Let's not spray now, ask questions later

Recent Press Democrat articles on the light brown apple moth have left out important information.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) has made a number of claims in order to justify calling for aerial pesticide spraying to eradicate the light brown apple moth. It claims that the moth "could" pose a threat of devastation to a wide variety of crops and plant life, and that the pesticide it's using -- CheckMate, a pheromone disruptor -- will not adversely affect or impact human health or the environment. These are disputable, speculative claims, and it's necessary to look at the facts regarding these assertions in order to get a fuller and more accurate picture of the situation.

The background facts:

The California Environmental Quality Act requires an environmental impact report (EIR) before aerial pesticide spraying can be done. CDFA bypassed this critical review process by upgrading the moth's pest status to "A", which in effect means it poses an imminent threat and an emergency situation, and therefore an aerial spraying commenced in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties in late 2007 without an EIR having been completed.

Spraying was done on a repeated basis in Santa Cruz and Monterey over a two- to three-month period. This resulted in more than 600 claims of adverse and sometimes critical ill health complaints that could be attributable to the toxic chemicals in the pesticide. By the state's own admission, it cannot say that the reported ill health impacts are not linked to the spraying.

According to court testimony given by Dr. James Carey, an entomologist with UC Davis, the light brown apple moth is a pest that has been present in California for up to three decades and has shown no history of crop damage.

In New Zealand where the moth has been present for many decades, aerial pesticide spraying was discontinued because it did not eradicate the pest, and a program of less toxic and more natural methods of pest management was adopted, which has proven successful.

The pheromone pesticide used in the Santa Cruz and Monterey blanket spraying has never been safety tested by independent third-party agencies for chronic toxicity and its short- or long-term effects on human health, genetics or environmental accumulation. This is the same pesticide CDFA plans to use in cities and counties throughout the Bay Area. California Secretary of Agriculture A.G. Kawamura has called the spraying of the pheromone pesticide "experimental". 

A scientific study has shown that the microscopic plastic capsules used in the pesticide sprays are small enough to be inhaled to the deep lung and not expelled.

A Santa Cruz County Superior Court judge recently ruled that aerial spraying to control the moth could not continue and that the state had not provided sufficient evidence of an emergency and must complete an environmental impact review before spraying can resume. A Monterey court has recently issued the same injunction.

Twenty three cities and counties, from Santa Cruz to San Francisco to Mill Valley, have passed resolutions asking for a moratorium on aerial spraying.

Let's not spray toxic chemicals now and ask questions later. It might be too late by then. There are serious, perhaps vital concerns about risks to human health and environmental impacts that need to be determined before spraying begins again this summer. Keep in mind that the spraying program will be done three to four days a week, for nine months a year, for at least several years. Ask yourselves this: As members of this community and as parents, are you willing to put yourselves and your children in harm's way before knowing the answers to these questions?

Will Shonbrun is a Sonoma resident.