What Would Larry, Moe and Curly Do?
"SPLAT, confetti, goop, wasps-the state's new weapons against the apple moth sound like a joke, but they're not."

Treatment Program for Light Brown Apple Moth in California (pdf)
Outlines the different methods planned according to the USDA

LBAM Eradication Program: Potential Effects on Pollinators and Implications for California Agriculture (pdf)

All of these pesticides contain "inert" ingredients, which are kept undisclosed, protected as "proprietary" by trade secret laws, are frequently even more toxic than the "active" ingredients listed on the label, and are specifically designed to interact synergistically to achieve greater toxicity than each chemical by itself.

Unidentified Inert Ingredients in Pesticides: Implications for Human and Environmental Health - Cox and Surgan (pdf)

Even though all of the pesticides contain synthetic ingredients, several of them are "approved" by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Organics Program, and the Organic Materials Review Institute for use in organic agriculture, further diluting organic standards.

It's a new, unregistered, synthetic chemical, and classified as a pesticide:

USDA quarantine exemption request (pdf)
Request to use a new chemical -- (E,E)-9,11-Tetradecadien 1-yl Acetate --which has not been registered by the EPA. A declared emergency precludes the usual environmental impact reporting and public comment. This is the "pheromone", the "active" ingredient in LBAM traps, twist ties, SPLAT, and aerial spray.

On the Apparent Persistence of Disparlure In the Human Body E. Alan Cameron
17 years after working with a similar chemical, disparlure, the synthetic "pheromone" aimed at the gypsy moth, a man continued to attract moths.

Even though traps are not considered part of the eradication program, but part of a monitoring program, the lures inside them contain the "pheromone" pesticide. Traps determine which areas are quarantined and targeted for more pesticide applications, which in the 1980's during the medfly program in Los Angeles resulted in people disappearing traps.

Some opponents of the CDFA's LBAM project are proposing "pheromone" traps as an alternative to the aerial spray program. The traps, however, which are currently used to find LBAM, also contain the same synthetic "pheromone" as the twist ties, SPLAT, and aerial spray, as well as secret ingredients, and put at risk other beneficial insects, especially honeybees, who are attracted to various colored traps, and who are in a real global emergency due to "Colony Collapse Disorder", in which pesticides have been implicated. It is clear that neither the "pheromone" nor these traps are "targeted", as they have to test moths to see if it's really an LBAM and not a local look-alike.

Scenturion Lures LBAM - Manufacturer's MSDS (pdf)
These Traps are made by Suterra, the same manufacturer as of CheckMate, the aerial spray used over Monterey and Santa Cruz in the Fall of 2007.

Notice that there are no ingredients listed on this MSDS at all. When asked about the ingredients, even just the "active" ingredients, Suterra's representative refused to provide them, and referred us back to the CDFA, confirming that their traps are in fact the ones being used in this program at this time.

Email exchange between Maxina Ventura and Suterra

Bids for a new LBAM Lure are being solicited by USDA-APHIS, with the following chemical requirements:

"Each Light Brown Apple Moth lure will consist of a synthetic rubber (halobutyl) septum loaded with 3mg of a 20:1 to 24:1 mixture of E11-tetradecen-1-ol acetate (= trans-11-tetradecenyl acetate) to E9, E11-tetradecadienyl acetate. These compounds should be applied to the septum in a solution of a solvent such as hexane (e.g., 3mg in a 100 ul of solvent) which is allowed to evaporate from the septum. … The materials should be applied in a solvent rather then "neat" as this may affect their absorption into, and subsequent release from the halobutyl rubber."

This requirement was later amended to also allow a "PVC matrix type dispenser in lieu of a synthetic rubber septum".

Hexane is a neurotoxin and causes central nervous system depression. It is a narcotic agent, and an eye, respiratory, and skin irritant. "Symptoms observed include dizziness, giddiness, slight nausea, and headache. Chronic inhalation exposure to hexane is associated with polyneuropathy in humans, with numbness in the extremities, muscular weakness, blurred vision, headache, and fatigue."

Hexane profile

Pheromone Trap Colour Determines Catch of Non-target Insects - New Zealand Plant Protection Society

Pheromone Search - 942 Monterey County Moths - Lancelot Houston (526 KB pdf)
"Non-target" moth species in Monterey County, affected by the CDFA's supposedly "targeted pheromone"

An LBAM trap in Cherryland, adjacent to the City of Hayward, with a non-target insect stuck inside:

Found & photographed by Dan Egolf

Artist depiction of possible exposure to children:

Twist ties with the LBAM "pheromone" have been going up in many towns throughout the quarantine area since 2007.

Isomate LBAM Plus, "pheromone infused" twist ties are being hung on trees, plants and fences, 250 per acre, 30-40 per property, throughout entire neighborhoods, to be replaced every 3-6 months. While these "pheromones" sound natural, they are not naturally acquired. They are synthetic chemicals designed to imitate natural pheromones. In order for these chemicals to affect moths, they have to drift through the air we breathe, so the insects can perceive them. This Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) is of course produced by the manufacturer, and does not disclose "inert" ingredients, which are protected by trade secret laws. It is unlikely to tell the whole story, but admits it is an eye irritant and "Harmful if absorbed through skin":

Isomate LBAM Plus Twist Ties - MSDS (pdf)

And the label warns "Hazards to Humans and Domestic Animals":

Isomate LBAM Plus Twist Ties - Label (pdf)

Many are placed quite low, in easy reach of climbing and curious children and animals, as can be seen in these pictures from a CDFA report.

And these artist depictions of possible contamination of pets and wildlife:

New twist tie clip, first publicly revealed at Sonoma Board of Supervisors meeting with CDFA on July 8, 2008:

Permethrin, mixed with the synthetic "pheromone" and other secret ingredients, was planned as a "pre-treatment" for, or concurrently with, aerial spraying, to be applied in a "clay matrix", every 30-60 days, 8 feet off the ground, just overhead of passers by and in easy reach of climbing children and animals, to a minimum of 3000 utility poles and trees per square mile. The CDFA has described this method as a process of "painting", though upon questioning, no one at the CDFA hotline had any information about the details. The USDA treatment plan for the LBAM describes it as mixed into either a "paraffin wax material" or Min-U-Gel, also known as Fullers earth or Attapulgite clay, and applied "as a very coarse squirt from a metered hand-held wand." According to the Santa Cruz Sentinel, after interviewing Steve Lyle, CDFA Director of Public Affairs, "The goo would be squirted by a person in a van onto power poles and trees 8 feet high - on public and private property."

The USDA admits that the crystalline "silica quartz component of the clay is listed as a possible human carcinogen under California Proposition 65 for inhalation exposure; however, since the material is mixed with liquid diluent, it will not be available for inhalation." But potters know that clay dries fast in the air, and crumbles in little time.

The document claims that the "direct application of this material to trees and poles eliminates the possibility of drift". It also describes the pheromone as "highly volatile", and anyone who's ever smelled head lice shampoo, flea collars, or Raid, knows that permethrin mixes offgas fiercely. The description that the chemicals are formulated in such a way as to provide for a "slow release to the atmosphere", says it all. If the moth can perceive it, then we are exposed to it too.

According to the Mercury News' interview with Lyle, the pesticide "should dry within a week" after application. The USDA claims that "the ability of both formulations to become rainfast once the material is applied reduces any potential for run-off." Simultaneously they want us to think of the clay as the same as what's in that horrid pink stuff for diarrhea. Imagine all that Pepto-Bismol stuck to people's insides, that a good guzzling of water couldn't flush down. Imagine what might happen to wax on a hot, inner city California day, stuck to a pole. Imagine what the full "potential" of their toxic run-off might be, if it wasn't "reduced"...

Permethrin is a neurotoxic, carcinogenic, endocrine disrupting, chromosome damaging insecticide, that is especially deadly to cats.

Dangers of Permethrin Fact Sheet by Caroline Cox

Most recent toxicological profile for Permethrin (or download pdf here)

Ground Spraying Coming in March 2008 - CASS Fact Sheet (MS Word)
More toxicology of Permethrin and Btk compiled by California Alliance to Stop the Spray

SPLAT (Specialized Pheromone & Lure Application Technology)

This is what it might look like, though the CDFA has not released any pictures of the surface area, color, or density of this pesticide application.

Perhaps one of these is the method of application. Both "metered" wand (left) and caulk gun (right) have been mentioned as possibilities for their drive-by squirting. And Max Suckling, a member of the Technical Working Group, and his agency HortResearch, which is partnering with the CDFA and USDA in LBAM-related research in New Zealand, are described as attempting to develop a method involving a "paintball gun" to shoot the "pheromone" onto tree trunks.

CheckMate, a mix of synthetic "pheromones" with undisclosed "inert" ingredients, was planned to rain down on California's San Francisco Bay Area and the Monterey and Santa Cruz Peninsula, applied by airplanes. These chemicals have never been tested for safety. After much pressure from residents whose neighborhoods were already sprayed, and who were sickened, the "inert" ingredients of only one of the two chemical formulations used in 2007, CheckMate LBAM-F was disclosed. It remains unclear if the list of ingredients is complete, as State officials ordered the list of ingredients released "to the maximum extent possible under U.S. trademark law". While a few ingredients of the other formulation, CheckMate OLR-F, were leaked to the public, the full list of ingredients remains a secret. The formulation planned for future spraying is not being announced until right before the first round of spraying is scheduled.

Overview of all known ingredients of CheckMate

Most recent indepth toxicological profile for CheckMate (or download 40 page pdf here)

Declaration of Richard Philp, toxicology professor, on CheckMate (quick and easy to print out overview)

More about Polymethylene polyphenyl isocyanate, the secret ingredient in CheckMate OLR-F

Analysis of the Encapsulation Process and Encapsulated Products, such as CheckMate capsules

Dr. Ting, Office of Environmental Health Hazards Assessment (OEHHA) toxicologist, on coughing up microcapsules
(MS Word)

LBAM Spray, PM10, and 630,000 Deaths The impact of particle pollution

Study of effectiveness of pollen traps in reducing poisoning of bee hives by microencapsulated pesticides
Microcapsules used in pesticide manufacturing are the size of pollen grains, and are collected with pollen by foraging bees, and carried back to the hive. The pesticides within the microcapsules were later found in dead bees, and even though they were also found in pollen traps, their presence "did not significantly reduce bee deaths or pesticide residues".

In addition to testing the twist ties and one of the Checkmate formulations used already (LBAM-F), the USDA has partnered with two state owned biotech companies in New Zealand to test various chemical formulations of the "pheromone" as aerial applications, including SPLAT, the "pheromone" and permethrin mix we're told will be applied to utility poles and trees. Testing is regarding "efficacy" not safety. There is little if any information easily accessible on these formulations. All percentages of "active" ingredients refer to the "pheromone". It is manufactured by Bedoukian.

The import application states:
"The light brown apple moth pheromone has never been registered in the United States due to the fact that there has never been a need for it until now. USDA APHIS is currently seeking approval for the use of the Hercon Product (LBAM Bioflake) and the ISCA Tech Product (SPLAT LBAM) and expects authorization shortly. USDA APHIS will seek authorization to use the Scentry product, depending upon the results of the comparative efficacy trials in New Zealand."

Description of the Test Program (pdf)
from the Application for approval to Import a Hazardous Substance to New Zealand

"AMORPHOUS POLYMER"

Splat LBAM
(10% active 90% other ingredients)
Manufactured by ISCA Technologies

"BIODEGRADABLE SOLID FLAKE"

Disrupt Bioflake LBAM
(15% active 85% other Ingredients)
Manufactured by Hercon Environmental

The Manufacturer mentions no product named Disrupt "Bio"flake LBAM with 15% active ingredients. They only list this one:

Disrupt Micro-Flake LBAM Manufacturer's "fact sheet" (pdf)
"This is an unregistered product approved under Section 18 of FIFRA. For Use in State of California Only" - "Disrupt Micro-Flake LBAM is manufactured using four main components; the pheromone (active ingredient), an inert polymer film, an inert polymer resi, and an inert biodegradable plasticizer. The product is manufactured in the form of a three-layered laminate of 'sandwich' consisting of two outside barrier films, and a middle reservoir layer consisting of the phermone, resin, and plasticizer. This laminate structure protect the contained phermone from environmental degradation and rapid evaporation, permitting its useful controlled release over extended periods. When the laminate is cut into flakes, the pheromone slowly migrates through to the outside edges of the barrier films and is released from the surface of the flake over 80-90 days."

Disrupt Micro-Flake Manufacturer's MSDS (pdf)
Note that none of the 89% "inert" ingredients are listed. And while they don't expect "significant toxicity", they warn to use "appropriate procedures to prevent direct contact with skin or eyes and prevent inhalation."

Disrupt Micro-Flake Manufacturer's (Draft) Label (pdf)

"A 'Sticker Agent' will be mixed with Disrupt Bioflake LBAM for adherence of the flakes to foliage":

X3221 Micro-Tac II Sticker Agent
Manufactured by Lock N Pop (Key Tech Corporation)

Lock N Pop do not make their specialty adhesives publicly available on their website, and the manufacturer's Material Safety Data Sheet, sent to us upon request, lists no ingredients at all, so the ingredients of the adhesive are as of yet unknown.

Lock N' Pop X3221 MSDS

Bio-Tac Adhesive
"An Adhesive Product - Holds NoMate to Plant Foliage"

This particular product, which may or may not be completely different from the one they're testing, is made with polybutene, which is itself classified as a pesticide, and repels birds:

EPA Reregistration of Polybutene

NoMate is the other pesticide being tested in New Zealand:

"MICRO-ENCAPSULATED PARTICLE SUSPENSION"

NoMate LBAM MEC
(20% active 80% other ingredients)
Manufactured by Scentry Biologicals, Inc.

The closest product fitting this description on the manufacturer's website is NoMate LRX MEC, for leafrollers, a category of moth under which the LBAM falls.

NoMate LRX MEC MSDS
"Can cause irritation to eyes, skin, and respiratory tract… Preexisting skin or respiratory disorders may be aggravated by excessive exposure to this material… Carcinogen: Not known." Note that this would be sprayed during hot California Summers, and in wildfire prone areas: "Conditions to avoid: Excess Heat… Unknown hazardous materials may be formed in a fire. Incomplete combustion may lead to formation of carbon monoxide and/or other axphyxiants."

NoMate LRX MEC Label

On June 19, 2008, the CDFA announced that aerial spraying over "urban" areas would be suspended, though would continue in areas considered not "urban", and the rest of the program would continue. Though CDFA representatives have claimed repeatedly that another tool in their eradication plans, sterile moths, would be in development for some years to come, it suddenly became available, and ready to be implemented as early as Winter 2008 or Spring 2009.

Sterile moths are anticipated to be released by air planes and possibly by ground, on a frequent and regular basis, as often as weekly or bi-weekly, by the millions. The most disturbing aspect of this plan is the possibility that the sterile moths could be doused with the "pheromone", becoming "mobile mating disruption", an application method of the pesticide. Such methods have been proposed by Max Suckling, who is the "pheromone" expert on the LBAM Technical Working Group.

The first moths were made in Albany:

Western Regional Research Center
USDA, ARS, WRRC
800 Buchanan Street
Albany, California 94710
James N. Seiber, Center Director (510) 559-5600 james.seiber@ars.usda.gov

Nurseries are being forced to spray any plants suspected "infested" with chlorpyrifos, destroy plants, or close down. Chlorpyrifos is a broad spectrum organophosphate insecticide that damages the immune and central nervous systems, is associated with birth defects, and genetic damage. It contains other hazardous "inerts". One commonly found is xylene, which can cause hearing and memory loss, and leukemia. Chlorpyrifos is also toxic to beneficial insects, such as bees, ladybugs, and parasitic wasps, as well as fish, a wide variety of other aquatic organisms, and birds. Cats and other mammals have been poisoned, and even plants have been damaged by it. Chlorpyrifos is manufactured by Dow AgroSciences.

Toxicological Profile of Chlorpyrifos (pdf) by Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides (NCAP)

Chlorpyrifos Fact Sheet (pdf) by Chemical Watch and Beyond Pesticides

Farmworkers sue over Chlorpyrifos danger San Jose, July 2007
"Farm workers and advocate groups today filed a lawsuit in federal district court today against the Environmental Protection Agency to stop the continued use of a deadly pesticide called chlorpyrifos. Chlorpyrifos is a highly neurotoxic insecticide developed from World War II-era nerve gas. Exposure can cause dizziness, vomiting, convulsions, numbness in the limbs, loss of intellectual functioning, and death."

Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki, a bacteria mixed with secret "inert" chemical ingredients, has been, and may continue to be, sprayed by hand on vegetation, including on private property. During the 2007 LBAM program Btk was sprayed repeatedly on 146 properties in Oakley and 90 in Napa. Btk has sickened hundreds of people in New Zealand, and is implicated in gastro-intestinal illness and damage to the immune system. The formulations approved for use in this program are manufactured by Certis.

No Spray Zone overview of Btk (pdf)

Toxicological profile for Btk by Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides (pdf)

People's Inquiry of New Zealand

Pictures of CDFA hosing down a neighborhood with Bt
In these pictures the pesticide is not dispensed from common backpack sprayers, but from trucks with long hoses dragged through the neighborhood

Spinosad is another product to be used in this manner. It is "approved" for organics, representing further dilution of organics standards. It is considered non-synthetic, but also contains undisclosed synthetic "inerts". Spinosad is implicated in the killing of non-target species. In a world with modern agriculture facing vanishing pollinators, we must not take lightly the possibility of further impacting crippled species. Spinosad 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. The Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) describes that "the mode of action is unique and incompletely understood. Continuous activation of motor neurons causes insects to die of exhaustion… May be some effects on the GABA and other nervous systems". Even the USDA admits that it has insecticidal activity against some butterflies, moths, thrips, flies, termites, wasps, ants, bees, and beetles, and determines that in order to "reduce" the potential for resistance to the insecticide, no more than three applications may be done over a 30 day period, and no more than six applications per year.

Spinosad requires microbial activity for breakdown, so if used where toxic herbicides have been used, build-up in soil is expected. In any neighborhood where residents, gardeners, landscapers, municipal agency-users apply such herbicides, persistence in soil is a by-product and would be expected to become a danger to humans and honeybees through contact with residues left on site, and drift of residues, in addition to any drift at the time of application. So while it is "approved" for some use in organic production, it is only done so with strict warnings about toxicity to some species, and with strict clarification that it is only considered because of the rich microbial activity found on organic farms. It is not intended for use in city parks where herbicides have been used, nor is it intended for wholesale distribution into neighborhoods where usage of herbicides is not known. OMRI states that "Spinosad, while an improvement over some materials, is still fairly broad spectrum and not representative of an ecological approach." Spinosad is also manufactured by Dow.

Review of Spinosad by Organic Materials Review Institute (pdf)
"These review comments should not be taken to be an evaluation of the patented formulation of Spinosad containing inert compounds."

TRICHOGRAMMA WASPS

And just how are the millions of tiny trichogramma wasps, which the CDFA plans to use in several areas of San Francisco and Santa Cruz counties, going to be "released"? Common methods include distributing eggs manually, on cards, or sprayed by hand or mechanically, including by air, in some cases suspended in a chemical polyacrylate (plastics) thickener mixed with water, likely from equipment previously contaminated with pesticide residues. The USDA LBAM treatment plan only describes the release as "parasitized moth eggs (other than LBAM) containing Trichogramma pupae", but does not elaborate on the method of application.

Summary of application methods of Trichogramma wasps

Actual size of wasps is no more than half a milimeter (0.02 inches) long

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IMPACT ON HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT SO FAR

HUMAN HEALTH

The health complaints experienced by Monterey and Santa Cruz county residents, who were exposed to CheckMate in Fall 2007, were consistent with the expected effects of the ingredients that were revealed to the public. Hundreds of people were reported to have been made ill by the aerial spraying, including an 11 months old baby who went into respiratory arrest, and several pets got ill, and some died, of identical symptoms as experienced by affected people. While the CDFA publicized that many of these reports are duplicates, the actual number of people injured is likely much larger, as many people have since explained that they did not make a formal report of their symptoms for various reasons, including lack of access to medical care.

List of health complaints - Fall 2007

Full report of 2007 health complaints (8 MB pdf)
Many reports representing several people living under one roof. Also including survey of impact on homeless residents of Monterey and Santa Cruz.

Letter to Joan Denton (OEHHA) and Mary-Ann Warmerdam (CDPR) (pdf)
by Michael Lynberg, who has been collecting the health complaints, notifying the Office of Environmental Health Hazards Assessment (OEHHA) and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation that as of March 2008 the illness complaint count from 2007 has risen from 643 to 801, with many more likely left unreported

Interview with Michael Lynberg about the health reports (YouTube video)

The Day the Doctors Finally Read Toxicological Profiles of Pesticides (a dream)
Maxina Ventura's response to OEHHA's recent disrespectful report which suggests that all the sickness after Monterey and Santa Cruz sprayings was not pesticide poisoning, even though they never spoke with anyone who was injured.

Symptom Report Form from Maxina Ventura after sickened by LBAM "pheromone" traps and twist ties at office of the head of the Alameda County LBAM trapping program in April 2008

Health problems reported after aerial spraying interview with Timothy Wilcox,
father of the 11 months old baby

Declaration of Timothy Wilcox (pdf)
Father of the 11 months old baby

Declaration of Steven Bruno (pdf)
who repeatedly developed symptoms when exposed to CheckMate persisting in environment for 30 days after spraying

Declaration of Gina Renee (pdf)
Acupuncturist who treated many injured people after CheckMate was sprayed over Monterey

Homeless people were left unsheltered during the spraying, and even more impacted than their housed neighbors.

Santa Cruz Mayor ignored pleas from homeless advocates prior to the aerial spraying

Santa Cruz Councilmember evaded questions about how to protect the homeless from further spraying

Also not being addressed by officials are how future spraying and other pesticide use will impact prisoners at San Quentin and other jails in the spray zones, as well as juvi lockups and psychiatric wards, let alone the treesitters at the University of California, and other vulnerable members of the community, such as children, pregnant women, the elderly, the already chemically injured, and others who are immune system-compromised, all already under much physical distress.

PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMA

In addition to the health complaints, considerable emotional trauma was expressed by residents, who were kept awake by the planes flying low, back and forth over their homes:

It's Like the Fog, but More Toxic - Comments During and After the Spray

Psychological Stress Caused By LBAM Spraying - How Are You Doing?

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Declaration of Konnie Mast (pdf)
whose cat suffered respiratory distress and was rushed to hospital and recovered only slowly after treated with antibiotics

Kathleen Manoff's description of her dog dying

Summary Report: Post-Spray Effects on Animals and Pets (pdf)

In the days following the 2007 sprayings, residents reported that gardens previously full of birdsong and buzzing bees, were silent, as birds and bees avoided the sprayed areas long after. In the immediate aftermath, hundreds of dead birds were "mysteriously" washed ashore, including the endangered Brown Pelican. The Department of Fish and Game denies that there is anything in CheckMate that could possibly have stripped their weatherproofing off of the birds, or contributed to the worst red tide in decades, which was later blamed for the deaths of the birds. The red tide in turn was blamed on surfactants in the water. CheckMate contains several surfactants.

Moss Landing Mystery Spill - Discussion

Light Brown Apple Moth Spray Causes Severe Red Tide (YouTube video)

Surfers in The Red
Red tide after spray made surfers in those waters sick, some with long lasting respiratory effects.

Research shows: Red tide forming algal blooms prefer to feed on urea from urban runoff
CheckMate also contains urea. It rained after the aerial spraying, and the storm drains lead straight to the bay.

Pilot Error over homes, and Water Exclusion Zones (YouTube video)
Not all watersheds were excluded from the spray zones. The San Lorenzo River was not an exclusion site. Pilots made known errors on four separate days. The GPS system that was supposed to guarantee precision, instead confirmed their errors.

Pilots Mistakenly Spray Outside Zones

CDFA letter to property owners of areas sprayed accidentally (pdf)

Though the impacts are precisely what would be expected from exposure to the chemicals that were dumped on Monterey and Santa Cruz, the CDFA explains away these impacts as coincidental, that the quantity of the chemicals was too small to possibly have caused them. But the CDFA doesn't appear to have a handle on the measurements of our exposure. Is it 33 microcapsules per square foot, or is it 114, or maybe 809,...? Such widely divergent inconsistencies are not confidence inspiring.

Their goal, in any case, was 600-900 microcapsules per square foot. And while the CDFA argues strenuously that the capsules are not the size of particle pollution, which the American Lung Association considers any air borne matter between 2.5 and 10 microns, the manufacturer's own analysis admits that 1.2 % of the capsules are smaller than 10 micrometers (which is equal to microns). A square foot is not such a large area, and 1.2% of 33-900 can add up quickly.

Exposure levels according to the CDFA (YouTube video)

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PREPARATION, REMEDIATION, AND RECOVERY

HOW TO PREPARE

What ARE your rights?

Your constitutional rights about nearby pesticide use (pdf)

The Constitutional Rights That Exist To Protect You From LBAM Aerial Spraying

Nuremberg Code - Directives for Human Experimentation
Relevant to CheckMate, the synthetic "pheromone" containing pesticide, which has been untested on humans, and therefore its use over human populations constitutes experimentation without consent.

So what about refusing access to private property for any of these applications?

According to the CDFA's Potential Questions & Answers (pdf) about the LBAM project:

"If I don't want applications applied to my property, how do I get out of it? Can the owner prevent application on private property?

No. In order to have a biologically sound program, CDFA/USDA cannot have a series of untreated refuges in which the moth can breed and re-infest treated areas, therefore the State of California can require access to private property in order to deal with a threat to the public."

However, the USDA's own Emergency Programs Manual (pdf) makes a good case for joint actions and a united front with our neighbors: One of several conditions under which an emergency program can be terminated is when "Sociopolitical opposition prevents emergency action" (page 91). As an example, during the CDFA's Glassy-winged Sharpshooter project, in the early 2000's the people of Northern California's wine country prepared to risk arrest to protect their families and homes from the government's threat of pesticide use against them.

Contact us if you are interested in organizing non-violent civil disobedience and direct action training, and we will get you in touch with trainers in your area, or provide our own:
beneficialbug@netzero.net

What Would Gandhi Do?

If this pesticide program continues, what can you do to protect yourself, your family, your pets, and your gardens from the pesticide applications?

Safety Precautions related to aerial spraying of CheckMate

Familiarize yourself prior to the spraying and other exposures with the various protocols you may wish to take in case you are poisoned. Print out the forms below and have them readily available, also look through the tips and suggestions for recovery and research the preventative steps also listed there that may be appropriate for you. None of the remedies here are meant as medical advice nor endorsed by East Bay Pesticide Alert/Don't Spray California, but are provided in the spirit of sharing resources.

WHAT TO DO IF SICKENED

If you are sickened by any of the CDFA's pesticide applications - bring the following form to a doctor, hospital, or clinic. Medical professionals are required by law to fill out and submit this EPA form within 24 hours if an illness is known or suspected to have been caused by pesticides:

Pesticide-Related Illness Report (pdf)

Additionally, you have up to 6 months to fill out a claim form for injuries or property damages against the CDFA:
CDFA Claim Form (MS Word)

To ensure your reactions to the pesticides are reported, also send a symptom report to ReactionToSpraying@yahoo.com , or POB 1612, Pebble Beach, CA 93953, where the same grassroots efforts, which brought to light the injuries in 2007, will continue to collect health complaints:

Symptom Report Form (pdf) (MSWord)
updated from original used in Monterey in October 2007 to include all areas and all parts of the LBAM trapping and eradication program.

Some suggestions to help with preparing for and recovering from the chemical assault, focused especially on nutritional and herbal support of the liver and immune system to boost its ability to help the body to detox:

Summary of Detoxification Tips from Layna Berman - LBAM show on Your Own Health and Fitness, KPFA (pdf)
Nutritional support to support liver functioning of detoxification (Listen here)

Suggestions from Karyn Sanders on Herbal Highway, KPFA (pdf)
A few useful herbs to help detox (Listen here)

Prevention and Recovery Tips from Dr Randy Baker - Quick Reference (pdf)
A variety of tips from a doctor who treats many patients with chemical injuries

What Does Pesticide Poisoning Feel Like? LBAM Spray Preparedness

Natural Health Tips from Hope for Truth - Quick Reference (pdf)
A variety of tips from an activist

Get support and share resources with other chemically injured and our allies on the local Yahoo group:
Bay Canary Grapevine

WHEN AND WHERE WILL IT HAPPEN

On June 19, 2008, the CDFA announced that it would halt the aerial spraying of urban communities. In a conference call Ag Secretary Kawamura clarified that the aerial spraying is only halted over "urban" areas, and only for this program, but may well become a tool in future eradication programs of other organisms. But what does "urban" or "populated" or "accessible by road" really mean? Bay Area and Peninsula cities and towns are surrounded by vast forests and parks, and if they are sprayed, drift is inevitable. And what about rural communities, whose agricultural neighbors expose them to a large array of chemical cocktails daily? Is it a victory if another chemical mix is added to their already heavy toxic body burden? As of July 24, 2008 there has been no clarification of the area still in the CDFA's spray zone. Comparing the map of the CDFA's prior plans with a satellite map, which areas look like "non-urban" and "forested" to you? 

The following was the plan of the CDFA prior to June 19, 2008. The ground applications are moving forward, as are likely much of the aerial applications:

The plan, once implemented, was scheduled to occur every 30 or 90 days for 9 months of every year, for at least 3-5 years. That adds up to being doused in chemicals a minimum of between 9 to 45 times over the next few years, from planes flying overhead at 500-800 feet, or reportedly lower, with chemical mixtures designed to be time released, and to persist in the environment in between spraying, to be dragged home on our shoes, clothes, our pets, and in our lungs, year round.

According to the CDFA map of proposed pesticide applications for 2008, the communities to be SPRAYED BY AIR, which may also involve PERMETHRIN PAINTED on utility poles and trees, though the details of this part of the program have not been clarified, include the following

Beginning August 17, 2008 (postponed from June 1, 2008) continues to be the date of aerial spraying to begin, though which of the following areas remain in the spray zone is unclear, as is which of them and others will be in the drift zone:

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY:
Aptos, Ben Lomond, Boulder Creek, Brookdale, Davenport, Felton, Freedom, Mount Hermon, Soquel, Corralitos, La Selva Beach, Pajaro, Live Oak, Rio Del Mar, Lompico, Scotts Valley, Capitola, Watsonville, and the City of Santa Cruz.

MONTEREY COUNTY:
Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Del Rey Oaks, Moss Landing, Seascape, Las Lomas, Elkhorn, Castroville, Prunedale, Boronda, Salinas, Marina, Seaside, the City of Monterey, Carmel by the Sea, and Aromas (which is also part of SAN BENITO COUNTY)

(postponed from August 1, 2008):

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY:
Hercules, El Sobrante, Orinda, Pinole, San Pablo, Rollingwood, East Richmond Heights, North Richmond, Richmond, El Cerrito, Kensington, Canyon (and very close to spray zone: Lafayette and Rodeo).

ALAMEDA COUNTY:
Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Piedmont, Oakland, and the City of Alameda.

MARIN COUNTY:
Sausalito, Belvedere,Tiburon, Marin City, Strawberry, Mill Valley, Greenbrae, San Quentin (and close to spray zone: Larkspur).

SAN FRANCISCO City and County.

SAN MATEO COUNTY: South San Francisco, Colma, Broadmoor, Brisbane, San Bruno, Daly City, Pacifica (and close to spray zone: Millbrae).

It should be noted that as frequent as it sounds to be sprayed and exposed to drift once every 30-90 days, the reality is much worse: In the Fall 2007, those 3 aerial applications were executed over the course of 12 days: According to the CDFA report to the Legislature Monterey was sprayed September 9-13, and again with a different formulation on October 24-26. In Santa Cruz, they went back to the first formulation for November 8-9, in Prunedale on November 9, 11 and 12, and in Salinas on November 9 and 11.

The areas sprayed by planes in 2007 were a total of 88,613 acres. Of the 571,259 acres, 892 square miles, established as the areas to be pesticided back in February 2008, the areas to be sprayed by planes total 444,060 acres, 693.8 square miles.

Hand spraying of Bt in Oakley and Napa in the summer of 2007 was replaced by twist ties, which were placed there and in Danville, San Jose, Sherman Oaks, and continue to be in Dublin, Pleasanton, Vallejo, and Mare Island. They are also being "deployed" in various counties in 2008.

TWIST TIES, beginning in March 2008, are underway or planned for:

MARIN COUNTY: San Rafael, and Ross

SAN MATEO COUNTY: Half Moon Bay, Pescadero, Burlingame, San Mateo, Belmont, Dearborn, and Loma Mar

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY: Moraga

ALAMEDA COUNTY: Union City, and Fremont

SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY: Treasure Island

SANTA CLARA COUNTY: Cupertino

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY: Carpinteria

The following are vaguely called "ERADICATION AREAS", and are currently listed as targeted for twist ties:

SOLANO COUNTY: Vallejo

ALAMEDA COUNTY: Dublin

See the twist tie treatment maps for more detailed and updated information

The CDFA's initial plan was to also paint "MALE ATTRACTANT TREATMENT" on utility poles and trees in the following areas, but according to their official map of February 2008 those plans have been dropped, at least for now. Strangely, the previous map has since surfaced again, when it was presented to the City of Piedmont, and posted on the city's website as part of the CDFA power point presentation.

ALAMEDA COUNTY: San Leandro (which is closest to the spray zone), San Lorenzo, Cherryland, Ashland, Castro, Hayward, and Fairview

SAN MATEO COUNTY: Atherton, Woodside, North Fair Oaks, Menlo Park, and East Palo Alto; and in Santa Clara County, Palo Alto, Stanford, Mountain, Los Altos, Los Altos, Sunnyvale.

The CDFA has also found moths in San Luis Obispo and Sonoma Counties, as well as Los Angeles and Napa Counties, where the moths have supposedly been eradicated. If more are found in those areas, or other areas being monitored, pesticide applications may be expanded to include them.

Part of Sonoma County is already under quarantine, and was slated to be treated with twist ties in June 2008, but neighborhood unity held off the applications, as many refused to have them placed on their properties.

An updated map is to be released before further aerial applications are made. 

In July 2008, the CDFA announced the intention to expand the LBAM program to most of California:

The United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA-APHIS) is also conducting a National Survey, in 2007 still voluntary from state to state, in search of the LBAM. They estimate likely areas for future LBAM infestation across 80% of the continental U.S.

USDA schedules national survey to track invasive moth April 1, 2008

USDA-APHIS National Survey Guidelines (pdf)

larger map

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KEEPING INFORMED

Sign up for email updates from the CDFA
but don't depend on them, or their postal announcements, as your only source of information, as the CDFA has proved to be quite unreliable in their communications.

Also check weekly CDFA Situation Reports for changes

And CDFA Press Releases for public announcements

Contact the CDFA - Ask for clarifications, demand answers, let them know how you feel about this program

The CDFA Hotline 1-800-491-1899  (1 for english, 6 for LBAM, 0 for operator) lbam@cdfa.ca.gov

CDFA Public Affairs Director Steve Lyle (916) 654-0462   slyle@cdfa.ca.gov

Urgent Media (if Public Affairs office closed) (916) 502-7447

CDFA Secretary A. G. Kawamura (916) 654-0433   akawamura@cdfa.ca.gov

CDFA Integrated Pest Control - Dr. Robert Dowell (916) 654-0768   bdowell@cdfa.ca.gov

California Department of Food And Agriculture
1220 N Street
Sacramento, CA 95814

CDFA and USDA LBAM headquarters at Santa Cruz Fairgrounds (831) 763-5960
CDFA: Sean Hardy
USDA: Pat McPherren   patrick.w.mcpherren@aphis.usda.gov

USDA Public Affairs Specialist Larry Hawkins (916) 930-5509   lawrence.e.hawkins@aphis.usda.gov

USDA Secretary Ed Schafer (202) 720-4623   AgSec@usda.gov

U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington, DC 20250

For an example of how such a conversation might go, read the account of Don't Spray California's Chronic Effects Researcher: Maxina Ventura's talk with a clueless CDFA rep 2/08/08 (pdf)

Or her email exchange with Steve Lyle, who determined that the cost of informing her about use of LBAM pesticides in areas, which she and her children frequent, would be $3000

In Fall 2007 even city officials were largely taken by surprise by the aerial spraying, so calls to your own government's representatives may not be much more informative, but some municipalities are mobilizing against parts of the CDFA's program. Please contact them, find out what they've been told by the CDFA, what measures they're taking to protect the public, particularly our homeless neighbors, and ask them to take united legal and direct action against forced pesticiding by any method.

List of areas to be pesticided and contacts for local representatives

email addresses from above list of contacts - for easy pasting
(most email programs allow you to send only a limited number at one time)

Sign up for Google News Alerts
Enter "apple moth," "lbam", "aerial spraying," "twist ties" or any other relevant key words, plus your email

Sign up for Yahoo! News Alerts
since some articles show up here that don't show up on Google

Search sites of groups opposed to LBAM program to do more indepth research of your own

Sign up on the Stop Overhead Spraying Yahoo Group
Community Listserve for discussing, sharing resources and research, and to organize collectively against the LBAM program, evolved into more than just about aerial spraying.

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WHAT'S THE EMERGENCY?

So what could be so bad that the CDFA would take such a risk with the lives of California residents and visitors? They've declared an emergency to battle the light brown apple moth, a tiny Australian bug, which is claimed to inevitably eat us out of house and home, but has done no significant crop damage, nor is it likely that it will. In fact the LBAM's damage to crops is largely cosmetic. It is one of many manufactured crises that benefits the multi-billion dollar chemical industry, because it traps municipalities on a neverending toxic treadmill. The LBAM is certainly not an emergency, potential or otherwise.

LBAM Takes San Francisco (YouTube video)
Starring: Oakland-based performance crew headRush (Rosa Esperanza Gonzáles, Xago Juárez and Simón Hanukai) Written/directed/edited by: Patrick Wilkinson (Special thanks to: La Peña Cultural Center, Destiny Arts Center, and Centro Legal de la Raza)

THE MOTH

(actual size of light brown apple moth)

Unlike the CDFA would lead us to believe, the LBAM is not considered a significant threat in New Zealand, where it has been well established for over a century, but pesticides are, as is shown by plant experts Dr. Daniel Harder and Jeff Rosendale, who recently returned from New Zealand where they researched the issue in depth. Dr. Harder is the Executive Director of the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum, which includes plants from New Zealand and Australia, and is Adjunct Professor in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department. Jeff Rosendale is a grower and horticultural consultant in the Monterey and San Francisco Bay Areas who specializes in plants from California, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Mediterranean Europe. They found that there "is no evidence of biological or environmental threat from LBAM in New Zealand":

"Reports of damage to crops prior to 2001 in Australia or New Zealand are from the era when organophosphate pesticides were heavily used to control LBAM (to comply with USDA requirements that no trace of LBAM be found). These pesticides eliminated LBAM's natural predators. Once organophosphate use stopped in 2001 and natural predator populations rebounded, New Zealand's LBAM problem was greatly reduced to its current, insignificant level."

"Under the organophosphate spray regime, LBAM was a problem of greater significance than it is today, and all pests were more difficult to control and became increasingly hard to keep in check. Populations of insects, including LBAM, developed resistance to the organophosphate formulation." - "...experts also question the efficacy of bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) against LBAM. Bt can also have a detrimental effect on beneficial insects."

"The requirement that California nurseries use chlorpyrifos [sic] sets California up for failure of long-term LBAM management and management of future pests that would otherwise be controlled by natural predator species that will be compromised or eliminated by chlorpyrifos [sic] use. This and other highly toxic treatments need to be discouraged or prohibited in commercial nurseries."

LBAM Status report from New Zealand by Dr. Daniel Harder and Jeff Rosendale (pdf) March 6, 2008

Harder and Rosendale respond to CDFA's criticism of New Zealand report (pdf) April 2, 2008

The report further notes, that "According to New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture and Food (MAF) and Department of Conservation (DOC) experts, LBAM does not build up in any one host in the wild and has never posed a threat to native forests. Natural predators keep LBAM in check, and it is so rare in the wild that it requires a true expert and meticulous searching to even find any sign of it."

Yet U.S. tax dollars, set aside for this pesticide program, are being wasted to test their toxic chemical mixtures on this elusive LBAM population in New Zealand. On February 17, 2008, The New Zealand Press Association reports that "Two state-owned science companies in New Zealand are extracting some of that cash in return for expertise Hortresearch has in use of pheromones -- sex attractants -- to disrupt mating behaviours by pest insects, and expertise forestry research company Scion has in precision aerial spraying."

NZ forest provides laboratory for pheromone trials NZPA 2/17/08

Application to Environmental Risk Management Authority New Zealand to import various chemical formulations of the "pheromone" for field trials

In Hawaii, where LBAM has also been established for more than a hundred years, it not only is not considered a significant pest, but may even be considered beneficial, as a control measure for invasive gorse and blackberry, according to the Hawaii Department of Agriculture.

Hawaii Department of Agriculture Press Release in response to USDA Quarantine May 2007

According to UC Davis entomologist James R. Carey, the moth has probably been in California as well for "a very long time prior to its discovery and it's probably far more widespread than currently delineated".

And just how did the CDFA determine the number of LBAM in California? The CDFA's 2007 Report to the Legislature (pdf) states that part of their research objective that year was to "Develop an effective DNA fingerprint and identification technology for LBAM":

"In California there are native moths in the same family as the LBAM. Since LBAM is not known to occur in California, a comprehensive key for identifying the larvae does not exist. Therefore, if larvae suspected of being LBAM were collected from commodities from within the quarantined area, they could not be sold until the commodities were treated with an approved treatment. To remedy this problem, the protocols for the molecular diagnosis of LBAM larvae were developed by the USDA, Pest Detection, Diagnostics and Management laboratory, in consultation with the Department's Plant Pest Diagnostics laboratory. By June 18, 2007, the Department was able to identify LBAM larvae using DNA sequencing."

The CDFA's claims that no LBAM were found in 2005, and their claims of infestation in 2007, followed by the quarantines, were all established before this "effective identification technology" was developed...

POTENTIAL ECONOMIC IMPACT OF THE MOTH

LBAM - Implications for California Agriculture (pdf)
Dan Harder, Jeff Rosendale, Roy Upton, Teresa Aquino, and Kenneth Kimes, plant experts and nursery owners show that the eradication efforts and quarantine have far greater implications for Agriculture than the moth.

As paraphrased by the Monterey Herald, Carey has indicated that "the state has to show it is making efforts to eradicate the pest, even if the efforts aren't effective", that "the primary economic impact of the moth is likely to be the result of trade restrictions from imposed quarantines, and not crop damage caused by the moth." Carey said that "to acknowledge that they're established is to unleash economic consequences that are even more devastating than the spread would cause,…to acknowledge the truth is to trigger these embargoes and quarantines that are absolutely devastating, so they're always playing this game that it's 'eradicable' "

Dr. Carey's Presentation to the State Senate Environmental Quality Committee (pdf) March 2008

UC Davis Experts Letter to the USDA (pdf) May 2008
Putting the eradication program in question as not based in science.

The USDA/CDFA LBAM pesticide project has nothing whatsoever to do with securing our food supply, nor with environmental protection, nor with public health and safety, but everything to do with the politics of trade between profit hungry multi-national corporations, at the expense of the public. What the government agencies are defending here is not our food supply nor our ecosystems but capitalist interests in international trade. The LBAM is no threat to us, but it is a threat to a complex system of agro-business trade agreements, formed not to safeguard human or environmental health, but rather to guarantee supremacy in the marketplace for the U.S., specifically to crowd out competition. The LBAM quarantine is a tool of big agro-business to achieve this supremacy.

UC Berkeley Agroecology Professor Miguel Altieri explains:
"Free trade,…most of the western countries are involved, basically functions on restrictions to trade, and one of the restrictions to trade is quarantine pests."

"$75 million, the USDA is gonna devote for…the eradication, which is actually an ecological illusion: It's totally unsound to do that, because you cannot eradicate organisms. …$75 million is actually 20 times more than the budget that the University of California devotes to organic farming. If we had $75 million to do research on organic farming alternatives, we wouldn't have to worry about this pest or any other pest."

"So who is afraid of the pest? It's basically…two groups: One is agri-business and the other is the University of California, which serves agri-business."

Larry Bragman, member of the Fairfax town council points out that Mexico's quarantine demand is subject to change, depending on the very sort of scientific study Harder and Rosendale conducted in New Zealand. "If the NAFTA quarantine demands are withdrawn, California farmers will not face significant economic losses from this moth. The health and safety of residents should not be subordinated to U.S. trade policy."

Larry Bragman: Will U.S. trade policy again trump public health?

In a public vow to "work vigorously to stop" the spray program, Robert Lieber, Mayor of the City of Albany, one of the cities on the list to be sprayed aerially, and Registered Nurse with extensive experience in respiratory care, who provided emergency triage and healthcare after many toxic chemical accidents and releases, including the Chevron spill, declared that "we cannot risk public health to protect business interests." Beyond merely this one, of an endless series of pesticide programs, he pointed out that "eradication is no longer a realistic pest management goal in view of world trade and global warming, which will continue to introduce new pests to California. We cannot continue to risk human and environmental health by spraying for every new bug".

Statement against CDFA's LBAM program by City of Albany Mayor Robert Lieber, RN (MS Word)

ECONOMIC IMPACT OF THE PESTICIDE PROGRAM

ORGANICS

Organic farmers are bearing the brunt of the burden of the CDFA's pesticide campaign. As Steven Munno, an organic farmer from UC Santa Cruz, described at our community brainstorm in San Leandro in February 2008, the LBAM, which is present at the farm on which he works, is not doing significant damage to the crop, but the government's wasting time with paperwork better spent farming, and the demands to constantly handle crops in search for the LBAM, is doing the real damage, especially to strawberries.

Federal and state inspectors to descend on Santa Cruz County in search of moths May 11, 2007

What happens if nursery owners refuse to comply with spraying pesticides on their plants?

Blue Bamboo nursery forced to close June 27, 2007

Invasive Procedures March 18, 2008

As another farmer states on Michael Olson's MetroFarm forum:
"It's the possible spraying of my organic farm with the so-called "inert ingredients" that I object to. Those chemicals don't belong in the FOOD CHAIN … If my farm's products are no longer "organic", certifiably or otherwise, then my livelihood is damaged! WHO DO DAMAGED FARMERS SUE FOR DAMAGES? What person or agency? ... As for Organic Certification, that is beside the point. I could not sell contaminated animal products in good conscience, especially to those who want or need unadulterated food for preexisting reasons."

The California Food and Agriculture Department is clearly not concerned about organic farmers, as organic standards are in the process of being diluted further, and many of us will be enforcing our own embargo once the spraying starts, on all our own locally grown foods, which we know will no longer be organic, no matter what the label may be allowed to claim. Sure, imagine the economy with a negligable risk of loss of those obscene conventional agriculture profits... But imagine also the impact of people who previously bought local now buying elsewhere.

Organic's Organic Metro Active on the natural food industry seeking organics grown outside the spray zones.

VISITORS & RESIDENTS

Imagine people dreaming of moving here for the clean air, thinking the better of it, and seeking real estate elsewhere. Imagine current residents packing up and leaving the area.

Moving Because of LBAM Spray - California's Refugee Problem

Ishana's Farewell to Santa Cruz

Imagine travel advisories that the San Francisco Bay Area and Monterey Peninsula are no longer safe vacation spots. People from every continent have signed the petition against the spraying! Imagine athletes adding California to the list of places, like some olympians in Beijing, where they refuse to compete because of pollution. Discussions and Eco-alerts have already been posted on Fodor's community forum about the safety of visiting the spray zones.

Our Own Pesticide Alert Travel Advisory - Letter to LinuxWorld Conference (pdf)
Melinda Kendall, is the Vice President and General Manager for the LinuxWorld conference, which is scheduled at Moscone Conference Center in downtown San Francisco August 4-8, 2008, the week that the spraying was likely to begin there, before the recent postponement of the aerial applications.

Our Especially Urgent Pesticide Alert Travel Advisory - AIDS/LifeCycle Ride Campers (pdf)
On June 1, 2008, the night the spraying was to begin again over the Peninsula, several hundred HIV+ bicyclists of the AIDS/LifeCycle Ride, a large fundraising events for AIDS services, will be camping in Santa Cruz that night, along with a few thousand other riders and volunteers. There was grave concern for the safety of the many participants who are particularly at risk because of their compromised immune systems, as can be seen on the petition to Stop the Spray (page <14,100).

LBAM Aerial Spraying on California's 315 Million Tourists

Spraying to fight moth in California could have economic impacts

LBAM: Economic Impacts and Solutions (pdf) a CASS Research Summary

The Real Cost of LBAM Aerial Spray (YouTube video)
Estimates that the impact on tourism, real estate, and other industries in the spray zones, is in the billions of dollars, far outweighing even the most hysterical estimates of possible LBAM damage by the USDA and CDFA. This video was also seen on a tourism website.

LIVELIHOOD

Health Math of the Moth Spray - A People's Risk Assessment

Of approximately 7 million residents in the spray zones, how many thousands of women, children, elders, chemically sensitive and immune deficient individuals, are at particular risk from exposure to the spray?

Considering these estimates, and the hundreds of health complaints already, imagine a disabled workforce, sickened by the chemical cocktails unleashed on our cities, along with the cost of the resulting increase in needs for social services. The real emergency is not the LBAM. It is this pesticide program that's the emergency, that will destroy public and environmental health, and devastate our local economies.

CAUSE OF THE EMERGENCY

Industrial agricultural practices are at the heart of this emergency. Mono-crops and chemical use, which exploit, rather than nourish the soil and its creatures, cause an ever revolving crisis of vulnerability to so-called pests. Organic farms of great biodiversity, which more closely mimic naturally evolving ecosystems and maintain their own balance, are not significantly affected by these "pests".

In an interview on Food Chain Radio (mp3) with Michael Olson, Dr. Robert Dowell, CDFA's entomologist for the LBAM program, states that "exotic pests are the ones that cause the majority of the crop losses on what are in fact exotic crops also".

So they are growing exotics on one hand, and eradicating them on the other. They bring exotic crops here themselves, but don't want the exotic bugs that go along with them. They try to pick and choose which exotics they want present in our native ecosystem and which not. And now, after decades of destructive agricultural practices, and quite literally waging war on nature, the chickens, or more accurately, the pests, are coming home to roost.

After 9/11 the Department of Homeland Security became responsible for keeping exotic pests from crossing borders into the U.S., absorbing a large portion of USDA employees, with agriculture gaining an increasingly obvious militaristic image. To those familiar with the history of pesticides, this is not surprising. Agent Orange, napalm, and sarin have gone down in history, and nowadays pesticide containers are considered weapons of mass destruction, and used as an excuse to bomb Iraq. After Hurricane Katrina it was the Air Force which dumped the organophosphate naled on the survivors in New Orleans, injuring them further in the name of protecting them from mosquitoes. Even the planes they used to spray the California Peninsula against the LBAM in 2007 belong to a company whose primary market is national defense.

Chemical warfare over Bay Area cities - Who's afraid of the light brown apple moth?
A summary of the politics of the LBAM and other pesticide programs, including the militarization of agriculture, by East Bay Pesticide Alert/Don't Spray California in Berkeley-based Anarchist Newspaper Slingshot

But their "biosecurity" isn't working, because the world does not revolve around human industry, but around nature, and nature interacts, even across human boundaries.

Homeland Security - Management and Coordination Problems Increase the Vulnerability of U.S. Agriculture to Foreign Pests and Disease - U.S. Government Accountability Office (pdf)

Four points out of the CDFA's five point Mission Statement are directly related to international trade, addressing "invasions" of "exotics", promoting California's produce here and abroad, ensuring an "orderly" marketplace for it, and building coalitions to meet industry needs.

Some of the protests against the LBAM program have focused on lobbying for legislation against aerial spraying in urban areas, but what constitutes the boundaries of "urban" vs "rural" in the category systems of big business is a slippery slide, and many unincorporated areas, in which thousands of people reside, may not be considered urban at all. And what of the residences, schools, hospitals, and jails, neighboring agricultural fields? Are the people living there any less entitled to health and safety? Workers are dying in the fields, as are the neighbors next door to them. In the cities we have the luxury not to pay attention to them. Out of mind, and out of sight, as we harvest our foods in supermarkets.

But the agriculture and pesticide industries are MULTI-BILLION dollar industries, closely intertwined, and jointly responsible for millions of injuries and deaths, causing cancers, respiratory illnesses, neurological disorders, reproductive harm, immune system vulnerabilities, impacting ALL systems of our bodies to varying degrees. It isn't a question of spraying residential vs. agricultural areas. They've expanded their toxic campaigns into the cities long ago (Caltrans, and most city's Public Works agencies, just to name two of many many many such agencies, are using toxic herbicides daily all around us). All the many body burden studies that have been done over recent years show that NONE of us, no matter where we live and no matter how healthy our lifestyles, has been able to escape toxic exposure.

We are not just dealing with this one assault on us. Even if we win this one, the "pest of the month club" will keep coming back, again and again, maybe by plane, maybe by truck, maybe with backpacks, and subtle ways we have yet to recognize, because they profit obscenely from it. Yes, we must fight now, against this particular assault, but please, do not take this fight out of the larger context in which it is happening. The only viable alternative to what is happening is a COMPLETE change of attitude towards these so-called "pests", or else any living thing these folks don't like can be used as an excuse to douse us in poison. There are endless, well-established, non-toxic ways to control nuisances around homes and gardens, which should be highlighted, rather than playing into the chemical industry's hands. But while we waste our breaths on suggesting feasible alternatives, which would give people jobs, protect the environment, make no one ill, often spending less money than they are offering up for their programs, there is a reason why they don't use the money for such alternatives: just like with Mosquito Abatement Districtsand loans for growers predicated funding for these programs is predicated upon pesticide use.

To name just a few of CDFA's pesticide programs, in the early 1990's it was the Phylloxera (which the CDFA can thank for its beginnings in the small State Board of Viticulture, established around this root louse in 1880), in the mid-late 1990's it was the Blue-green Sharpshooter (BGSS), in the late 1990's and early 2000's it was the Glassy-winged Sharpshooter (GWSS), now it's the Light Brown Apple Moth, with the Gypsy Moth in close pursuit. After all those tax dollars and years of toxics dumped onto people, wildlife and the environment, all those "pests" are still around, getting it on with the uneradicated Medfly, the epitome of the CDFA's devastating and failed eradication programs. And while people are the ones dropping like flies, from immediate impacts like asthma and other respiratory distress, and longterm effects like cancers, and disabling neurological and immunological illnesses, often resulting in equally crippling poverty, CDFA officials are accumulating their nest eggs from a career of poisoning the public.

Financial Statement - Fiscal Year 2007-08 Budget - for the LBAM project

Jim Rains, the Staff Environmental Scientist to whom many of us sent comments for the CDFA's LBAM Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR), also worked on the GWSS.

Steve Lyle, Head of Office of Public Affairs, displays the same callous attitude pushing the LBAM program now, as he did during the GWSS program.

Peter Kurtz, Senior Medical Coordinator has had a long career of ignoring people's health concerns during the Medfly, GWSS, and now the LBAM program. In 2003, during the Mexican Fruitfly program, Kurtz was asked why residents were advised to stay indoors during the spraying of spinosad, also in the CDFA's to stay indoors during the spraying of spinosad, also in the CDFA's arsenal for the LBAM, and to wash sprayed foods, if there's nothing in it that is harmful. His answer was a deflective counter-question: "if you can take such precautions why not do so?

Bob Wynn, the State Coordinator for the BGSS and the GWSS, appears also to be consulted for the LBAM. In fact in April 2007, Bob Wynn, coordinator of the Pierce's Disease program, briefed members of the CDFA's PD/GWSS Board and Advisory Task Force about CDFA's LBAM plans, and LBAM traps are being "piggybacked" along with the GWSS trapping program.

Since the 1950's, when "better living through chemistry" became the slogan of "progress", the chemical industry has made itself indispensable by any means necessary, trapping us in a cycle of dependence on toxic chemical concoctions for day to day tasks such as gardening, and cleaning ourselves and our homes, which remarkably civilization had managed to survive without for centuries prior. Over the course of about 60 years, the chemical industry has convinced people that without these chemicals we'll go extinct, when the precise opposite is true. These chemicals are killing us, and the people who run the industry know it too. As their profits are reduced by an increasingly ecology-minded public, they roll out the public relations and marketing firms to manufacture our consent, attempt to greenwash their image with "kinder, gentler" pest management "tools" that merely kill us a little slower, and politely threaten us with starvation and even worse poisons than the ones they're using:

On Food Chain Radio, Dr. Dowell, perpetuating the scarcity myth, threatens us with hunger caused by "exotic pests" such as the LBAM: "Insect pests are one of the major competitors we have for food supply ... So basically take a look at your food supply in your grocery store and figure out that as good as that looks, you are competing with exotic pests for that food."

And CDFA Secretary A.G. Kawamura, on the same radio program, greenwashing CheckMate as an exciting new tool of sustainability, threatens us with worse pesticides if we don't comply: "ultimately they're going to be exposed to more things in the future, because we didn't take care of this pest ... It's a decision people need to make."

But the CDFA thugs have made it very clear what rights they believe we have in this matter. As Public Relations Director Steve Lyle said: "The authority rests with the state. There is no vote."

He couldn't have made it any clearer, yet people continue to negotiate with these thugs, bargain with the abusers. The CDFA's threats to use worse is having many ready to compromise in a panic, and while we are happy to unite to stop the aerial spraying, we also stand opposed to any and all use of toxics, always and unwaivering. How can relevant change in pesticide policies ever come when we settle for "winnable" fights that leave large segments of the population sick, dying, and running for their lives? Such compromise is a luxury many of us already poisoned and vulnerable don't have. How much of a victory is it, when big national non-profits like PANNA oppose aerial spraying, but call for toxic twist ties, and are gladly exploited by the CDFA to further "green" their image by using PANNA's own words to defend their position, while those of us actually living in the affected areas suffer further?

Don't Spray California does not compromise about people's health, nor do we ride home victories on the backs of people too sick to fight for themselves. When under attack, we don't politely beg for our rights, but defend them. We say No. Enough! We demand they clean up their own soil, which they polluted themselves. We say no more toxic chemical use by any method (planes, hoses, paint guns, danglies,...), anywhere (whether urban, rural, corporated or incorporated, or prison towns, and certainly not our homes)!

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THE PUSHERS OF THE PESTICIDE PROGRAM

This is not the first pesticide program. Nor will it be the last. Programs like these are fundamental to the funding mechanisms upon which Agricultural and Vector Control Departments depend across the country.

As we explore these programs, we realize there are basic, repeatable questions to ask, and expect to have answered:

Who begged for help?
Who called the emergency?
What constitutes an "infestation"?
What are the precise plans of execution of the program?
Who are the point people, the players involved in this drama?
Who is funding the program - the state, the feds?

Was the LBAM ever actually declared an official state of emergency?

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (USDA)

Mini Risk Assessment - University of Minnesota 2003 (pdf)
The USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service based its decision to establish a Technical Working Group for the LBAM, on this report, which estimates habitable areas for possible future LBAM infestation across 80% of the continental U.S

Official Pest Alert March 22, 2007

Federal Domestic Quarantine Order May 2, 2007 (pdf)

Canadian Food Inspection Agency Quarantine
Note it is in response to ("intended to complement and supplement") USDA's own Federal Domestic Quarantine Order.

USDA-APHIS LBAM page

USDA Emergency Programs Manual (pdf)

PATRICIA WIGGINS

On September 7, 2007 the Light Brown Apple Moth Act of 2007, authored by California Senator Patricia Wiggins, passed the Senate, was immediately approved by Governor Schwarzenegger, and filed with the Secretary of State. It declares the LBAM a "clear, present, significant, and imminent danger", and states that "This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate effect."

Two days later, on September 9, aerial spraying began over Monterey.

The Light Brown Apple Moth Act of 2007 - Wiggins' SB 556

According to Wiggins' office, SB 556 is "patterned after the state's Pierce's Disease/Glassy Winged Sharpshooter program", another forced pesticide program also enabled by one of Wiggin's bills, AB 1394, when she was a member of the Assembly in 2001.

AB 1394 established the Pierce's Disease and Glassy-winged Sharpshooter Board, to be controlled entirely by the wine and grape industries, to assess their own tiny contributions to an otherwise tax payer funded program, and to spend those funds on any toxic assault on people's homes of their choosing. Pat Wiggins loyalties are well established, as she receives a vast amount of contributions from the wine industry pushed a recent bill to allow more "wine-related fundraisers", and her AB 1394 was signed into law by then Governor Gray Davis at a vineyard "as about 100 industry representatives looked on".

CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE (CDFA)

CDFA/USDA Powerpoint presentation on LBAM Program - January 2008 (open read only in PowerPoint)
Even though the map of areas to be pesticided was changed February 15, 2008, adding predatory wasps to the program, and inexplicably eliminating two large areas of ground applications previously considered part of this "emergency", on March 3 the CDFA presented the old map in a power point presentation to the City of Piedmont, which posted it on the city's website.

CDFA/USDA Powerpoint presentation on LBAM Program - February 2008 (PDF)

CDFA LBAM page

A.G. KAWAMURA

CDFA Secretary A.G. Kawamura, appointed by the governor, donated $21,200 to Schwarzenegger. He is former chairman of the Western Growers Association, who have stood in opposition to recent legislation to protect farm workers and the environment, in essence an organization opposing regulation of the agriculture industry. Now, as secretary of the CDFA, he is in charge of making the regulations himself.

Kawamuras Decry Regulation, Not Development
His concern for his employees' wellbeing is truly touching: He's more concerned about the expense of the meager health care benefits only a small percentage of California farm workers actually receive, and which are particularly urgently necessitated by the rampant agricultural pesticide use they are exposed to daily. He claims "his workers' compensation insurance and healthcare costs have soared, threatening his financial viability".

Of course buying a politician is always in the budget:

Oops! I Appointed a Special Interest

To ensure his english literature degree doesn't go to waste, he writes a particularly fine piece of fiction:

A.G. Kawamura: Ag secretary protects farmers, environment

Ag Secretary A.G. Kawamura's defends dousing people with pesticides

Kawamura debunked - Albany Mayor and Registered Nurse Robert Lieber's response: Resign!

SUTERRA

Suterra
The manufacturer of CheckMate, "the leader in biorational pesticides"

Suterra's letter to Indymedia
Demands that information about a "secret" ingredient in the CheckMate OLR-F mating disruption pheromone be removed from public view on Indybay's independent media site.

Ask Suterra what's in their products, and it's unlikely you'll get much of an answer:

Email exchange with Suterra about the ingredients of their LBAM traps

Suterra's Response to a concerned person who asked whether CheckMate contains nano-technology

Suterra is owned by Stewart Resnick
Besides Suterra, Stewart Resnick, and his holding company Roll International Corporation, also own Paramount Farming ( pomegranates, almonds, pistachios, including Sunkist Almond Munchies and Almond Accents, Sunkist Pistachios, Everbody's Nuts Pistachios) and Paramount Citrus (largest citrus grower in California, California Cuties clementines, and supplies 20% of Sunkist's citrus), POM Wonderful (pomegranate juice), Del Rey Juice Company (frozen juices), Fiji (bottled) Water, Teleflora (cut flowers delivery service), and Bundy Properties (commercial real estate), S&J Ranch Management, and 50% of GCE Mexico I, LLC (biofuels).

Resnick wages war on Honeybees
Instead of admitting to mistakes in their own growing practices, Resnick's lawyer threatens beekeepers to keep bees from pollinating their seedless mandarins.

Not only does Resnick bottle Fiji's underground water in disposable plastic bottles to be shipped far across the world to be consumed as a luxury item for a steep price, while the people of Fiji worry about access to safe drinking water, in California a closed door deal in which the agriculture industry acquired the Kern Water Bank, originally established as an emergency reservoir for the public, of which Resnick now owns 48%, causes obscene "irrigation sprawl":

Water Heist: How Corporations are Cashing in on California's Water (pdf)

In the midst of a drought, a water shortage of our own in the Bay Area, how much water would be wasted to mix the CheckMate for this program as originally planned?

CheckMate Spray and Water to Mix It (pdf)

POM Wonderful Agrees to Stop Testing on Animals
Mice and bunnies may finally be safe from Resnick's cruel animal testing for POM Wonderful. When will his other company, Suterra, stop experimenting on human animals without their consent?

In April 2008 Resnick entered into a 50-50 joint venture as a subsidiary of Global Clean Energy Holdings, Inc., formerly Medical Discoveries, Inc., which had dabbled in pharmaceuticals, and is now involved in growing biofuels. A few days after the partnership was announced, the subsidiary, GCE Mexico I, LLC, acquired 5,000 Acres in the Yucatan in Mexico, where they plan to plant 4 million jatropha trees for biofuel. Unsurprisingly, as Resnick once again attempts to greenwash his greed, his jatropha venture does not come without controversy. Labor concerns abound, as the tree has no predictable harvesting seasons, making it exceedingly labor intensive, likely resulting in cheapening labor, while the work itself is dangerous, as the seeds and leaves are toxic, and may injure workers and neighbors near production facilities.

Labor Intensive Jatropha Not a Magic Bullet

In India, the damage of jatropha plantations has already been well established. According to a study by Dr Vandana Shiva and Manu Sankar, Biofuel Hoax: Jatropha and Land Grab jatropha cultivation for biofuels has displaced tribal people, and lead to biopiracy by one of a handful of competitors of GCE Mexico. But these social and environmental justice concerns don't stop researchers there from developing genetically modified varieties and planning extensive plantations throughout India.

Resnick donated $144,600 to Governor Schwarzenegger's re-election campaign
Arnold Schwarzenegger is quoted as saying "Any of those kinds of real, big, powerful special interests, if you take money from them, you owe them something"

Pesticide maker owned by political donor San Francisco Chronicle

DYNAMIC AVIATION

The planes they use to spray are chartered from Dynamic Aviation, who consider themselves to be "Partners Safeguarding Earth", one of whose primary markets is national defense, and who are involved in "intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance". Their home port is in Virginia, but they also have offices conveniently located in Central America and the Caribbean.

Dynamic Aviation

NEW ZEALAND BIOTECH

The two New Zealand biotech companies involved in testing of the aerial spray to be used in California:

HortResearch

HortResearch's "Biosecurity"
Pest control mimicks homeland security - improving "border biosecurity"

Max Suckling, a member of the Technical Working Group (TWG) advising the CDFA, is a former president of the New Zealand Plant Protection Society (NZPPS), whose corporate membership is full of large manufacturers of pesticides, such as Dow, Du Pont, Syngenta, Bayer, BASF.

Scion

Scion's "SafeSpray Manager" (pdf)
Aerial pesticide application risk assessment software - leaving our safety to computers

Eckhard Brockerhoff, who applied for the "pheromones" to be imported to New Zealand for testing of which formulation the CDFA is going to use, and who is also a member of the TWG, is the former website editor of the NZPPS

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