisclosed number of years, chronically exposing the 7 million inhabitants of these 7 coastal counties to known carcinogens, mutagens and tumorigens:

San Francisco County
Marin County
Monterey County
Santa Cruz County
Alameda County
Contra Costa County
San Mateo County

After the aerial spraying of Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties in 2007, more than 600 people were made violently ill, an 11 month old baby nearly died of respiratory failure, hundreds of seabirds washed up dead on the beaches and the watershed was covered with a foul foam. Lawsuits are already happening and many residents are leaving the spray areas. This isn’t a good place to visit.

Because the pesticides, synthetics and carcinogens are in time-released plastic capsules and will be sprayed every month, there will be no safe day to be in California. The air and water will be filled with these toxins every day of the year. You don’t want to breathe this stuff, drink this stuff or touch this stuff. In addition to the immediate harms to the human body, the long-range health effects of the substance are known to cause cancer. If you don’t want cancer, don’t visit California.

Why The Heck Is This Happening?
Our governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is a recipient of monetary contributions from the Secretary of the California Dept. of Agriculture, – A.G. Kawamura – and the maker of the chemicals being sprayed on California – Stewart Resnick of Suterra LLC. A basically harmless moth, the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) has been discovered in California. Because this moth was once incorrectly classified as a Class A pest, interstate and international trade restrictions apply to areas where the moth lives. So, rather than correctly reclassifying the LBAM as is indicated by modern scientific research as a negligible pest, the governor and the CDFA are willing to aerially spray 7 million Californians with known carcinogens to protect trade profits, while calling their product a harmless pheromone. Don’t be duped by their spiel….the pheromone is a synthetically manufactured chemical, not a natural substance, and it is but one of the host of devastatingly toxic ingredients in the spray.

Yes, they are willing to fly planes over urban areas that are home to 7 million Californians, permanently harming us and our environment and they are quite willing to do the same to the 315 Million tourists who come to visit California annually.

The more the word gets out about the toxicity of the spray and its immediate and longterm health effects on children, women and men, the more damage we can expect to see done to the California tourism industry as people wisely choose not to visit here.

The scenario smart travelers want to avoid is one of standing in their fancy, expensive suite of a famous San Francisco hotel, watching airplanes dumping toxic chemicals across the skyline. No vacation that winds up with you or a loved one at an inner-city ER is going to be a good vacation.

What Should You Do?

- First of all, don’t visit California if you care about your health and your family’s health.
- Absolutely do not bring your pets here. Sprayed animals in Monterey and Santa Cruz died.
- Phone Gov. Schwarzenegger and tell him why you won’t be visiting California: 1 (916) 445-2841
- Phone the CA Tourist Board 1 (916) 444-4429 or email them at web@visitcalifornia.com to let them know you won’t visit a state that is aerially spraying its visitors.
- If your company or organization hosts a west coast conference, consider booking space in Washington or Oregon instead and explain to your previous conference center’s staff that you don’t want your members being sprayed because you’ve held an event California.

In a situation as grave as this, it isn’t enough to abstain from visiting California. It’s only by telling the tourism industry and the government why you won’t be spending your money here that they will understand just how damaging to the economy their decision to spray the state is. Your voice may protect the millions of defenseless residents and further millions of uninformed tourists from serious harm if we work together to say aerial spray is not okay.

The majority of city and county governments in regions set to be sprayed beginning this summer of 2008 are demanding that the SF Bay Area and Monterey Bay Region not be sprayed, but we’ve been told we have no vote in the matter. Your money, as a valued tourist, is your vote. Please help us protect beautiful California and its people from this disaster. We want to welcome you to California, but don’t want you to get sick.

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