Moving Because of LBAM Spray - California’s Refugee Problem
Sunday 06 Apr 2008 | LBAM Spray Bay Area
Have You Moved Or Are You Planning To Move If CDFA Aerially Sprays in 2008?
We Want You To Share Your Story Here
More than half of the people with whom we’ve spoken because of the LBAM aerial spray public health crisis have told us that they have either already moved away, are planning to move in the next few weeks or are waiting to see if the spraying is stopped to decide to flee or not.
Because of these conversations, we have come to realize that the California Department of Food and Agriculture is creating a serious refugee crisis as family after family attempts to run and hide from the carcinogens, mutagens and particulate plastic pollution of the spray. Not since the Dust Bowl of the Great Depression, perhaps, has our nation witnessed an aggravated exodus like the one currently happening in the Monterey Bay region and the SF Bay Area. The difference is, of course, that the Dust Bowl was created by a natural calamity. The current crisis is being perpetuated by the governmental agency, CDFA, against the strongly voiced demands of the regions set to be sprayed.
We Need to Document What is Happening to Us
It takes a serious disaster to make an American man or woman sell their home, leave their job, put their family in the car and flee. We are outraged that the employees and colleagues of CDFA continue to call the toxic aerial spray and permethrin ground sludge ‘harmless’. So many Californians would not be forced to become refugees if the spraying of pesticides on human beings and the watershed was safe. You know it isn’t safe, you do not want yourself or your loved ones to be used as guinea pigs in this unconscionable experiment and that is why you are trying to escape to the safety that is GUARANTEED to you by the California Constitution.
Please, Use The Comments Field Below To Document Your Refugee Story
Things you might wish to include:
- Mental, emotional distress suffered by you and your family
- Personal property you have been forced to sell or abandon
- Employment you have been forced to leave
- A message to CDFA about the crisis their actions have put your family in
- Suggestions for other refugees of any safe places you have found to move to
This last point is an important one. With USDA’s announcement that it intends to seek the light brown apple moth in every state and Puerto Rico, many of us are feeling that there is no safe refuge left where we will not be subject to chemical experimentation without consent. If you’ve discovered a location that seems safe to move to, please be so kind as to share that with other readers. We are all in this together.
——
Unlike with the other posts on Vegan Reader, we won’t be responding to the comments below. We don’t want to confuse the count of cases by responding to each post, but be assured that we are reading each and every one of your posts and are full of empathy for the incredibly difficult situation the spraying is putting each of you in.
Sunday 06 Apr 2008 | admin | LBAM Spray Bay Area |
My daughter is a freshman at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). She has asthma and allergies. Her physician told her she must leave UCSC right before the aerial and ground spraying begins because the toxic chemicals will acerbate her asthma. She will return home to Fremont and will apply to colleges this fall so she can return to college for 2009-10, which will put her 1 year behind in graduating from college. Since we live in Fremont and are not scheduled to be sprayed, at least for now, she will have a place to live in order to avoid the LBAM spraying issues. However, all of the San Francisco Bay Area has LBAM so we are planning to move away out of the LBAM eradication areas since we do not trust CDFA to not spray where we live.
We have lived in the San Francisco Bay Area our entire lives and we are very sad to have to leave since we love this area so much.
We are in our 60’s and retired.
Where we move to will be an area where the LBAM will not be able to live, where pesticides are not be sprayed, and where the air, water, and environment will not be contaminated. We also would like to move where there are jobs so our daughter will have a choice to live close to us.
We are very disgusted that our government can use pesticides where we live and can contaminate us and our environment. It makes us wonder if living in the United States is all that desirable any more, especially since President Bush has been in office.
We look forward to reading where other people have decided to move to.
Get an indepth pollution report for your county, covering air, water, chemicals, and more - by zip code and it’s free:
http://www.scorecard.org
Learn where the heaviest usage of pesticides are in California. The California map shows the total pounds of active ingredients applied per square mile.
http://www.pesticidereform.org/article.php?id=185
The National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program, which began in 1992, is a national-scale assessment of the occurrence and behavior of pesticides in streams and ground water of the United States and the potential for pesticides to adversely affect drinking-water supplies or aquatic ecosystems. This website provides a wealth of information on where pesticides are in our drinking-water and aquatic ecosystems in the United States and is managed through the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Geological Survey.
http://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/pnsp/
Copied from another post on Vegan Reader:
Sunita Says:
Hi, I was a resident in Santa Cruz county with chemical sensitivities. When they sprayed in Santa Cruz in fall 2007, I became so ill that I almost couldnt breathe and had to go to the emergency room for treatment. My blood pressure (normally low) went up to 164/120. I was violently ill with vomiting, body aches, and burning lungs. I had chest pain that lasted 11 weeks, and who knows what long term damaged it has caused. I spent every bit of my energy working to stop the spray with CASS. My doctors told me I had to leave the area before the ground or aerial spray starts again as I am too sensitive and may not live thru another spray. I am now writing to you from New Mexico, my new place of residence. After living in Santa Cruz, CA for 30 years, I have left like a refugee, searching for clean air and starting over in an entirely new place. I have vowed to keep fighting this from wherever I am, and I want people to know how serious this is. Even if you are not chemically sensitive now and may still be standing after another spray, repeated exposures cause chemical sensitivity and worse…I imagine others are leaving too, or will leave soon if the spray is not stopped.
When Kawmanura of the CDFA planned to Spray Santa Cruz in Nov, 2007 from airplanes with a toxic synthetic chemical pesticide, we couldn’t believe it could happen here. We contacted CDFA daily by phone a few times each day and we were on their email list to receive information. We planned to leave in time to miss the spray. We were really well informed, …we thought!
The planned order of spray announced by the CDFA was first Salinas, then Prunedale and then Santa Cruz. So we were supposed to have plenty of days warning once the weather cleared and they were able to start aerial spraying in Salinas. We returned home from errands one day, called the CDFA, and found out that they had switched the entire schedule with NO notice. They put our neighborhood in Santa Cruz first with NO explanation. We had 1 hour and 45 minutes to get out of our house with as much clothes, our kid’s favorite toys and books and light furniture as we could run with to the truck outside. Forgetting the tremendous expense, we were fortunate to have already found a second place to live temporarily.
We got out ten minutes before the spray started, and I was never so nervous that my truck would stall and leave us exposed sitting out on the highway under the airplanes. It is a really vulnerable and terrible feeling. The spray was advertised as a 30-90 day time release, so we rented another place out of town and stayed away for 72 days. When we returned, we came back with a $1,000 air filter that filtered to 5 microns so we could feel we had some defense to protect our child from any lingering spray particles drifting into our home and coming in on our feet and clothing. We communicated with many people who had no choice but to stay and we spoke literally with hundreds who had become ill from the spray. It must be a terrible thing to have your body get sick from a chemical dropped on your home. The Santa Cruz Sentinel and the Monterey Herald would not investigate or report on the thousands that got sick. They would only report those who had filed official reports. And since there was no effective instruction by the CDFA to the people how or where to file a health report, the CDFA successfully kept the health disaster out of the news initially, with only the most aggressive and courageous people forcing a report on some government agency after hours or days trying to find someone to accept it.
For us, even after being away for 72 days, we still felt dirty walking around in the air of Santa Cruz. We felt contaminated. It is the most terrible feeling to not be in control of the welfare of your own child, and knowing that your own home is not an escape. And our experience was so mild in comparison to those who simply were not able to leave. It is further terrible to hear Kawmanura continue to lie in the media to people who did not know that so many people got sick.
Pulling our child out of school and interrupting all the activities and plans that we had for his well being is a shocking realization of the power of the villain, the tyrant, the coward, Kawmanura, secretary of the CDFA. But we felt thankful, that we could protect our child by moving away for that extended period of time. When we returned, we felt embarrassed, as others were not able to leave as we had, regardless of the money it cost us.
Now, facing a planned aerial spray lasting for years, we cannot move away temporarily to avoid it. We will be forced to flee our home for years. Our child will miss his school, he will have to leave his friends. We too will have to leave our friends and family who are not able to get out. We have to give up our town and our home, but not for a natural disaster, but for another kind of disaster, an insane evil leader of the CDFA imposing his shadow of darkness on decent people.
We will fight Kawmanura by delivering the truth and we will hope to be able to stay in our homes. For those thousands who got sick, our situation is minor. I would ask all those who live in another area where the spray is planned to step up, to make this fight your highest priority. Join with those who are most effective at challenging the continuous lies or donate money to one of the organizations which is effectively challenging the spray, such as the California Alliance to Stop the Spray, CASS (CASSonline.org). It will do us no good to say “I can’t believe this is happening” if the planes are overhead. What is your home and your life and that of your friends, pets and family worth?! Give your time and money or both. Spend your time now or make generous & repeated contributions so those who are fighting this for all of us, can obtain the media and outreach and legal resources they need to fight the battles, and to fight these battles intelligently, so that we and they will NOT be sprayed.
For us, for you and for all people, please step up big and help. Is there anything more important than protecting the lives of your children, your families and the town you live.
Love, Bobby
The 11 Month Old Boy Who Almost Died (news)
“Health Problems Reported After Aerial Spraying” by Jane Kay, Environment Writer, San Francisco Chronicle 4-7-08
“On a clear night in September, the Wilcox family got ready for the airplane that would soon fly overhead and spray a pesticide to fight an invasive moth discovered on the Monterey Peninsula. They shut the windows and stayed indoors. “I didn’t think much of it. We thought it wouldn’t be harmful,” said Air Force Maj. Timothy Wilcox, who’s enrolled in the U.S. Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey. The very next day, the Wilcoxes’ 11-month-old son, Jack, started wheezing. It got so bad, his eyes rolled back in his head, the boy’s father said. The baby spent his first birthday in the hospital on oxygen and medication.
To read full article, please go to SF GATE
*This comment has been edited by VeganReader. It is a violation of copyright to reprint entire articles without permission, so we’ve edited this and linked to the main source. Thanks.
I am planning to move in July if our efforts are not enough to stop the spray. It will disrupt the lives of my children (8 and 11), their father (my ex-husband, who is choosing to stay behind), their relationship with their father, my relationship with my long-term boyfriend, as well as relationships with all of the families & friends that I’ve built up relationships with over the past 10 plus years.
I don’t want to move, I don’t want my children to have to move. I spent my entire childhood moving every six months, I didn’t want my girls to have to go through that. I thought my girls and I had found a relatively safe place to live. Obviously not.
I’m just so frustrated and sickened by this. The Bay Area will lose so much in terms of diversity and creativity. But, perhaps that’s what the intent it.
I have been following the aerial spraying issue on this board. I have lived in Santa Cruz since 1989. I have a daughter, fiancee, and father living with me and we are preparing to move due to the the spraying. We have been traveling to investigate other states and hope to move this summer after my daughter finishes out the school year. I work with several other families who are concerned. One who has a wife and three children moved back to his home state last week.
i live in santa cruz and left during the spray for 6 days. i made the mistake of coming back too soon and after a few days left for a month which cost me $2k. since the spray was time-released for 30 days i tought it might be okay to come back after a month. i came back to find i would be ill for another 2-3 months no matter where i was, in my home, car or outside. outside was worst. i felt i was suffocating in my home. (i do have chronic fatigue syndrome.)
i have a daughter in school and a husband who has a job here. they were fine. i tried to find a place to live near them but they kept expanding their maps.
i visited sonoma county where we used to live even though they have found one moth there. i couldn’t handle the smog, traffic and wine/ag spraying. other than my husband finding a new job and dragging my daughter who has been with the same kids in school for half her life, i’m going solo.
i may follow sunita and go to new mexico, something i’ve always wanted to do and i have spoken to an alternative pest management expert about the lack of ag and pesticides there. i may go way up to the most northern part of california. to play it safe one would have to move to washington or colorado where it is too cold for the moths. since my eyes have been opened, i am shocked at all the spraying that goes on everywhere.
the stress and inconvenence this has caused is off the charts. my daughter is traumatized i’m leaving.
it is so unfair yet i am thankful i am able to leave.
as hard as this is and as stressful it is to move when you’re sick i am really scared for the people who can’t leave. i have lost all faith in the government.
thank you for providing a place for these stories.
Having lived in S.C. CA for a quarter of a century - and in Cal. all my life, I can’t help singing “Anatevka, Anatevka”… This is for real??!!??
I’m a survivor of chemical injuries and cancer, and have a teenager prone to asthma. We evacuated ourselves and all our animals for the first spray. While gone, we investigated many communities in Northern Cal… all had some “hope” of being sprayed again soon - for mosquitos, grape beetles, LBAM, etc.
I am poor. SSI does not make one “comfortable”. We have had to beg from our religious group, old acquaintances, friends etc. to raise the moving money. I will need lots of prayers as we journey, as I will be a stranger on the Northern tip of the East coast - yes, I know about acid rain, and we are moving to a lesser affected area.
My health has gotten worse from the stress, my child has started having trembling attacks. Her school work is now way behind, because we are moving. I am leaving all my family and friends behind. This is huge. I grieve and mourn. And hope that some day Cal will be safe again.
Wish us luck - and we wish all of you safety and health too!
With a chemically sensitive ex and a five year old on the spectrum I cannot stay to see what effects it “might” have on them - they will have to move if the spray happens and I must follow.
Awful -
I posed this same question at stopthespray.org under the headline, “Who is planning to move away BEFORE the next spray?” you can look there to see additional postings including mine.
Thank you Dorothy.
Here is a direct link to the forum post Dorothy is mentioning, with additional people documenting their LBAM refugee experiences:
http://forum.stopthespray.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=412
I live in Oakland and have chemical sensitivity. I am planning to leave before August 1 if spraying moves forward as planned. I am fortunate because my retired parents live in Calaveras County and I can stay with them. However, I must leave my home, husband,extened family and friends, work…..and when can I safely return?
*Added By Vegan Reader from Indy Bay News:
I haven’t yet exerienced the LBAM spray, but from the stories I’ve heard I am positive I will be a candidate for moving if spraying happens as promosed in the East Bay. Breathing traffic fumes, fumes from tumbledryers (dryer sheets), perfume, cigarettes - you name the toxin - it affects my health. I’m often down for 24 hours with a nasty nauseous headache and inability to focus.
I am not going to risk the possibility of longer exposure as indicated in the LBAM program. Whether they spray every month or every three months, the stuff is going to be in the air, and, since it is made up of synthetic chemicals some of which are known to be harmful to humans, I know I’d be down.
I think of myself as a canary in the coal mine - one of the first to be affected.
Catherine S
Testing
I am one of the Canaries in the coal mine. If you hear me singing you better listen. I am healing from Lyme and co-infections along with MCS,EI and mercury toxic. For many years I was dxed with Chronic Fatigue Symdrome,Fibromylgia,MCS and EI. 31/2 yrs ago finally dxed with Lyme and co-infections. The treatment for Lyme and co-infections is hell, especially with chronic lyme and co-infections. Its been a nightmare for me being treated. I am doing all alternative protocals. I was finally feeling like I was going to be well and very hopeful and then we were sprayed in Santa Cruz. It has knocked me way back. Very disappointing. I have had symptions that I never had with my lyme hell. A lot more than they are saying in the papers. This is not allergy,cold or flu. One of the symptions I s spotting,pms and cramping. I am post menopausal. Its been 15 yrs since I have had a period. I have just been starting to feel a bit better. I am not usually not in fear but I am of being sprayed again. I already lost my home in Fremont do to becoming disabled and then moved to SC to heal. I will have to leave if they spray in June,but to who knows where.I am low income so that makes it all the harder. I know many are in my situation.Like I have said many times, I feel like I am in the twlight zone or in a bad nightmare that I am unable to wake up from. Very scary. I am working hard to stay in balance in mind,body,spirit emotions,while doing my small part to stop this insanity.Blessings to stopping the spray. Namaste’ Joyce
Posted by Vegan Reader from Bay Area Craigslist:
Landlords: You Are About to Lose Your Renters (sausalito)
I personally know of several renters about to break their leases and leave the area due to the imminent aerial pesticide spraying that is about to begin in Southern Marin.
Posted by Vegan Reader from the Petition Site:
Melissa Handley , California
I am shocked by the plan to spray the public, thier children and animals without any consent! This is an outrage. I am moving to the bay area for work and am now considering against it. More and more people are eating foods without poisons and staying away from them for a reason! This is a basic human right and it is being violated. I am seriously considering not buying any real estate because of this issue. It is disturbing and sad.
Posted by Vegan Reader from the Petition Site:
Mikel Russell , California
If this goes ahead, I and several of my friends and family members will be moving out of California, permanently. This is an outrageous attack on the citizens of California.
I was born and raised in San Francisco and now am a homeowner in Oakland-46 years total. The Bay Area has always been my home and I’ve been grateful to live here with our precious regional, state and national parklands as well as our diverse communites.
If the LBAM or any other aerial spray program starts, I will be moving out of the area, probably out of state. I will be very disheartened to see our beautiful state (and other states to follow) be turned into a toxic wasteland by the decisions of a few greedy, dispicable and down-right evil people.
Here’s a quote I received today for all of us to follow: Activist/Scholar Rosa Clemente’s Marching Orders For People who are Frustrated With The System:
Never feel demoralized.
Inform yourself.
DON’T create another organization; JOIN one of the many good ones in existence.
Get involved / get organized.
Come up with a critical mass of people who do what they are really strong at.
What is your disaster plan, i.e.who can you depend on when things get really bad? Hopefully yourself!
PEACE TO ALL.