Here are links to recent video posts on the LBAM spraying issue. There is also a lot of info following these URLs.

STOP THE SPRAY Pt 1 Panel Presentations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utdJa8elF74

STOP THE SPRAY Pt. 2 Citizen Comments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ-FNCha3UE

DEBUNKING MOTH MYTHS - UC Scientists Speak Out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Zc7I_o0M6E

SENATOR SIMITIAN'S LBAM HEARING - Pt. 1 - Officials and Academics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkJxL1KAgNE

SENATOR SIMITIAN'S LBAM HEARING - Pt. 2 - The People Speak
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoLE59VFVdY

SENATOR SIMITIAN'S LBAM HEARING - Pt. 3 - Concluding Official and Activist statements
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7v4o7y_ejY

To see all our posts, please go to:
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=eon3&p=r

I hope you will feel the call to do whatever you can to stop this horrific spraying from happening. If you do not live here in the S.F. bay area, do know they are planning a more widespread spray as needed, possibly to include southern CA. Please let others know.I attended the U.S. legistature assembly's Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee meeting at the civic center on Feb 14, where the government's plans to try to eradicate the light brown apple moth (LBAM) were disclosed. I was amazed and throughly appalled with the speakers' lack of integrity and awareness. I have drafted the following information as best as I could. PLEASE READ THIS OR OTHER ARTICLES AND BECOME EDUCATED about this. I hope that the information I have compiled below will be helpful to you. I am hoping everything is perfectly accurate. I have heard a few different figures from different sources.

There will be widespread devastating toxic aerial spraying that will happen SOON over the bay area unless we act to stop it NOW! Spraying every 30 days is slated to happen again in Santa Cruz and Monterey county on June 1st.
On August 1, 2008 San Francisco, Daly City, Colma, Oakland, Piedmont, Emeryville, Albany, El Cerrito, El Sobrante, Tiburon and Belvedere will be biochem-sprayed. I also heard the possibility of Santa Barbara being sprayed.

LBAM biochem-spray is not a one time application, you will be sprayed up to every 30 days, every year till 2 life cycles past the very last moth found.

It is to try to eradicate the light brown apple moth, or LBAM. Monterey and Santa Cruz have both been sprayed aerially last year. The meeting seemed to be geared to just letting the constituency have some notice of what is slated to happen, as it is being deemed an emergency. We had to pry out some answers, and still there is so much unknown.
It was perhaps the most sobering time I have had my whole life. Our rights to a voice as a people has been overruled SO FAR. Please do whatever you can to halt this if you do not want yourself, your friends, family, and living creatures, included the bay waters to be contaminated with hormone disrupters, carcinogens, plastics in a minute form that will cause untold damage to lungs and other organs, respiratory disease, nervous system disorders, etc.

Please check out the organization PesticideWatch, at http://www.pesticidewatch.org, whose state director Paul Schramski, spoke at the meeting. A lovely young man. Unfortunately, he was given a very short time as compared with the government people. This website gives upcoming meeting dates, local groups, information, etc.

http://www.lbamspray.com is another informational resource, with group meetings, information,etc. There is a long list of symptoms reported from the last sprayings in PDF form.

Here is a letter which was read there that sums up a lot:

MAYOR ROBERT S. LIEBER, CITY OF ALBANY FOR ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY AND TOXIC MATERIALS
INFORMATIONAL HEARING ON LIGHT BROWN APPLE MOTH ERADICATION STRATEGY IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA

FEBRUARY 14TH 2008

THE APPLE MOTH AERIAL SPRAY ISSUE IS SIMPLE. THE STATE SPRAYS AN UNTESTED CHEMICAL IN MONTEREY AND SANTA CRUZ, AND PEOPLE GOT SICK.
NOW THE STATE WANTS TO SPRAY THE BAY AREA.

WE KNOW FROM HISTORY THE UNPREDICTABLE AND OFTEN CATASTROPHIC CONSEQUENCES TO HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT OF RECKLESSLY BLANKETING
ECOSYSTEMS WITH POISONS.

IN 2008, WITH THE KNOWLEDGE FROM DECADES OF EXPERIENCE WITH DDT, AGENT ORANGE, AND OTHER TOXIC CHEMICALS THE GOVERNMENT HAS ASSURED US
WERE SAFE, NO RATIONAL PEST MANAGEMENT PROGRAM WOULD USE AERIAL SPRAYING EXCEPT AS A DESPERATE, LAST-RESORT ATTEMPT TO CONTROL A
MASSIVE PUBLIC HEALTH THREAT.

THE APPLE MOTH IS NOT A PUBLIC HEALTH THREAT. THE ONLY THREAT IS AN EXAGGERATED, POTENTIAL ECONOMIC ONE. THERE HAS BEEN NO REPORTED CROP
DAMAGE FROM THE MOTH. WE CANNOT RISK PUBLIC HEALTH TO PROTECT BUSINESS INTERESTS.

MOREOVER, BIOLOGISTS SAY ERADICATION OF THIS MOTH IS NOT POSSIBLE, AND 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 CA. WE CANNOT CONTINUE TO RISK HUMAN AND ENVIRONMENTAL
HEALTH BY SPRAYING FOR EVERY NEW BUG.

THE STATE SPRAY PROGRAM IS NOT SCIENCE. IT IS A LARGE-SCALE, RECKLESS EXPERIMENT, AND WE AND OUR ENVIRONMENT ARE THE SUBJECTS.

FOR THESE AND MANY OTHER REASONS, THE ALBANY CITY COUNCIL PASSED A RESOLUTION OPPOSING THE SPRAY, AND I WILL CONTINUE TO WORK VIGOROUSLY
TO STOP IT.

Here is what I learned at the meeting:

What the state will do (unless we can somehow preempt this horrible plan):

1. Aerially spray much of the whole bay area, many counties, and the bay, for up to 10 years, every 30 to 90 days with a mixture of chemical synthetic pheromones- a third portion, and a two thirds portion of a mixture of not yet known or decided upon 'inert' ingredients, which in the past have included carcinogens. They do not know how many years it will take because it is all experimental! The synthetic pheromones will be coated with a plastic which they admit if it is certain sizes, can be very deleterious to health. They admit they do NOT KNOW how large the particles will be! After the meeting I spoke with a teacher who took samples of the water out of the Monterey Marine Sanctuary after it had been sprayed, looked under a microscope, and watched over time as the plastic particles disintegrated,to a size that would be made available to all fish, and sea life. Obviously the same would happen to humans and other animals on land. This protocol was NOT meant to be used in urban areas.

2. One million non-stinging wasps per square mile will be introduced to areas where moths have been found to eat the eggs of LBAM. What is the impact of this?

3. Pheromone coated twist ties will be placed in residential and non residential areas which emit the synthetic product into the atmosphere, and hence into the ground.

4. 2 organically registered products, Spinosol, and Bacillus thuringiensis kustali, will be distributed, somehow, I am not clear, to kill the larvae. They are known to adversely affect other species of insects, so will not be used aerially. What harm might this create?

5. Train some doctors, which ones, and how do we know which ones in case we get sick?, to recognize the symptoms of poisoning from these chemicals when people come in ill. They expect people to become ill from their program of chemical warfare.

SOME FACTS:

1. The proposed spray DOES NOT WORK.
The head of the US agriculture dept., A.G., admitted that they know that the sprays DO NOT ERADICATE the moth.
The officials admit that it has not been effective anywhere the protocol has been implemented. It had never been sprayed over urban areas, was not intended to be, but was in Santa Cruz and Monterrey. They are watching New Zealand's failed attempts and hoping to learn something as its citizens and ecosystem are being subjected to experiments. The pheromones, which are NOT PHEROMONES, are synthetic chemicals that are as close to the natural pheromones as they can make, are NOT proven effective. They are still working at formulating something that will work, but still plan on the spraying anyway.

2. He stated how the introduction of another pest or the same one could happen again the next day after this batch of the moth is eradicated, and how totally easy it is for any insect or pest can be brought in at any time from another area or country. A.G. seemed very frustrated by the lack of protection at our borders and airports, which he blamed on the increased focus on terrorist surveillance there instead of on agricultural issues.

3. Ecology and health impact study was not implemented.
His department had since last March to hire a consultant to check out the ecological risks. I believe this is a law that they must follow. They just did that in Jan or Feb.!!!!!!!!!!! When asked by Assembly person Jared Huffman why it took so long to hire someone to look at the environmental impact, A.G. gave a long winded excuse that maybe could explain the wait until July. Mr Huffman never asked him to explain the next 7 months lag. ?????????????. So now someone has finally been hired, through their agency, not an independent, and it will be at least 6 months before any kind of report has been completed. The government paper states that 'the new chemical (that they are formulating) will be a pesticide, but because its stated purpose is entrapment and not killing, it does not need to be classified as a pesticide, and therefore does not need to go though extensive testing for safety in population use.

4. We would be experimented on. Even the government expert doctor said, when asked if there had been any experiments with humans in regards to the chemicals had been conducted, he said, "Oh no, of course not, we can't experiment on humans." So what will the bombing/ aerial spray be doing???? They do NOT know what they are doing. They are admittedly fishing around for a solution. The pesticides have never been tested b4. The constituents of Monterey and Santa Cruz were guinea pigs. Because of the illnesses, some severe, they are changing the 'inert' portion of the recipe, which accounts for two thirds of it! They do not even know what they are going to use yet! Previously apparently 2 known carcinogens were included.

5. They know that people will be getting sick from the spray. 643 people in Monterey and Santa Cruz have already reported having been to physicians complaining of ill health from the spray there. (How many more did not report?) They complained of headaches, blurred vision, difficulty breathing, chest pains, skin rashes, numbness of limbs etc. The government will be training physicians, (which ones, and how will we know which one to go to if we have symptoms, and what are the symptoms?), to treat sick people. How? There are no health solutions for the poisonings! Many will be undetected for years to come. The state's doctor expert said that people's livers should be able to deal with the poisons. A very concerned doctor at the meeting said that human's endocrine systems are disrupted with minute changes in hormonal impulses from outside its organism. Someone there mentioned that we don't have a gene to process unnecessary toxins. The particles from the vapors , if breathed in, settle in the lung tissues and create serious disease.
A woman from Santa Cruz was there who told me how when she and others called the agency to report the health symptoms) like difficulty breathing, arms going numb, etc) they were told how much trouble they would have to go through, to do so. She and the others reported feelings they were being dissuaded from officially reporting. She asked for a 15 minute warning so she could vacate with her sick animal. She did so for 4 nights, but they had to keep calling it off because of fog. On the fifth night they sprayed without giving her a warning call even thought they said they would, and she ended up having to go to the emergency room. She is now having to relocate out of the bay area, still sick many months after the attack on her system.

6. Other suffering of citizens, if this is allowed to be implemented, will also be many people who will suffer from psychological problems of feeling bombed by one's own government, having to pay out of their pockets to go to a doctor who may or may not be trained in such health issues, having to move out of the area, and concern and treatments of their beloved animals. Also organic farmers will be hit hard.

7. Another way the agency did not act in a trustworthy fashion is they promised the waterways would be safe. The river and the Monterey marine refuge area are now full of the disintegrated plastics and all the other toxic soup. Someone at the meeting showed a photo of the foam on the river.

8. The money aspect just doesn't add up. This eradication is not needed. The whole premise of this trial eradication of this one insect is supposedly to save money, that is all. The answer was not given in regards to how much cost it would entail to take or not take an aggessive attack on the pest. The number given for potential crop damage was 1-5% if LBAM was not eradicated. It turns out there would be quite a cost in the containment issues with trying to protect any spreading of the pest. I can only imagine the cost of implementing this program will far exceed the potential crop damage, not to mention the legal costs, training of doctors, public relations, research, etc.

9. A grand total of 90 moths have been so far discovered. This is their excuse to do a bombardment... catch it in its early stages. Unfortunately, they know it will take at the very least 2 years to work even if they know what to do.

10. The agency claimed that the particles would be on the ground within 4 hours. Not true... some continue to stay in the air and never land, for up to one year! Some also land in trees and are then at some future time released into circulation. Etc. Also, it is quite an issue for people to leave the area on a moment's notice, if they get one, and drive themselves and their pets away in the still of the night, and then come back to a lessened amount in the air. Unfortunately there is NO ALL CLEAR TO COME BACK TO. The Pesticide remains active on the ground and in the air -- on the ground for 30 days between spraying, and the tiny, 10 micron and smaller, particulates that remain airborne for up to one year, are INHALED INTO THE BODY, lodging in the lungs and are absorbed into the bloodstream in a way that has never been applied to humans before. In fact, these inhaled, plastic coated particulates act as any other drug we ingest, NOT as an inhaled pesticide spray. They are absorbed via liver and lung pathways especially, directly into the bloodstream, where they attach themselves to estrogen and other hormone receptor sites, disrupting our flow of hormones.

Every 30 to 90 days! Laws prohibiting sprayed pesticides in towns such as Sebastopol and Fairfax, are overruled. Victims in years past of other sprayings who lived away from the area being sprayed were affected by wind drift. The woman mentioned above who I heard speak about her illness said she was in her house at the time of the spray, not even outside.

11. Citizens can legally say no to having the twist ties placed on their property. We got this information only by one person at the meeting speaking out of order and demanding a clear answer by Marin's head of agriculture department.

12. A half million dollar budget has been apportioned to help the government 'educate' the people so we think it is okay for them to carry this out.

13. A question came up about Hawaii not implementing measures to eradicate LBAM, and the excuse A.G. gave was that it does not work at that elevation. ?????????? Hmmmmmmmm seems to me that the bay area has the same elevation! The Light Brown Apple Moth has been in Hawaii for more than 100 years. Their Agricultural Agency does NOT consider it to be a "significant pest". "In fact, LBAM may actually be considered a biocontrol agent for serious invasive weeds, such as gorse and blackberry in Hawaii." http://www.hawaii.gov/hdoa/meetings_reports/news-releases/2007-news-releases/news-release-nr07-09-may-2-2007/ (backup)

I wonder what is really happening here. I have heard that our California governor is supportive of this procedure, and that A.G. contributed quite handsomely to the governor's campaign. This is heresay, I will admit. Because what is planned doesn't make sense in any way, leads me to speculation.


WHAT YOU and I CAN DO:

If you and I do not act to stop this bombardment, it will happen, and this beautiful area will be pvboisoned irrevocably. Many people will have to move away to escape the onslaught of the chemicals. Senator Carol Midgen is bringing up a proposal to the assembly to have a moratorium on the spraying until it is proven safe and effective. Please support this measure by:

1. Sign this online petition and give your comments at:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stop-fumigation-of-citizens-without-their-consent-in-california

This is what I wrote to them:
"There also has been no proof of the spray having had any eradication effect in New Zealand. I refuse to let this area, the people, the animals, the sea creatures, and the birds, be experimented on!!!!!!!! I am totally appalled at the idea of chemical and biological weapons, consistently and over years, being used by our government against its citizens and the environment! This is terrifyingly unconscionable and ignorant."

You can also print the petition letters up and have people sign them. Please distribute them to any stores, businesses, and groups who will post them.

2. Contact and educate everyone you know, here and in other areas. Make this into a country wide campaign. Urge them to take action. I don't care how busy any one of us is. This needs to be addressed. Contact your representatives in every way you can, repeatedly. Claim for your right to clean air and land.

3. Acts of civil assembly or economic withholds.
I have never done anything like this b4, so I am not an expert on how to do this. Huge demonstrations? People refusing to buy gasoline or going to work, stores closing down. Make a statement in an economic way. That usually is the thing that gets noticed. Whatever it takes!

4. Create Media attention. Inundate the newspapers with letters to the editors. Contact big newspapers and magazines who might publish articles or stories on a national level. If you are an expert or know of experts, have them approach tv and radio.

5. Financially support http://www.pesticidewatch.org , http:www.LBAMspray.com , and other organizations and people who are spending their time and energy educating the public
6. Contact your government representatives and let them know you will not stand for this atrocity to occur.

Thank you for your dedication to the well being of this area, environment of this beautiful Earth and all her creatures, yourself and your neighbors, by helping to make this travesty not happen and be resolved.