New Study Examines LBAM Spray Ingredients That Could be Stronger Endocrine Disruptors Than Bisphenol-A

The Health Hazards of Particles, Toxins, Inflammatory Cascades and Genomic Predisposition

May 29, 2008 – San Francisco, California. New study of the ingredients of the Checkmate LBAM-F spray and the capsules used for its delivery raises public health safety issues that have never been addressed before.

The long-term effect of the LBAM spray on humans has not been studied despite the fact that some of the ingredients are known to be toxic to humans or animals. Of particular concern are two ingredients: Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) and 2-hydroxy-4-n-octylbenzophenone. BHT is used in animal studies to induce lung damage and cancer in areas of the respiratory system reachable by the spray. The effects of inhaled BHT in humans have not been studied. The benzophenone ingredient has not been tested but other benzophenones have been found to be stronger endocrine disturbers than Bisphenol-A, a chemical that is such a potent endocrine disruptor that it is in the process of being banned in Canada.

The capsule particle size and how it interacts in the human respiratory system is a known health hazard. The urea particles in the spray could reach areas of the lung that can cause damage. Further, the particles and the chemicals they carry can cause damage in the nasal passages and more proximal respiratory tract.

Says Ann. M. Haiden, D.O., the author of the study “There is a general lack of information about the other ingredients in the spray and any characteristics that may exist when the ingredients are combined, making it difficult to make informed decisions about their safety. What we do know is concerning because of the emerging knowledge about how potential chemical toxins interface with individual human biochemistry.”

Says John Russo, founder of StopThe Spray, “This new study highlights what has not been done to understand the long-term effects of a massive aerial spray over human population. Most importantly, it illustrates the need for informed, voluntary consent – where every individual has the right to decide for themselves what happens to their own body.”

Toxins and noxious particles can set off complex cascades of regulators and inflammation that lead to disease and even cancer. Individual capacity to detoxify toxins varies, making some of the population more vulnerable to harm. From this perspective, the spray can conceivably be expected to cause a wide variety of health problems, ranging from increased cardio-respiratory illness to hormone related illness such as breast, reproductive and thyroid illness and even cancers.

Visit this page and download the PDF of Dr. Haiden’s Study

*Please Note, Dr. Haiden will be a guest on the Joanie Greggains’ Show, starting at 8 AM, Saturday May 31, 2008. Be sure to tune in to hear more from this heroic and conscientious medical expert who has stepped forward to defend California’s people from this deadly assault on our health.

So threatened is the California Department of Agriculture by the 28 strong and still growing number of cities which have firmly resolved against the aerial spraying of the pesticide CheckMate on human beings that they have determined to send their employees into the Central Valley to squeeze pro-spray resolutions out of California farming communities.

Just days ago, CDFA closeted themselves with members of the City of Reedley, filled the farmers’ heads with lies, doubtless threatened them with costly quarantines, and managed to extract from them a document which actually supports enforced spraying of infants, children, men and women with deadly biochemicals.

CheckMate has already sickened hundreds of families on the coast. It has killed hundreds of wild birds, including endangered species. It caused the near-death of an infant who was rushed to the hospital with respiratory failure after he inhaled the carcinogenic, mutagenic particulate pollution of which the spray is compounded. How do I know this is true? Many of the sickened people are frequent readers of this blog. They are telling the truth about the severe and, in many cases, lasting damage caused to their health by the aerial spraying of pesticides over their cities.

As the above graphic illustrates, any Central Valley farmer who supports a resolution to spray his neighbors on the coast is supporting an aerial attack on living human beings. This is a moral choice farmers and their cities will be faced with when CDFA’s henchmen come to town.

CDFA will tell the same lies to farmers that they have told to people throughout the Monterey Bay region and the San Francisco Bay Area: that CheckMate is harmless, that the light brown apple moth will devastate agriculture. CheckMate has caused disastrous human illness, but the light brown apple moth has done zero damage to agriculture despite having lived here anywhere from as long as ten to fifty years. It does minimal cosmetic damage to leaves. It will not destroy food, and CDFA is harming farmers by placing them under quarantines that are completely unsupported by the findings of modern science. The light brown apple moth needs to be declassified to reflect its negligible status in the State of California.

CDFA will go from town to town, deceiving and frightening farmers. Farmers will be pressured to sign resolutions supporting the aerial spraying - not of their own communities - but of neighboring communities on the Central Coast where the LBAM lives. Indeed, it is unlikely that the LBAM would ever even make it to the Central Valley because it requires a cool, moist climate to live in. CDFA will bully and pressure farmers into passing resolutions that support an act of potential genocide on their neighbors.

Our doctors and independent scientists have stepped forward one by one to explain that chronic exposure to the spray compound will result in human deaths.

Already, the name of the City of Reedley has become an infamous one up and down the California coast for choosing to support this deadly attack on their neighbors. They were lied to by CDFA’s agents in a closed-door meeting, and walked out of that meeting supporting CDFA’s value system which decrees that profits are of greater value than human life. We are still hoping that Reedley will get fighting mad over having been lied to and rewrite their ill-advised resolution which is the only one in the whole state supporting this violation of human rights.

Whether or not the moth represents a threat to crops is not the issue here. The real issue here is the utter evil of subjecting human beings to forced inhalation of deadly biochemicals. There is no nice way to put this. And there is no way for farmers, in good conscience, to resolve that their profits are of more importance than the right of human beings not to be subjected to biochemical assault without consent.

CDFA is violating over 30 laws and globally upheld human rights standards by performing this horrific experiment on the families of the Central Coast. Central Coast families would never support any agency doing this horrific thing to Central Valley families.

Farmers must educate themselves and understand that they are about to be barraged with cunningly crafted threats and lies in the mouths of CDFA and USDA agents. Central Valley farmers must band together, as the people of the coast have done, to confront CDFA with a united stance of refusal to be made party to an aerial assault on innocent human beings.

Should farmers choose to support the spray, they will be condemning infants, mothers, elders, infirm people and other Californians to emergency hospital visits, grievous short term and chronic illness, and after repeat sprayings, death, according to our doctors. Let there be no prize, no profit that would ever induce a humane American to endorse such ruination of human lives.

Say no to CDFA’s unwarranted, barbaric plans. Get your community to resolve against LBAM spray.

—————————-

Vegan Reader has created the above graphic for creative commons use. If you would like to use or print the graphic, please visit our free graphics page.

One of my heroes in the LBAM spray public health crisis is my mother. Since learning about the spray, she has written to senators, representatives, newspapers and everyone else she can think of in an attempt to protect the people of California from this bio-chemical assault.

Last week, she decided to write to CDFA and give them a piece of her very wise mind. Just look at the amazing lies she received in reply:

Thank you for writing about the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) project.
I value hearing your thoughts on the project’s impact on California.

California must work to combat the LBAM because of the complex threat it
poses to our diverse range of agricultural and natural plant life. This
invasive pest attacks more than 250 crops and 2,000 plants and threatens
the native and endangered species that depend on them. If it becomes
established statewide, the LBAM has the potential to cause billions of
dollars of damage annually and cost the state numerous jobs. California
has a duty to prevent the spread of the LBAM before it crosses borders
into other states, agricultural regions and environments.

The LBAM is an invasive pest – not native to California – with few
natural enemies here to reduce its expanding population. To combat this
growing threat, we have proposed an integrated pest-management approach
utilizing aerial and ground application of a moth pheromone.

However, misinformation about the LBAM and our program continues to
spread and cause unwarranted fear – despite constant and open dialogue
for more than a year with citizens and local officials. There has been
no shortage of grossly exaggerated and completely unsubstantiated claims
– such as the pheromone product’s being untested and the treatments
causing red tide (red tide is a naturally occurring marine algal bloom).
Fortunately, the actual facts and due diligence have proven these
claims false.

Pheromones are simply chemical signals that resemble a scent. Pheromone
treatments have been used in the United States and around the world in
agricultural and urban areas (including residential areas of Illinois,
Indiana, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin) for more than a decade without
incident. As recently as last year, more than 3 million acres in the
United States were aerially treated with moth pheromones to disrupt the
mating of the harmful gypsy moths.

For years, environmentalists have urged farmers to develop alternatives
to conventional, toxic, “kill-on-contact” pesticides; pheromones are the
alternative. These pheromones do not even harm the moths; they merely
mimic a signal “scent” naturally emitted by the female moth, thereby
distracting the males so they cannot locate a mate and reproduce.

Recently, the claim that residents became sick from past treatments has
held the public’s attention and has been the subject of demonstrations.
Public health officials with three state departments thoroughly reviewed
health claims submitted during and after the aerial pheromone treatments
last year in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties and could find no link
between the claims and the treatments. As the Governor recently said in
Monterey, the spraying is safe, and “there is nothing that says
otherwise.”

I also hear a number of misleading and inaccurate references to describe
the pheromone, including: hormone, carcinogen, mutagen, endocrine
disruptor and other inaccurate descriptions. These unsupported claims
overlook the fact that the federal Environmental Protection Agency, our
state’s Department of Pesticide Regulation and numerous health agencies
have thoroughly reviewed and unanimously approved these products and
their classification as pheromones. In fact, the pheromone products we
have used in this program are approved for treating organic crops; they
are safe enough that the law states you don’t even have to wait or wash
them off after a treatment before you eat the produce.

However, to thoroughly ensure everyone’s safety, the aerial spraying has
been postponed while we complete what’s known as “six-pack” toxicology
tests in addition to the normal extensive tests on the pheromone
products. These tests thoroughly test toxicity for eye, inhalation,
respiratory and other potential irritants. I am confident that these
additional tests will reassure Californians that we are taking the
safest, most health-conscious and most progressive approach to riddinour state of this very real threat to our agriculture, environment and
economy. I implore everyone to rely on sound science and to shut the
door on false information. For more information about the LBAM project,
please visit our website at www.cdfa.ca.gov or call the LBAM hotline at
1-800-491-1899.

As a public official, I am sworn to protect the public, the environment
and the ecosystems that make California such a uniquely productive and
sustainable resource. I take that responsibility seriously, and I vow
to pursue only the safest, most environmentally friendly means
available.

Again, thank you for writing.

Sincerely,
A.G. Kawamura, Secretary
California Department of Food and Agriculture

There are simply too many lies in this form mail to list. Just look at the way A.G. dispels the documented carcinogens, mutagens, endocrine disruptors in the spray by saying that they’ve been ‘approved’! Look at the claims of ‘thorough’ OEHHA review of the hundreds and hundreds of sicknesses caused by Checkmate. As my readers well know, OEHHA did not bother to contact a single victim or physician. Just look at California’s #1 liar, A.G. Kawamura, putting lies down on paper for all the world to see.

My mother forwarded this letter to me, saying she hoped it might be used as evidence against Kawamura, because it so clearly documents a deliberate attempt to deceive innocent citizens who contact CDFA, looking for the truth.

Most kids grow up fearing that lying to their mothers may result in lightning striking them down on the spot from above. Are there storm clouds brewing over the Kawamura residence this week? There ought to be.

This week, former presidential adviser, Karl Rove, has been the subject of international headlines, greeting the demands that he appear before Congress with a queer and deafening silence. According to his lawyer, Rove has been ordered by the White House (the Bush Administration) not to obey the subpoena or give testimony about the possible politicization of the Department of Justice. Congress may have to send out the Sergeant-at-Arms to arrest Rove and bring him to a hearing, no matter what President Bush wants.

A couple of weeks ago, I watched Senator Barbara Boxer convene a hearing, the subject of which was the profound corruption that has rotted away the core of the Environmental Protection Agency. Special interests, dirty money and corrupt politicians have changed the mission of the EPA from being one of protecting public and environmental health to being one of protecting the profits of chemical manufacturers and polluters. Strangely, the head of the EPA did not show up for the hearing, despite requests that he be present to answer questions regarding the obvious criminal activity going on in his agency. Again, there was a very strange silence in that room, filled with senators and media but lacking any testimony from the head of the EPA.

Here in California, we have the same silence ringing in our ears. With the threat of a biochemical assault hanging over the heads of 7 millions citizens, people are demanding answers to their questions and are being met with silence.

I want to know why U.S. Congressman Sam Farr’s direct demand that USDA Secretary, Ed Schafer, and Undersecretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, Bruce Knight, explain to him how the LBAM was classified as a class A pest in the first place has still not received a reply over a month later.

I want to know why Major Tim Wilcox, whose baby nearly died after being forced by the CDFA to inhale Checkmate Pesticide in 2007, has never received the slightest acknowledgment from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to whom he wrote, pleading for help.

I want to know why neither Sen. Diane Feinstein, Sen. Barbara Boxer, Senator Carol Migden and Congresswoman Barbara Lee’s letters to the USDA and other officials have received no reply.

I want to know why the Monterey Bay Aquarium refused to let their neighbors speak to their staff regarding the dangers of spraying Monterey Bay, and why, even after hundreds of sea birds died from Checkmate spray, the aquarium has maintained a mysterious silence about the poisoning.

I want to know why not one of the 43 Californian Audubon Society chapters I’ve contacted cares that birds have been and will be killed by blanket aerial spraying of California. I want to know why I have not received a single concerned reply.

What can you add to my list?

The policy of silence in California is deadly. Hundreds of families have already been sickened, untold wildlife has died, and our air and water has been polluted with biochemicals and microscopic plastic which causes human fatality. Again and again, our demands for reasonable answers, for rational explanations as to the logic behind this assault on California are met with, at best, lies and at worst, utter silence.

It would appear that what they are experiencing in Washington D.C., with a president who can order someone to defy congress and a host of agencies that are sweltering in sickly corruption, is happening across the United States.

Let it be remembered that when the Ford Pinto was put out on the market, the manufacturers knew that a certain percentage of purchasers would die because of a malfunction in the car’s construction. But, Ford did the math. And, they realized that the total they would have to pay out in lawsuits was less than the total profits they would make before the car was recalled. So, they made a choice. The innocent people who would die were expendable, because a good margin of profit could still be accrued by releasing the car.

And, isn’t this what we are seeing in our nation and state? For whatever dark and unspeakable reason, the profit being made off the illegal spraying of human beings makes sense to a few criminals. When infants like little Jack Wilcox go into respiratory failure, when infants die after 2, 3, 100, 450 exposures to this deadly pesticide, perhaps a few dollars will be paid out in lawsuits if anyone is committed enough to actually get a ruling against the perpetrators. The money that will have to go out, however, cannot compare to the billions coming in for CDFA and Stewart Resnick, manufacturer of this poison.

They need only bide their time. Keep mum. Spray the people. Scrape away their piles of money. Deal with some small consequences later. In this life, silence is serving them well.

When citizen Mike DeLay traveled back to his childhood home of Reedley, California to explain to the region’s farmers how his central coast community had been gravely sickened by the aerial spraying of Checkmate in 2007, his audience listened with visible discomfort. DeLay was not the first emissary sent to them to talk about the light brown apple moth - the California Department of Food and Agriculture had already been there.

Spewing their infamous misinformation regarding the ‘voracious moth’, CDFA managed to so frighten the growers with threats of mass agricultural destruction and costly quarantines that the City of Reedley adopted the first and only resolution in support of spraying deadly chemicals on the families of Monterey and Santa Cruz counties and the densely populated SF Bay Area.

Mind you, this toxic, enforced spraying will not be happening over the homes of Reedley farmers and their children. They will not be inhaling carcinogens, mutagens, endocrine disrupting chemicals, crime-inducing synthetic moth pheromones and deadly PM10 pollution. But millions of their customers all along the California coast will, and in the end, City of Reedley growers have decided that’s preferable to potential financial penalties due to the presence of the LBAM in the state.

Bottom line: their income is more important than their customers’ lives.

Reedley is known as the World’s Fruit Basket. The region’s economy depends on delivering a variety of fruits to the national and international market. When faced with CDFA’s strong-arm threats of quarantine, the city made a moral choice: spray humans so growers won’t be penalized. Unfortunately, the City of Reedley made their decision before hearing from Mike DeLay. Unfortunately, Reedley’s growers have been victimized. Unfortunately, they have been duped.

When you read the text of the resolution (see page 69 of the document), it becomes abundantly clear that Reedley’s growers have been lied to and basically blackmailed by the CDFA. The resolution hinges on the following pieces of tragic misinformation:

1) That LBAM could cause billions of dollars in damage.

In fact, even CDFA admits that LBAM has done no damage and California’s most respected UC scientists predict it never will do any damage here. Further, it is important to note that the LBAM is unlikely to make it to the Central Valley as it lives in cool moist habitats like the coast - not hot, dry habitats like the City of Reedley and surrounding growing regions.

2) That LBAM is an eradicable pest

In fact, specialists in invasion biology have repeatedly tried to explain to CDFA that the harmless moth is simply too widespread to be eradicated. As is the case with most of CDFA’s scores of ‘eradication’ programs, extinction of the moth here is unlikely to result even after years of spraying. The track record of the CDFA is all you need to see to determine that they have failed in the majority of their so-called ‘eradication’ attempts over the past several decades.

3) That Checkmate, the spray product, is less harmful than other pesticides

In fact, Checkmate has, to date, caused both acute and chronic illness in Central Coast families, nearly killed a formerly-healthy infant, killed hundreds of birds, killed cats, dogs, rabbits, fish and honey bees. Checkmate causes illness and death.

4) That OEHHA determined that the illnesses and death which ensued after the 2007 spraying were not connected to the spraying

In fact, OEHHA admitted that they were unable to determine whether or not the spraying caused the documented illnesses and death. It is unsurprising that OEHHA was unable to state for certain that the biochemical spray sickened and killed people and animals - rather than investigating the reports by contacting the victims and their physicians, OEHHA threw 90% of the claims out and refused to contact a single person on the Central Coast. Little wonder they were unable to put a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on the connection between spraying people with pesticide and pesticide-induced illnesses which match, point for point, the ingredients in Checkmate.

Familiar Language
If the points in the above resolution sound eerily familiar to you regarding a moth that devastates agriculture and a pesticide that is perfectly safe to spray on human beings, it is because you have encountered the exact language in the Reedley resolution in the mouth of Ag. Secretary A.G. Kawamura. I don’t think it would be wrong to question whether the City of Reedley resolution was, in fact, authored by the California Department of Food and Agriculture. CDFA held a secret, closed-door meeting at the City of Reedley Community Center on May 14th, 2008. The evidence of the lies told there to farmers may be found in the text of the resolution which passed a few days later.

One can only wonder how the victimized farmers felt when, the very next day, Mike DeLay showed up on their doorstep with concrete information indicating that growers had just been fooled by the CDFA machine in a brand new effort to pit farmers against their customers. Nobody likes to be duped.

“Some were troubled and most did not want to believe what I was saying,” said Mike DeLay of his meeting with the growers. “I believe it created a moral problem for them and they did not want to be put in that position. I believe the farmers are, for the most part, very morally minded and good people. I was asked by one grower just before the meeting ended, demanding an answer of what I would do if in their shoes? It was clear to me that he was upset and was struggling for the right thing to do but was afraid of losing his farm. I told them that knowing what I know about LBAM, I believe the central valley does not have any risk of LBAM as it can not survive there due to hot climate and I would never support aerial spraying anywhere, ever.”

It can’t have been pleasant to listen to the mild-mannered, obviously truthful DeLay explain how he and his wife were horrifically sickened by Checkmate, how many of their friends and neighbors are still terribly sick half a year later, how baby Jack Wilcox is now being kept breathing by means of corticosteroids after his lungs were damaged by the enforced spray. It can’t have been pleasant to stand behind a resolution, passed 24 hours earlier, that asserts that growers will protect agriculture at the cost of human lives.

What the City of Reedley Has Done
It’s imperative to state first that the 7 million people of coastal California who are set to be sprayed with deadly and secret chemicals in 2008 actually understand what happened in Reedley. Kawamura and his colleagues have been here, too, trying to scare us into believing that the light brown apple moth would eat just about every green thing in the state. We know how convincing these agents are. We know how skillfully they twist statements about harm and safety. We understand what happened in the City of Reedley.

But now it’s time for the Reedley growers to extend that same courtesy back to us. Please understand, we are your customers. You have just passed a resolution that says your apples and oranges are more important than our children’s lives. We have supported you with our dollar, but we aren’t going to support farmers who ally themselves with criminals. CDFA has now been convicted twice of breaking the law by creating their false LBAM ‘emergency’. They have been found guilty of violating CEQA. These are not honest or law-abiding citizens. They are deceitful law-breakers. And Reedley farmers have just linked arms with them. You are standing in the company of California’s very worst public and environmental offenders.

We can’t support that.

We implore Reedley’s farmers to withdraw their resolution, now that actual facts have been put into their hands about the harmlessness of this negligible bug and the very real threat to life posed by the aerial spraying of Checkmate over urban areas. Baby Jack Wilcox’s life is more important than your fruit, isn’t it? What do you think will happen to this 1 year old boy if CDFA sprays him again? Do you really support this happening?

And, if humanitarian concerns have somehow ceased to rule the actions of the farmers of the City of Reedly, then they must at least consider these 2 outcomes.

1) Support spraying us, and we will be forced to boycott you. We are not going to give money to people who pass resolutions that support the biochemcial killing of our children, spouses, parents and neighbors.

2) Support spraying us, and we will sicken and die. You cannot sell fruit to dead people. Killing off your customer base is not a viable marketing strategy.

What the City of Reedley has done is to pass the one and only resolution in the state that applauds the violation of the Constitutional tenets which defend residents from human experimentation without consent. Some 25 cities in the spray zone have now passed resolutions adamantly opposing the poisoning of millions of Californians, their pets, wildlife, food, air and watershed. What the City of Reedley has done is to fall victim to the fear-mongering tactics of CDFA, buying into the deceptive mirage of California devastated by a negligible leafroller moth. What the City of Reedley has done, sadly, is to play right into the dirty hands of A.G. Kawamura, allowing themselves to be bullied and pitted against their very own customers.

Justice here would be the farmers storming the offices of CDFA, demanding at the tops of their lungs to know why they were tricked, demanding to see the science which ‘proves’ that their crops are under threat, demanding to know why CDFA thinks growers can be used as pawns and played for fools.

Reedley farmers lacked information until Mike DeLay came to town. Now they have it. And now, customers are waiting to see if they will rewrite their resolution in order to protect our health and rights, or if we will be forced to enact a boycott of the City of Reedley’s growers. Support us and we will support you. We have a common opponent in the odious CDFA.

Since the spraying began on the Central Coast in 2007, people have been asking what the synthetic pheromone in Checkmate does to people and animals. We already know that the other elements in the spray are carcinogenic, mutagenic and endocrine disruptive…in numerous cases causing Central Coast women to experience extremely disturbing reproductive health effects.

But what about the synthetic pheromone itself? What happens to humans who are forced to inhale, eat and drink this chemical?

Please, do not fail to read this article regarding the effect of synthetic insect pheromones on humans and large mammals, published by Professor Joe Cummins and Sam Burcher of the Institute of Science in Society.

As this eye-opening article states, “bureaucrats are using the absence of evidence as evidence of the absence of harm.”

Further:

It appears that the CDPR has not been entirely honest in expressing their opinion of the aerial spray mixture (Checkmate). They seem to have neglected the well documented toxicity of some spray additives. This has resulted in the reluctance to fully evaluate the impact of the aerial spray on a very large population exposed to the spray. The evidence on the toxicity of the spray additives was clear while the toxicity of the synthetic pheromones is not yet thoroughly studied. There is a growing body of evidence indicating that the synthetic insect pheromones may also be active in mammals and probably in humans. In the fullness of time, it is likely that the synthetic insect hormones will be seen to have behavioural and cellular impacts on vertebrates and humans. Presently, these impacts have been documented in a few cases, but the field is advancing rapidly. Male sexual aggression should be considered a marker and evaluated from police records in the communities sprayed with insect pheromone from the air.

I am literally horrified to understand that exposure to the synthetic pheromone in Checkmate may cause aggressive sexual behaviors in men. What may be the toll of assaults on the innocent after a decade or more of constant, enforced spraying???

I want to state for the record that I have NEVER been duped by CDFA’s claims that the synthetic pheromone was harmless to people. But, like everyone else, my focus has been mainly on the other ingredients and the PM10 pollution of the microcapsules. The time has come to confront CDFA about the damage they are doing with the ‘active’ ingredient in the spray, and as the authors of this piece indicate, it is starting to become very clear that exposure to this ingredient may have horrific consequences for society.

This article needs to be on the desk of every public official in California. I have already been dizzy with fear over the physical dangers of flying airplanes at low altitudes hundreds of times in city landscapes…but if the substance sprayed induces criminal behavior in people? How does California intend to deal with this? How?

What:

Don’t Spray California and Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists” present Who’s Afraid of the Light Brown Apple Moth?

Download the Flier for Complete Details

*This is a scent-free event.

From LBAMSpray.com:

USDA EA Public Comment Period is Due NOW!

- San Jose to be sprayed with Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki - BT [comments should be received no later than May 23, 2008]

- Sonoma will be subjected to contamination with toxic twist ties [comments should be received no later than May 30, 2008]

- Pescadero, California (June Treatment) [comment should be received no later than June 20, 2008]

The time to make your public comments as part of the Environmental Assessment is now.

Who to Contact:

U.S. Department of Agriculture
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Plant Protection and Quarantine
Emergency and Domestic Programs Emergency Management
4700 River Road, Unit 134
ATTN: Carole Johnson
Riverdale, MD 20737–1236
Carole.R.Johnson@usda.gov

Osama El-Lissy
Director, Emergency Management
Emergency and Domestic Programs
Animal Plant Health Inspection Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture
4700 River Rd. Unit 134
Riverdale, MD 20737
Osama.a.el-lissy@aphis.usda.gov

CC your comments to:
AgSec@usda.gov

jrains@cdfa.ca.gov

Vegan Reader’s Letter Regarding Toxic Twist Ties in Sonoma:

Dear Sir,
I am writing to take the opportunity of the call for public comments regarding the proposed treatment of Sonoma in California for the Light Brown Apple Moth.

I was very concerned, upon reading the proposal, that guarantees of human and environmental safety appear to be based on the concept that the twist ties will only be present for a given time and that they will then be removed. This is not a sensible argument for safety, as clearly, public concern hinges on the time during which the ties will be in use - not when they will be taken away.

I would like to list my concerns regarding the contamination of Sonoma with Isomate-LBAM Plus twist ties.

1) The twist ties are being placed in the habitat of wild birds, wildlife and children. Every day the twist ties are present in the environment is an opportunity for birds, wildlife and children to come in contact with them. To touch them, play with them, get the chemicals in their mouths and eyes.

2) According to the Material Safety Data Sheet for the twist ties, they are considered an eye and skin irritant, and contact with them requires calling Poison Control or a Doctor. Unfortunately, because 38% of the ingredients in which the twist ties are soaked are being kept a secret from the public, neither the doctor nor poison control will be able to accurately determine what a child, pet or wild animal has been exposed to, causing chemical injury and illness. This is clearly not safe and the lack of transparency regarding the chemical makeup of the twist ties displays a disturbing disregard for public or environmental health.

3) If a child, pet, wild bird or animal is poisoned or injured by the twist ties, the MSDS instructs the responsible party to present the product package to the doctor. Of course, residents and tourists in the twist tie zone will not have access to the packaging of the twist ties, so again, cause of chemical injury will be impossible for a physician, paramedic or vet to determine.

4) The MSDS says that the ingredients in Isomate-LBAM Plus twist ties must not be applied to water or areas where water surface is present. In other words, you must not put it near creeks, ponds, coasts, reservoirs, rivers, or any other type of watershed. The sheet says do not contaminate water when disposing of this product. From this, we understand that Isomate-LBAM PLUS twist ties contaminate water. As you know, there are several creeks and important watershed sources in this area of Sonoma. CDFA would be violating the MSDS by applying these products where their chemicals will get into the watershed. Rain is an obvious vehicle for the chemicals on the twist ties getting into groundwater, creeks and other watershed bodies. Less obvious is the danger of the ties, themselves, being removed from trees by wild animals like inquisitive raccoons or birds. The ties may be dropped on the ground and, from there, directly into bodies of water. Again, CDFA is intending to violate the MSDS by placing 250 of these contaminating twist ties per acre in regions where water is present.

5) As a long-time birder and author of one of Sonoma County’s key birding publications, I feel it is imperative to add that I am seriously alarmed by a proposal which introduces toxins and irritants into wild bird habitat. Many of our wild bird populations have been cut in numbers by 50% or more over the past couple of decades due to chemical exposure and habitat loss. Trees, bushes and fences are vital life habitat for birds. It will be the nature of birds to investigate the twist ties which will festoon their breeding, perching and nesting areas. Certain species, like the Western Bluebird which lives in the quarantine zone and which is only just now beginning to recover from near-extinction due to DDT, are likely to view man-made materials in their habitat as potential nesting material. Diminished and endangered birds may pry the twist ties from their hangers and take them back to their nests, thus exposing vulnerable hatchlings to dangerous chemicals. Chemical injury is not merely a threat to the physical health of birds, but chemical injuries to the eyes also increase the likelihood of death by predation. A bird with burned, blurred or damaged eyes loses its ability to protect itself from predators, and of course, unlike human beings, wild birds cannot flush their eyes with water in an attempt to relieve pain or chemical injury. Introducing toxins like Isomate-LBAM plus will, in my educated opinion, lead to increased risk of disease and death for our already-threatened wild bird populations. This is not acceptable.

6) LBAM Isomate Plus twist ties present a danger to children who climb trees or who will be walking or playing around the toxic product. Children may pick up twist ties that have been pulled out of trees by wildlife, or they may simply handle them walking past shrubs, fences and bushes. An additional concern is that humans will be walking on ground into which the listed and secret ingredients of the ties have leached via rain or other vehicles. The chemicals will then be tracked into homes on the shoes. The chemicals will then be transferred from shoes to the carpet where infants play. Infants may become dangerously ill without parents or physicians having any way of determining of the cause because of this accidental tracking of toxins into the home.

7) Isomate-LBAM Plus twist ties are an unregistered product that has been approved for use in California only. It has not gone through the normal battery of tests required of registered products. I find it extremely disturbing that a portion of Sonoma will be blanketed with a chemical product which has not been tested for acute or long term effects on human or environmental health. This is a negligent and dangerous disservice to residents and public agencies should not be allowed to discount public health in their quest for profits.

8 ) The above reason should be sufficient cause for choosing not to infect human or animal habitat with known and secret chemicals. However, I will also add that it is the opinion of numerous eminent UC scientists, invasion biologist and entomologists that eradication of the light brown apple moth is not feasible in California. CDFA has recently admitted that the moth has been here for at least 6 or 7 years, despite their earlier insistence that it arrived here last year. In that time, the LBAM has done zero damage to crops and is considered a negligible bug everywhere else it lives in the world. According to UC scientists, not being funded by the USDA, the light brown apple moth is not only of no threat to agriculture, but it is also much too widespread to make it a candidate for eradication. Rather, we can rely on natural predators like birds and bats to keep populations of this harmless leaf roller moth at healthy levels…so long as we do no injure or kill those natural predators with chemicals. As the people of California have learned, the CDFA is conducting several scores of so-called ‘eradication’ programs that have been going on for more than 20 years! They are attempting to exterminate insect populations which cannot be exterminated, and in so doing, are exposing millions of humans and billions of creatures to body burdens of serious and fatal toxins. It is the considered opinion of UC experts that CDFA will fail to eradicate the LBAM, just as they have failed to eradicate the majority of the insects they claim to be exterminating, but for which they are receiving billions of dollars in federal funding. The LBAM program is unnecessary, not based in sound science and a severe danger to public and environmental health. By contrast, the little light brown apple moth represents no danger to humans, our food or water supply. It is CDFA, not LBAM, that is the public menace.

I request that my comments be registered as part of the Environmental Assessment. Thank you.
Sincerely,
&etc

Last week, Stop the Spray’s founder, John Russo, wrote a piece that was published in the California Progress Report regarding a new strategy for halting aerial spraying without consent. From the article:

StopTheSpray.org is already evaluating ballot initiatives and other measures necessary to curtail the power of the CDFA to endanger the health and human rights of people in California. Today we enter the next phase of our legislative battle to recognize the right of consent: We have formed a team to work with the authors of the bills, their legislative teams and other legislators to ensure the people’s right to determine what happens to their own bodies is respected and is a key component to every decision involving pesticide spray.

Apparently, the idea of Californians demanding that their constitutional right to safety and consent be upheld was so threatening to CDFA Secretary A.G. Kawamura that he felt impelled to author a reply which was subsequently published in the California Progress Report.

It’s basically a recycled version of what he sent to the SF Chronicle last month, accusing opponents of the spray of spreading fear and misinformation opposing the wonderful healthiness of inhaling carcinogenic pesticides. Apparently, 24 cities and 2 county boards, respected independent doctors and UC scientists, mayors, senators, representatives, city supervisors and millions of Californians are just plain wrong: it really IS safe to breathe pesticide! Or, at least, Kawamura seems to think so.

Apart from his bizarre conclusion that it’s okay to spray toxic chemicals and PM10 pollution into the lungs of infants, mothers, sick folks and the general population, the rusty barge that is A.G. Kawamura has long since left the harbors of truth in his obsessive quest to get those pesticide planes flying over urban cities. He is simply lying about nearly everything he says, and I believe you will feel as vindicated as I do reading Registered Nurse and Albany Mayor, Robert Lieber, hand A.G. Kawamura his hat. From the article:

Mr. Secretary, it is time to look in the mirror. You and your department are the primary source of misinformation and fear tactics.

Lieber goes on to refute half a dozen of Kawamura’s downright lies regarding the safety, the testing, the history of the spray and the habits of the light brown apple moth. His statements are science-based, unlike Kawamura’s and he is summarizing what Californians have come to understand: the moth is no threat and the pesticide kills wildlife and will kill people. That’s the down home truth that Kawamura would like us to close our eyes to so that his planes can start buzzing our houses this summer. Lieber wisely points out the recent press that has been given to the rotten corruption at the heart of the EPA. Senator Barbara Boxer just convened a hearing regarding the EPA fiasco, and Californians realize we are dealing with the same mechanism here of unfounded ’scientific’ declarations, political scandal, dirty money and zero regard for human or environmental health. Take a look at the comments on these 3 CPR articles. No one is being fooled.

Mayor Robert Lieber has become one of Vegan Reader’s favorite people in this war between the State and the People of California, and his article is a must-read for everyone. We sincerely hope that Kawamura will finally get the message that we think he’s such a liar, we’d be glad to send the fire department to put out his flaming pants. A.G. Kawamura needs to lose his job, yesterday, but we hope Lieber will remain the Mayor of Albany for as long as the city can keep him.

—-
Heads Up: Be sure not to miss Joanie Greggains’ KGO show this Saturday, May 24th at 8 AM. Both Mayor Lieber and Frank Egger will be guests. Joanie continues to provide one of the most vital services in this public health crisis - caring, investigative major media. She’s a hero!

View Larger Map

The above map depicts the SF Bay area water bodies that will be illegally exposed to the toxic pesticide, Checkmate, in defiance of the product label warning which forbids introducing into water. Starting in August, the California Department of Food and Agriculture will begin flying their pesticide planes over human habitations and wildlife habitat. The spray will poison the SF Bay Area’s watershed. This is illegal and must be halted.

Doesn’t Audubon Care?

With the exception of Sequoia Audubon, not one Audubon chapter has come out against the spraying, and this fact was remarked upon by KGO Radio Host, Joanie Greggains, this morning.

A week has now gone by since I sent 43 emails to 43 California Audubon Society Chapters carefully explaining the deaths of hundreds of birds that occurred following the 2007 spraying of Monterey Bay. I am shocked and disturbed that in reply to these 43 emails, I received a single, one-line response from the Mendocino chapter of Audubon which asked why I hadn’t told them about the dead birds last fall. I wrote back to the chapter and explained that I don’t live in Monterey and had only learned about the deaths of wild and endangered birds a couple of months ago. I urged each of the chapters to write back to me, to get involved, to start acting now to stop the spray. Not one group has dignified my letter with a reply. I am so disappointed.

I am a native Bay Area resident and a published wild bird illustrator. I wasn’t sending them junk mail to be deleted or ignored, but sincerely trying to alert the Audubon Society that if they don’t take this seriously, there aren’t going to be any birds left to enjoy. I have spent countless hours of my life exploring wild bird habitat all over the Bay Area. Birders like me are expecting thousands and thousands of deaths amongst our already-vanishing wild bird populations if CDFA/USDA are not halted and reprimanded for violating their spray’s own safety warnings as well as federal acts which protect clean water, clean air and endangered species.

I don’t know how this crisis could be so lacking in interest for Audubon chapters from one end of California to the other that they could not even be bothered to respond to my email.

Monterey peninsula people woke up after the spray to a world devoid of bird song, and looked out to sea to see rafts of hundreds of dead and dying sea birds washing ashore. I believe we are looking at our government’s newest version of DDT and I am dismayed that not a single Audubon chapter chairman I contacted feels this is worth taking note of. Has someone gotten to them? Told them to be silent?

If you financially support or are a member of your local Audubon chapter, please, take this warning seriously. For birders, winter is a time of rejoicing as the migratory shore birds flock in droves to the entire rim of the SF Bay, all the wonderful lagoons and marshes. Imagine these habitats littered with the corpses of endangered Brown Pelicans, with Godwits and Murres, with Avocets and Scaups! Then you will know what the beaches looked like in Monterey and Santa Cruz.

Keeping that picture of horror and biochemical genocide in your mind, how can anyone involved in the Audubon society not be dropping any other plans they had for 2008 to fight the illegal and deadly activities of our State and Federal Government? Audubon has NO reason to exist without the birds.

And, if that isn’t scary enough, remember that the bodies of water are our life source, too. They will be scummed over with yellow foam and swimming in plastic and pesticides. The canaries in the coal mine have already shown us what the LBAM spray, Checkmate, does to life forms. It kills birds. Doctors have stepped forward to explain that it will kill people, too. How can this be lacking in interest?

Please, look at the map and imagine it choked with dying birds. Imagine California without bird song.