C.A.S.S. / California Alliance to Stop the Spraying

USDA PLANS to spray a chemical called CHECKMATE over the Bay Area to check the potential spread of the Brown Apple Moth. This apparently is the game plan to avert agricultural disaster and prevent the ruin of state and supporting economy by stopping the burgeoning Apple Moth population.

While I am all for averting a major disaster, I again have to pause and wonder what the government is doing TO (should be for) us. It is important for me to be able to trust that my goverment officials are acting in my and others' best interests and that whatever is done to respond to exigencies will be the cumulative wisdom of calmer and more intelligent heads. Spraying moths (and plants and people and other animals) with a potential health hazard seems to have some flaws as plans go... What do you think?

Some information is attached so that you can make some decisions for yourself and respond accordingly.

ca.stopthespray.org/

f=/c/a/2008/02/15/MN99V2PMN.DTL&tsp=1www.lbamspray.com/00_Docume...Relase.pdf

...(Excerpted from SF Chronicle article by Jane Kay <environmental writer>) Dr. Randy Baker, a family practitioner in Soquel, said he treated about a dozen patients with a range of symptoms when the area was being sprayed. Although he said there was no way to ascertain a cause-and-effect relationship, he had a number of concerns about the pesticide, including the fact that it was not tested for use over urban areas.

"There is tremendous individual variation in the ability of people to process and detoxify environmental chemicals. For example, there could be a prescription medicine that 100 people take with minimal adverse effect but another person could take it and suffer extreme side effects and even death," Baker said.

Baker was also shocked that the agricultural department started spraying the chemical on an evening when people were out walking in Santa Cruz.

"At 8 p.m., they started spraying in the most populated areas of Santa Cruz County. I have patients who didn't know the spray was happening who were out walking on Mission Avenue. Clearly, the greatest danger is a person being out of doors when the planes are going over. They're going to be inhaling the chemicals," Baker said.

I don't know about you, but I like to choose my poisons and this ain't one of them... you decide for yourself.