Planned Aerial Sprayings in the Bay Area

The aerial spraying of pesticide that was forced on Monterey and Santa Cruz a few months ago, is scheduled to continue there, and to come to the entire Bay Area (see link to map below). Individual municipalities have no power to stop this, because their power is superseded by the State's declaration of a state of emergency, which they did to avoid having to conduct an Environmental Impact Review. This supposed "emergency" is the light brown apple moth (LBAM), but like all toxic dumping by the agriculture industry, it's really about industry profits. The LBAM is not a threat to people's health, but the spraying is.

The "pheromones" the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) have been spraying are synthetic, and contain toxic components that have made 100's of people sick already, with the homeless particularly impacted. Nearly 3000 people have signed the petition opposing the spraying so far, with the numbers steadily growing. Law suits have been filed, and various city officials have taken a stand against the spraying, including the Mayor and City Council of Albany, which unanimously resolved to stand in opposition to the State's spray campaign. Thanks to the tireless efforts of all these people, many of them injured by the spray, the Ag industry has postponed further aerial spraying until "late Spring or early Summer". To "educate" and "reach out" to us, the CDFA has hired themselves the PR firm Porter Novelli, started by two men who helped Nixon get re-elected, and who are now helping Dow Chemical (of napalm and Agent Orange fame) put on a friendly public face.

The CDFA has made it very clear that they are determined to continue spraying people's homes and gardens against the will of the people living here. Their postponement has bought us more time to organize against the spraying:

Community meetings to discuss the situation (for more info contact eastbayinfo@stopthespray.org):

Oakland: Wednesday, January 30, 7:30pm, Oakland Center for Environmental Health, 528 - 61st Street, Suite A
Albany: Thursday, January 31, 8pm, Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave (part of Albany Green Party meeting)
San Francisco: Monday, February 11, 7:30pm, Women's Building, 3543 - 18th Street #8, Room A
Berkeley: Sunday, February 24, 5pm, Berkeley Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar, between Spruce and Arch
More meetings to come...

The Berkeley City Council, which has not as of yet taken a side in the debate, but was reported as having a "wait and see" attitude, will be meeting with the CDFA at a city council meeting, where the public has the right to be heard. This is an important night to confront the CDFA:

CDFA presentation to the City of Berkeley: Tuesday, February 26, 7pm, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way (To be more prepared for an argument with the CDFA, here's the power point presentation they're likely to be giving this evening:
democrats.assembly.ca.gov/membe...z.ppt)

For more information on this urgent issue:

Map of planned areas to be sprayed - everything circled in yellow - the entire East Bay and San Francisco, and then some:
democrats.assembly.ca.gov/membe...08.pdf

Groups organized against the spraying, with much important information, including important forms to have a doctor fill out within 24 hours of being injured by pesticides:
www.hopefortruth.com/
www.stopthespray.org/ (Sign the petition against the spraying!)
www.lbamspray.com/
groups.yahoo.com/group/sto...dspraying/ (Listserve with up to date information and discussion)
www.californiaalliancetostopthespray.org/
www.1hope.org/hope.htm

For a list of symptoms experienced by those already sprayed:
www.indybay.org/newsitems/...8470272.php

Meanwhile, ground spraying will be happening all along, possibly with permethrin on utility poles, 8 feet above the ground, just a couple of feet above the heads of passers by. Here's a toxicological profile of permethrin:
www.mindfully.org/Pesticide...ethrin.htm

Something else in the CDFA's arsenal is spinosad, which is considered non-synthetic, is "approved" for used in organic farming, but contains undisclosed "inert" ingredients. It is very toxic to honeybees, oysters and other marine mollusks, and somewhat toxic to birds, fish, and aquatic invertebrates. Ironically it is also harmful to the Trichogramma wasp, another part of the LBAM eradication program.

For a discussion about the problems with "inert" ingredients of pesticides, which usually make up most of the product, are often more toxic than the "active" ingredients, and which are kept undisclosed, protected by trade secret laws:
www.ehponline.org/members/2...4/9374.pdf