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State leaders do not have sufficient data to conclude whether a link exists between illness complaints and last fall’s aerial pesticide spraying, according to a health report issued Thursday.
Still, the report suggested that county residents who have respiratory problems or are sensitive to chemicals receive notice before the next round of spraying, scheduled for June, should they want to avoid exposure.
“As a public health protective agency, it’s prudent to provide information to those individuals” so they can take steps to protect themselves,” said Joan Denton, director of the California Office of Environmental Health and Hazard Assessment.
Hundreds of Santa Cruz and Monterey county residents have reported breathing problems, allergic reactions and a metallic taste last year after the state employed airplanes to spray parts of both counties with a pheromone to fight the invasive light brown apple moth. CheckMate LBAM-F was developed to confuse male moths and prevent them from mating.
More than 460 health complaints were filed after the spraying, but state leaders have taken into account less than 46 of those when preparing Tuesday’s report. The rest did not contain sufficient information to be included, the report said.
That angers Santa Cruz residents like Emily Levy, who said she was in her 40s and has lived in Santa Cruz for almost 10 years. She moved out of the area during the spraying, but noticed increased fatigue right after she returned.
“It’s illegal and immoral to experiment on people, and if you’re going to conduct an experiment of this magnitude, you want to look at the results of the experiment,” said Levy, a member of California Alliance to Stop the Spray.
Levy was also frustrated that state health leaders did not interview Central Coast residents or doctors concerning their health complaints.
Denton said the state would take better initiative in reaching out to residents after the next Santa Cruz County spraying in June, but a plan to do that has not been approved.
A number of San Francisco Bay Area counties are in line to be sprayed this summer as well.
The State of California’s Bureaucrats put out a shamefully non-researched report. As stated in their report they reached no conclusions about the complaints because they did no work in looking into the health complaints.
Let’s be clear about this report presented by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, the Department of Pesticide Regulation and California’s Department of Public Health.
They never contacted people about their health complaints, they never spoke with any of the physicians who submitted the health complaint reports, and they never provided a medical examination for anyone who made the health complaints. All they did was review the telephone messages, emails, letters, and some filed reports they received from the people who complained to them about their symptoms. Prior to the spraying, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, the Department of Pesticide Regulation, and California’s Department of Public Health did not educate the people and physicians in Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties on the required paperwork to submit, symptoms to watch for after they were sprayed, nor provided any physicians to examine the people who had the health symptoms.
So, in summary, how can you find any connection between the complaints and the pesticides if you don’t look? You obviously won’t find something you are not looking for.
The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, the Department of Pesticide Regulation and California’s Department of Public Health have absolutely no credibility with the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) Project.
As a consequence, these 3 state agencies have failed to provide any new analysis of the health complaints and they have not proven these chemicals to be safe. All they have proven is their incompetence into not looking into people’s health complaints more seriously.
All of the following state officials need to be fired for their incompetence and in lying to the public and to the victims of this tragedy. A shameful disgrace goes to the following state bureaucrats who put out this shameful report:
Contributors:
Marylou Verder-Carlos, D.V.M., M.P.V.M.
Aaron Campbell, B.S.
Amna Hawatky
Rick Kreutzer, M.D., M.P.H.
James Sanborn, Ph.D.
Robert Schlag, M.Sc.
David Ting, Ph.D.
Joy Wisniewski, Ph.D.
Nino Yanga, D.V.M., M.P.V.M.
Reviewers:
George Alexeeff, Ph.D.
Joan Denton, Ph.D.
Susan Edmiston, B.S.
Anna Fan, Ph.D.
George Farnsworth, B.S.
Louise Mehler, M.D., Ph.D.
Jay Schreider, Ph.D.
Bonita Sorensen, M.D., M.B.A.
Craig Steinmaus, M.D., M.P.H.