Document pezddQyV7mpvkGEw1pqEKD0Qa

ACTION brought health statements from over 200 residents who had suffered from the carbaryl sprayings. We brought A* petition signatures of some 2,500 people and doctors' letters were delivered by the attorney who represents those who Gvt\ had been hospitalized as a result o f exposure to the pesticides used in the project over the past year. Two of the letters of In order to leave on a slightly upbeat note, I should point fered laboratory analyses confirming their diagnoses; a four out that some of the people here, in addition to their educa year old child, Andrew Johnson, and a five year old, Daniel tional and legal efforts, have practiced very real but Bowman, now suffer depressed immune syndromes as a re somewhat subtle civil disobedience. Some were arrested (and sult of their pesticide exposure. Both of these children were may gain compensation via their suits for false arrest); others hospitalized four and five times each, respectively, Andrew put grazing animals in their yards to avoid oftanol (federal for a total of 22 days. Despite hearing over two hours of I label prohibits its use except on turf). Almost everybody, we testimony and reviewing our documents, the medical panel | learned though a telephone poll, washes off the carbaryl, rubberstampeTT!!DFXvs ^ liberally dose us with thereby nullifying its effect since carbaryl hydrolyzes rapidly m oriTort (except for the banned chlor- when washed with any alkaline substance such as common dane), whenever, and wherever. Recommendations were household soap. Even outside the activist group, it gets made to provide medical hotlines (something we've had in lwashed off simply because people don't like it on their the past: people are directed to '"see their own physicians"); plants.9 establish screening clinics for blood and urine analysis; give I On August 20, in protest of the renewal of diazinon soil 24 hour advance notice; establish better community relations; |applications combined with garden stripping (and they even and "educate the public as to the need foL_eradication proj want us to strip our gardens for them), activists sang "W e ects1"T h is last recommendation is a crowning insult. T he real Shall Overcome" in front of CDFA's downtown head TieaTHTRS chem icau ^ we are quarters. It sounded good and felt even better: it is a commit the sacrificial victims for agribusiness with no analysis of or ment to resist until the insanity CDFA promulgates ceases. compensation for the burdens we are forced to assume in lost health, reduced living quality, and lost crops, but we are also Iforced (as taxpayers) to pay for CDFA's propaganda cam paigns. ' ' "" " feaily .oOTOUHo me that manyTarmets want.urban^ dwellers to experience this kjnd of jeopardy from nearly un relenting pesticide exposure. Who, indeed, does profit from W e shall wash it off, W e shall wash it off. W e shall wash it off, come M ay. O h, deep in my heart, I do believe, W e shall overcome someday. "eradication" projects? CDFA now has an annual 41 million dollar budget to "eradicate" exotic pests detected in Califor References nia. With improved detection methods, pests that inevitably migrate or are repeatedly & unknowingly brought in are more apt to be detected in the thousands of traps placed throughout California. It is likely that many of these minor 1. Thirty-one beetles were detected in 1983, sixty-seven in 1984. Of the 1984 finds, nearly all were in their emerging pupae form dug out of the ground on one property. 2. The panel members are: T. Ladd, Chair and Director of the USDA Japan populations would die out, as has been asserted by entomolo gist Steve Dreistadt, a research specialist with Citizens for a Better Environment.7 With 41 million dollars, however, CDFA is well equipped to launch their delousing campaigns at the appearance of a single Japanese beetle, Mediterranean, ese beetle laboratory in Wooster, Ohio; M. Klein a colleague of Dr. Ladd; P. Heller, Pennsylvania State University; H. Tashiro, Cornell Uni versity; J. Katsanos, USDA-APHIS, Philadelphia; F. Andrews, R. Fehlman and R. Dowell, ail CDFA employees. 3. W e have been also defamed as "welfare recipients" by Lori Johnson, CDFA's Assistant Chief of Pesticide Registration, in a talk she gave to Oriental, Mexican or Carribean fruit fly, gypsy moth, apple maggot, or cotton boll weevil. There have been a minimum of six such campaigns to date this year and their spraying af fects at least a hundred thousand people, by conservative es timate. . Other groups besides ours have been formed to protect their own well being. Perhaps these groups, created through out the state at such numbers, can generate a successful ballot measure along the lines of ACTION'S petition. Many Califor the Kiwanis Club when she was unaware of the presence of the press. (Stephen Green, "Welfare Recipients Linked to Fight Against Oftanol", Sacramento Bee, December 30, 1983) This was a description calculated to alienate professionals from identifying with concerned citizens in the community. As it is patently untrue, the statement backfired and Johnson publicly apologized. W e have also been described as "hypo chondriacs" by Gera Curry, CDFA's public relations person to Sacramenfo Bee reporter Travis Brown. Curry issued a tongue lashing to Brown for a story in which he portrayed residents here as normal, concerned humans with relationships to other activist groups concerned with pesticide abuse. nia legislators seem loath to spurn agribusinesss and petro chemical company dollars that are contributed to their cam paigns. An August 1984 Auditor General's report declares via its title as well as data, that 'T h e State Lacks the Data 4. Sacramento Bee, August, 1983 article by Thom Akemun. 5. "Historical Perspective of Organophosphorus Ester Induced Delayed Neuropathy" by Dr. Robert Metcalf (University of Illinois) describes 1OPIDN as "characterized as a clinical syndrome of humans and domestic animals for over 50 years" and goes on to relate that the White Leghorn Necessary to Determine the Safety of Pesticides."8 This re port has apparently made little impact on votes regarding public health measures: witness AB 2635* scooting through the Legislature. It is up to the people themselves to enact health and safety measures; the State and Federal govern ment is doing little to protect us. chicken (as used by Wilson) can screen this syndrome [in humans] and declares that "there is presently no definable safe level for chronic ex posure to pesticides producing OPIDN." Neurotoxicology 3 (4) pp 269*284, Intox Press, Inc., 1982. 6. Report from Wilson to CDFA (Mr. Magee) November 21, 1983. 7. Stephen Green, "Nevy Invaders Join Old Pest to Bug State" Sacramento Bee, June 17, 1984, pp A-l & 20. 8. This report is available for $2 from the Office of the Auditor General; * AB 2635 is a measure that denies California cities and counties the right to ban or regulate the use of any pesticides (see p. 31). 660 J Street, Suite 300; Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445*0255. 9. Fair Oaks Post, "Water Use is Soaring" August, 1984, Vol. I No. 8, p. 5. NCAP NEWS/FALL 1984