I keep getting impassioned letters from concerned Californian's about pending aerial pesticide spraying over millions of people. The cities and counties on list to potentially be sprayed keeps growing.
If you're in California, it's likely if this spray campaign isn't stopped, you'll get sprayed with untested pesticides like an unwanted bug.
The spray probably won't hurt the moth, but will hurt humans, according to scientists in the know.
According to a study (see link below) a chemical in this pesticide contains a known carcinogen that can lead to cancer.
The pesticide will get into our water and soil for years to come.
If Schwarzenegger is doing this (how can Maria stay with him) to appease a major contributor to his campaign, who is behind the pesticide spraying, in other words, if this is a selfish and economic decision, I think he should think about health care costs, loss of income and property tax when Californians leave, and loss of tourism dollars. Who will want to come to California to be sprayed like an unwanted bug?
Supposedly, this method stays in the air for 30 days, and then they spray again, and plan to spray for two years.
Hundreds of "guinea pigs" (people) in Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties reported flu-like symptoms and asthma around the time of the first sprays. And many more people never knew about spray. I'm sure if others in area had symptoms, they would not have known to attribute them to "poison" in the air.
Here's another letter I received today with interesting links on the subject:
Dear Donna,
Thank you so much for blogging about this crisis. I believe this is the gravest issue we are likely to face in California in our lifetimes...do state and federal governments have the right to experiment on human being against their consent? The Nuremberg Code, established after WWII, says no. Both the California and State Constitutions are supposed to protect us from this type of violation as well.
Isabelle, above, has already laid out some excellent basic information. I'd like to include one further resource. We have just run the numbers on the likely immediate health toll we can expect from the spraying in the SF Bay Area in 2008. Please, read these very scary statistics here:
http://www.veganreader.com/2008/03/25/health-math-of-the-moth-spray-california/
We are looking at a potential epidemic of illness on an unprecedented scale, and we want to share these figures with anyone who can use them to fight the spraying. I hope the above will be of use to you and your readers, and I thank you, again, for taking the time to blog about this.
Photo: Santa Monica by the beach
