LBAM Spray - Doctors Accuse State of Experimentation, Fatal Damage
Saturday 26 Apr 2008 | LBAM Spray Bay Area
I am documenting here the accusations that have been made against the State by some of California’s most eminent doctors and scientists. These words must reach the ears of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the California Department of Agriculture, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment and all other parties complicit in the attempted poisoning of millions of innocent Californians with the LBAM pesticide product, Checkmate.
Dr James Carey, Professor of Entomology, UC Davis and former CDFA panelist
This is an experiment.
Dr. Dennis Knepp, PhD engineering physics, radar communications, statistician
CDFA will double the PM10 in the air each time they spray. Half the particles in this concoction are smaller than 9.8 microns. There was no CDFA testing for inhalation (of the PM10 particles). They have to measure the amount that’s deposited in the air we breathe. There were no inhalation tests. I think that’s what you call an experiment.
Particulate matter is of greatest concern to the elderly and children and people who are the most vulnerable. It gets into the lungs and can cause cardiovascular problems and pneumonia. Let’s say they’re going to spray 5 million people and the spray is going to stay in the air for 270 days each year.
That’s a lot of exposure to PM10. They (CDFA) are going to double the amount of PM10 in the air. Given 9 months of exposure for 5 million people, 141 to 210 people will die due to the 9 months’ exposure. That’s a solid number based on years of scientific studies published in peer review papers from Johns Hopkins University and the Harvard School of Medicine.If someone were actually murdering that number of people, we would get very concerned and I do believe that’s what the State and Governor Schwarzenegger and planning to do. They would like to do this.
Dr. Larry Rose, Retired Senior Public Medical Officer for Cal-OSHA, Occupational Environmental Medicine Practitioner, UCSF
I reviewed the inerts (ingredients in Checkmate). They’re not just irritants. They’re also a real concern for hormone disruption - estrogenic activity which would affect the risk for many diseases. They also are mutagens which would attack your chromosomes, are genotoxic, and would affect your immune system and risk for cancer, and two of them are suspected carcinogens and cause cancer.
When these microparticles lodge in your lungs and go deep and stay there, you are going to have what we call systemic circulation to all of your vital organs.
The microcapsules are designed to persist for 30 days and I’ve never seen that before in a pesticide. I did research on persistence when I was getting my masters degree in toxicology. One of the first things you look at in pesticides is ‘when can you allow people to go back into the fields after they’ve been sprayed?’ Now, in this case, they are spraying it right on top of people!
I read the 643 reports that Mike Lynberg put together in Monterey. The reactions weren’t just upper-respiratory; they were eye, nose, throat, skin, gastrointestinal and neurological reactions and none of it was adequately followed up on by the Department of Public Health Services and OEHHA. They did no systematic interviews of the people or their primary health providers.
They (the State) use terms like ‘this is stress or people are overly-upset’ and that’s ridiculous. This is no way to treat people who are having serious health reactions. To say they’re going to do some toxicology studies and then it will be okay is ridiculous. They have to, they must, if they take any degree of responsibility at all, they must do follow-ups on all of the people who had reactions and it must be done in a systematic, formal epidemiologic fashion. All plans should be stopped until this is done. I don’t know who is making these decisions and why, but they are very suspect.
The above experts have stepped forward, voluntarily, in an attempt to combat the incorrect and deceitful information that has been authored by the State and promulgated by Governor Schwarzenegger. The pesticide and its poly-urea microcapsule are not safe, and are likely to cause hundreds of deaths. The State must take the 643 health complaints seriously and authorize a real, systematic study of the families who have been damaged by the 2007 spraying. Schwarzenegger’s 6-pack toxicology test is being cited as ridiculous and ineffective.
Vegan Reader joins the people of California in demanding that an independent (non-governmental) board of experts like Knepp, Carey and Rose be part of the review process. The CDFA and OEHHA have lost all credibility and the public has no reason to be confident in any findings they might publish. We insist upon independent, third-party review. As our doctors say, lives are at stake.
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Update
I’m going to keep adding testimony from doctors here.
Dr. Elisa Song, Pediatrician, SF Bay Area
Several illnesses can be linked to exposure to environmental toxins, including asthma, autoimmune illness and autism. And the rates of chronic illnesses in children are disturbingly on the rise. We know children got sick during the spraying last fall, and one 12-month-old boy who nearly died from respiratory arrest and suffered a subsequent attack some weeks later. That boy was fortunate to receive prompt, excellent medical care. Children without health insurance in poor areas of our cities may not be so lucky. A public health system which is already severely strained in most counties will suffer from this increased burden. And the children in my practice, already suffering from asthma and chronic illnesses. will be even more vulnerable to the effects of the airborne spray.
If there is even a plausible doubt that Checkmate could have neurodevelopmental and health effects on our most vulnerable populations, then why would we even consider that risk to our children’s future?
Read Dr. Song’s Complete Testimony Here
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Update:
Dr. Russell Blaylock, M.D., Neurosurgeon, Author
There’s a couple of tricks, as I look through some of the material that was put out by the health and ag. departments of California. Number one, they only talk about acute toxicity. This is one the great fallacies - talking only about acute toxicity. They study it for a few days to a week or two and then cut off the study. You’re going to miss a lot of chronic and sub-acute reactions.
The real damaging effect occurs months or years later - not acutely. And, of course, they can write these people off because the longer from the time of your exposure, then they can blame it on other things. The second trick they use is that they say they inform physicians to be on the lookout for effects of this product. All they’re going to have them looking out for is skin reactions and eye reactions. Then, if a doctor sees someone coming in with severe pulmonary problems or sinusitis or neurological problems such as seizures or difficulty thinking, that’s not on the list to look for, so they’ll discount it. So all of those people will be excluded from the final tally of who was affected by this spraying. They do that frequently.
EPA does not permit long term human studies of any type of pestide, which relieves them of any obligation to hear complaints of people who say, “Well a month later, my health has deteriorated.” And they say, “Well, we don’t do long term studies, so we’re not going to record it.”
Once these (health) complications begin to arise, you can expect a litany of lies. They will bring forth their experts to assure you that this has nothing to do with their spraying technique or the chemical they used. The lies will begin to flow like lava out of a volcano. Prepare yourself for that.
They’re essentially medicating and exposing people to toxins against their will.
Listen to a ringing, no-nonsense interview with Dr. Russel Blaylock
Saturday 26 Apr 2008 | admin | LBAM Spray Bay Area |
It’s so important that people not feel the recent court ruling and governor’s announcement are cause to take it easy.
Here is a letter I received from Don’t Spray California today, which I’m reprinting here:
Santa Cruz County won a delay in court, until a full Environmental Impact Report (EIR), as required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), is completed. While we applaud Judge Burdick’s recognition that the CDFA has not shown the LBAM to warrant an emergency exemption from the CEQA process, according to Santa Cruz County Public Information Officer Dinah Phillips, this decision is about aerial spraying. In fact Santa Cruz Council Ron Garcia clarified that this law suit specifies the aerial spraying of “pheromones”. To be clear, this does not specify any other aerial spraying, nor does it cover ground applications. As Mr. Garcia said about the legal world, “the devil is in the details”.
The court ruling is also specific to Santa Cruz County, and other than setting precedent, has no bearing on the CDFA’s plans for Monterey County and the San Francisco Bay Area. Shortly after the court ruling, however, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger released a statement to the press that aerial spraying is postponed in all areas targeted for LBAM eradication, until a series of minimal tests, which test only for acute, not long term effects, are completed on the chemical formulations under consideration for the spraying. The tests are to be conducted by agencies who have already demonstrated their bias in refusing to communicate directly with any of the hundreds of people who were injured by the spraying last Fall (http://gov.ca.gov/press-release/9419/).
According to the press release, aerial applications are rescheduled to continue in Santa Cruz and Monterey beginning August 17, and a spokesman for the governor told CBS 5 that aerial spraying in the Bay Area may be delayed until October.
Secretary A.G. Kawamura promised that the CDFA will appeal the Santa Cruz court’s decision immediately, and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Spokesman Larry Hawkins indicated that they will wait to see what happens with the State’s appeal, before deciding if Federal officials will step in and continue spraying anyway (http://www.pe.com/ap_news/California/CA_Moth_Spraying_338538C.shtml).
When we called the governor’s office in San Francisco, we were told by a representative that “the eradication still has to happen” and that “pending aerial treatments with hot spots [of LBAM finds], the USDA can trump us” and overrule the State’s decisions. She also reiterated that the ruling just affects aerial spraying, and that “ground treatments are going to continue at this point”.
Ground applications are continuing indeed, are in fact being expanded to Santa Barbara, with Sonoma pending for quarantine, which would result in pesticide applications there as well. Entire neighborhoods have already been hosed down with Btk, a pesticide which lacks proper study, and is implicated in gastro-intestinal illnesses and damage to the immune system (http://eastbaypesticidealert.org/No%20Spray%20Zone%20paper%20on%20Btk.PDF). Twist ties are going up, often in easy reach of children and pets, and which contain some of the same untested chemicals as the ones that were sprayed by the planes, which even the manufacturer’s Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) admits are “harmful if absorbed through skin” (http://www.pacificbiocontrol.com/Light%20Brown%20Apple%20Moth%20-%20LBAM_files/MSDS-LBAM.pdf). There are also plans to apply the same chemicals, mixed with permethrin, a neurotoxic, carcinogenic, endocrine disrupting, chromosome-damaging insecticide, on a minimum of 3,000 utility poles and trees per square mile, just overhead of passers-by, and in easy reach of climbing children and other curious critters (http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/Permethrin.htm). More toxicology of all methods used by the CDFA is on our website (www.DontSprayCalifornia.org) under “Light Brown Apple Moth”.
It is urgent that municipalities and public agencies oppose more than just the aerial spraying but the CDFA’s eradication program as a whole. Not only are pesticide applications toxic, but the LBAM is not the threat the CDFA claims it to be, and drastic eradication measures should not even be open for discussion.
There’s much documentation testifying to this, especially relevant the report from Dr. Daniel Harder and Jeff Rosendale, two exotic plant experts, who researched the USDA and CDFA claims of damage in New Zealand. They found that the reports of damage are from a time in which pesticides were used against the LBAM, which also eliminated the moth’s natural predators, and caused resistance in LBAM and other pests. Once the pesticide program stopped, the ecosystem became more balanced again, and the LBAM has not been a significant pest since. The CDFA’s pesticide plan is precisely what not to do, will in fact only cause their own predictions to come true.
(http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a27/pdf/HarderNZReportFINAL.pdf)
With all the media focus on aerial spraying, most people remain unaware that this program involves anything more, but the great majority of people we’ve informed about the ground applications, do not feel represented by this narrow focus, and are concerned about this program’s impacts on their health and safety.
The Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission is currently recommending “that the Berkeley City Council oppose the entire pesticide program to eradicate the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM), whether by aerial spraying, ground spraying, twist ties, permethrin, or other related methods”. An East Bay Regional Park District Board’s resolution started out focusing only on aerial spraying, but was amended, upon finding out details of the ground applications, to oppose the chemical program (http://eastbaypesticidealert.org/LBAM,%20EBRPD%20Board%20resolution.doc). The district’s workers, AFSCME Local 2428, passed a very strong resolution opposing the entire program in defense of the health and safety of workers, park visitors, and the environment, calling for the USDA to downgrade the pest classification of the LBAM to reflect the lack of risk it poses (http://eastbaypesticidealert.org/AFSCME%202428%20resolution.doc).
The Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission also recommends that the city “take legal action across regional borders for a strong united front with all affected municipalities opposed to the program”. We urge municipalities once more to join in united legal action against the CDFA pesticide program in its entirety, and defend everyone affected against this toxic assault. Contact information for most of the representatives of the areas to be pesticided can be found here: http://forum.stopthespray.org/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=360
For activists, the best case for joint actions and a united front comes from the USDA’s own Emergency Manual itself, which states that one of several conditions under which an emergency program can be terminated is when “Sociopolitical opposition prevents emergency action” (page 91) (http://www.lbamspray.com/00_USDA/EmergencyProgramsManual%20.pdf ).
What are we going to do? Let’s put our heads together and make some plans!
Don’t Spray California/East Bay Pesticide Alert
http://www.dontspraycalifornia.org
I would like to invite one or more of these doctors on my radio show to talk about this topic. Acute and chronic illness, suppressing the immune system by spraying these toxins, and the “experiment.” The broadcast is In Short Order at http://www.tropicwaveradio.net.
Dear Sue,
That’s a very nice invitation. Though I can’t provide you with direct contact information, if you google the doctors’ names, you may be able to find it and offer them and invitation to speak on the radio.
Joanie Greggains at KGO in San Francisco has had many of these heroic doctors on her show. Good luck, and please do let us know if you get a lineup going.
Mim