OEHHA’s Negligent and Outrageous Insult to the Residents Who Were Sickened
Thursday 10 Apr 2008 | LBAM Spray Bay Area
I almost hesitate to post the following pdf file because of the terrible insult it represents to the 643 families who were sickened by aerial spraying of toxic pesticides in the Monterey/Santa Cruz area in 2007. But, for the sake of letting everyone see just how negligent the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment has determined to be, here is their report finding no connection between the spraying and the illnesses:
I’d like to see them say to baby Jack Wilcox’s father’s face that there is no link between his child becoming delirious, eyes rolled back in his head, going into respiratory failure and the fact that pesticides known to cause respiratory failure were dumped on the baby’s home.
I’d like to see them tell Mike Lynberg’s family who fell ill the minute they stepped out of their homes that the spray didn’t cause this.
I’d like them to tell the doctor of one of our readers whose daughter was ordered to leave college to get away from the spray that aerial spraying doesn’t damage human health.
OEHHA has proved today that they, too, put the profits of special interests groups and the arrogant actions of governmental agencies ahead of public health.
We have known for decades and decades that exposure to pesticides causes illness.
We have all witnessed that the registered adverse health effects of the chemicals in the product sprayed match, point for point, the symptoms experienced by hundreds and hundreds of residents in 2007.
We also know that prolonged, chronic exposure to toxins leads to serious, potentially fatal harm, yet OEHHA is negligent to the point that they don’t even acknowledge this in their ludicrous report.
I am especially overawed by their nerve in stating that, “We want to assure the public that we are responding to their safety concerns.”
This report was OEHHA’s chance to respond. They have failed miserably and have made it abundantly clear that they have abandoned the innocent people of California in order to protect special interests. Shame. Shame. Shame.
Thursday 10 Apr 2008 | admin | LBAM Spray Bay Area |
Audio Media Conference of the Report:
http://www.lbamspray.com/00_Audios_Videos/2008_04_10_oehha.mp3
Audio Media Conference Telephone Call of the Report:
http://www.lbamspray.com/00_Audios_Videos/2008_04_10_oehha.mp3
4/10/08 *Pesticide Watch Press Release
“State Acknowledges That Pesticide Spray May Have Caused Hundreds of Illnesses - No Spray Victims or Doctors Consulted After Reporting Health Complaints”
Sacramento, CA – Earlier today, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) acknowledged that aerial pesticide spraying for the light brown apple moth (LBAM) may have caused hundreds of pesticide illnesses. A broad coalition of community and statewide organizations opposed to aerial pesticide spraying for LBAM reacted strongly to the report released by the agency. The long awaited report purported to examine the link between aerial pesticide spraying last fall in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, and the more the 643 reports of adverse health reactions following the spraying. Instead, the report repeated earlier findings that the State was unable to demonstrate that aerial pesticide spraying was NOT linked to reported illnesses.
“We are shocked and extremely disappointed by the hasty analysis provided by OEHHA,” stated Paul Schramski, Director of Pesticide Watch. “There is nothing new in this report beyond the same cursory review given to citizen health complaints right after the spraying.”
“It’s appalling that the state didn’t care enough and wasn’t diligent enough to interview people and their doctors. When people say they got sick from the spray, I take them at their word, rather than treat them with suspicion and attribute their illness to other causes,” added Mike Lynberg, author of the report that listed the hundreds of health complaints in Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties.
In a call with reporters earlier today, Joan Denton, Director of OEHHA, noted that study authors did not contact any of the people who filed the reports of adverse health reactions or doctors who reported reactions on behalf of other individuals.
“OEHHA confirmed today that they did not even interview those physicians who did file the seventy-five formal Pesticide Illness Reports,” revealed Emily Levy, spokesperson for the California Alliance to Stop the Spray (CASS). “The State investigated the complaints but not the illnesses themselves. They didn’t contact the people who got sick. This new report failed to prove that the CDFA’s program is safe. It must be halted immediately.”
As documented in a front page SF Chronicle article on April 6, 2008, OEHHA refused to even return repeated calls from the family of a seriously injured child who went into respiratory arrest. Pacific Grove residents Mike DeLay and his wife Janis DeLay, concur, “We filed a report documenting Janis’ ongoing asthma symptoms that persisted for months after the spray, and the fact we were unable to return to our home for months on end. Nobody from the State has ever called us to follow up and our calls were not returned.”
OEHHA’s report incorrectly outlines the reasons why only a limited number of Pesticide Illness Reports were completed by physicians. “The agency failed to adequately inform and prepare the medical community,” notes Lynberg. Few physicians knew the spraying had occurred, much less received training in what symptoms to watch for and how to file the reports.
“The public was never informed of when to seek medical advice and those who did, found their medical providers completely unaware of the situation,” added Lynberg. Lynberg suggests that pesticide illness was likely underreported as a result.
One of the most glaring omissions from today’s report, aside from failure to interview patients or physicians to glean more data, was the report’s lack of a risk assessment for sensitive or susceptible populations. On October 31, 2007, the OEHHA and Department of Pesticide Regulation “Consensus Report” made the following admission, “However, because not all health effects can be predicted and because the general population includes susceptible populations, such as children, the elderly, and those with chronic diseases, we cannot provide a definitive cause for their symptoms.”
Today’s report is already receiving intense criticism from communities across the state for the lack of new information and the failure to provide any new analysis of the health complaints. “The State seems to have placed the burden of proof on those injured by their aerial pesticide spraying, rather than upon themselves to prove these chemicals safe,” said Nan Wishner, Chair of the Albany Integrated Pest Management Task Force.
(*Pesticide Watch is a statewide public health and environmental group that works side-by-side with communities to clean up and prevent pesticide pollution and exposure)
Thanks for sharing that BPM.
OEHHA’s report is appalling. I feel absolutely terrible for every single one of the people in the Monterey/SC region who KNOW they were sickened when the planes started flying and many of whom are STILL sick, months later.
I have just listened to the audio link you found. I am disgusted by and ashamed of Dir. Joan Denton. It is so hard to believe that evil and abuse can take the guise of a grandma. But to listen to this woman and her dismissal of the hundreds of pieces of evidence showing the obvious - that pesticides make people sick - is simply stomach turning.
Every individual who contributed to the authorship of that ludicrous report is now responsible for the abuse of children, men and women in California - the very people these officials are employed by our nation to protect. It is on their heads that they have done this.
To everyone who was sickened by the spray - my heartfelt empathy. You are worth so much more than Dir. Denton and her allies in the CDFA and USDA allow. We all see the corruption and we know what happened to you. Please, keep fighting to stop this.
“It is the public that is being asked to assume the risks…….the public must decide whether it wishes to continue on the present road and it can only do so when in full possession of the facts…”
-Rachel Carson
CDFA wants us to assume the risks yet they continue to misinform and mislead the public into thinking that the LBAM spray is safe. The devil is in the details for those that seek and know the truth.
CDFA can not guarantee that the LBAM spray is safe for all living things and the environment because there have been no short and long term health and environmental risk assessments completed.
The truth is that the LBAM spray is a toxic blend of pesticide chemicals that has caused health and environmental problems in Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties with potential long term consequences. Besides the proposed California legislation being heard next week in the California Assembly Agriculture Committee, CDFA needs lawsuits and plenty of them to stop this madness.
I agree, BPM. Massive legal retaliation is vital.
Some day, our world is going to see environmental polluters and human rights violators as enemy #1 to the planet and human society. It is my personal opinion that the instigators of this assault should face criminal charges for the 23 potential violations they are committing. Child abuse is illegal in this country…how can it not be considered abuse to force-feed a child pesticide? It makes me shudder.
Health Complaints, LBAM Spraying, OEHHA Report (video news)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQrgc02Y208
BPM - Yet again, great find.
At least the news people in this one didn’t say it’s all fine now that the ludicrous ‘report’ has been published.
What I would like to know is how much have they paid the Public Health officials to betray their cities in this manner? I am so outraged every time I hear one of them speak. Are ANY of the public health officials not being controlled by CDFA? I would like to know the names of any who have avoided this extremely obvious corruption.
Does anyone know if the individual complaints of health problems are publicly available? In the KSWB segment posted by bpm2347 above there is brief film of hard copy of individual complaints.
Thank you.
i can’t even get myself to look at the report. it is so insulting to the people who got sick. i just watched some videos from the meetings in sf and san leandro and i find watching the govt. lie like this and ruin people’s lives is toxic as well. thank you for your very human and caring coverage of this outrage.
Dear Lisa,
Please go to this page:
http://www.1hope.org/chkmate.htm
Scroll almost to the bottom of the page, looking at the left hand side. You will see a link titled
“Documented Complaints after Aerial Spraying. Press Release. Executive Summary. Full Report (8 megabytes)”
I believe the Full Report link has all the complaints”
Hi Donna,
Yes, I know what you mean. In my personal life, I am a very passive person, preferring to focus on my own life rather than how other folks are living theirs…I have always tended to avoid the news and politics because they cause me such distress.
But, this time, it’s different, I guess, for me. Doubtless because each of us is trying to defend home and family. But the anger I feel is, as you say, potentially toxic both mentally and physically. I am trying to channel it in a positive way. It keeps me reading and writing about this. This blog is my outlet to focus all that energy in a positive way, rather than just letting the energy of outrage fester inside me, which I think it would be doing otherwise. Whew!
It’s hard, hard to listen to the lies and the unconcern, but I guess we have to try to face these to understand the truth. It’s terribly upsetting, though. Stay strong, Donna!
Mim