Barb Wilkie's EHN Website
Last updated 2008

1. "Our mission is to protect human health and the environment by regulating pesticide sales and use, and by fostering reduced-risk pest management." [Emphasis added.]
   http://www.cdpr.ca.gov/

    

2. Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter Project
   "Under the guidance of the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), the County Agriculture Departments use ground applications of carbaryl to control glassy-winged sharpshooter in several counties." [Emphasis added.]
   http://www.cdpr.ca.gov/docs/gwss/

    

Even though each of us is very busy, spraying could begin any day. We have a narrow time frame to enter our comments of the DEIR. The DEIR's thrust "did not identify any impacts that could not be reduced to a level of insignificance". We at the coordinating council disagree. We consider a program with forced spraying of pesticides to be very significant.

By law, any comments or questions raised have to be addressed in the final EIR. Please bring up any concerns you have about the environment around you or any health problems you or anyone in your home may have if pesticides were sprayed in your area and around your home.

Here is a portion of the Draft Environmental Impact Report so you can read for yourself just how significant this DEIR is.

Impact Haz-3: Fragile populations, i.e., individuals who are susceptible to health complications, because of health or developmental status (e.g., acutely ill, very young or old, or pregnant individuals), may be present in certain locations, such as parks, recreation areas, sports arenas, hospitals, nursing homes, adult care centers, day care centers, and schools. When evaluating a proposed pesticide, CDPR adds an additional uncertainty factor to compensate for inherent uncertainties in the process. The uncertainty factor takes into account the variability in susceptibility within populations. In addition, the PDCP includes measures to ensure that schools, day care centers, and similar places would be given special consideration in scheduling pesticide treatments, which would further limit the potential for pesticide exposure. With these measures, the potential for health hazards to fragile populations would be less than significant.

Mitigation Measure Haz-3: No mitigation is required for this less than-significant impact. Additional program safeguards to reduce potential health impacts to fragile populations include notification of schools, day care centers, rest homes, and hospitals that are nearby any proposed treatment operations prior to treatment. Special scheduling would be arranged, if necessary. Pesticide treatments on school grounds and busy public areas would be scheduled for off-time hours when feasible. CDPR would conduct monitoring to verify proper application rates. The data from environmental monitoring would be reviewed to ensure that applications do not lead to undesirable residue levels. Anomalous results would be evaluated to determine if application methods needed to be adjusted, and if so, the PDCP would require that treatments be modified accordingly.

Significance: Less Than Significant (LTS)

Address comments on the DEIR to:

Ms. Susan Stratton, Ph.D
Real Estate Services Division
Department of General Services
State of California
PO Box 989052
West Sacramento, CA 95798-9052

email: pdcpinfo@cdfa.ca.gov

[Please also write to Gov. Gray Davis:

For Gov. Davis:
Governor Gray Davis
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814

Phone: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-445-4633
email: governor@governor.ca.gov

Dear Friends, Near and Far --

RE: GWSS -- May 17th is the deadline for our getting comments into Gov. Gray Davis and Calif. Dept of Food and Agriculture Pierce's Disease Control Program, regarding the spraying for the Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter

. CDFA's PDCP -- Jim Rains (916) 651-9371 or Susan Stratton (916) 376-1610 or pdcpinfo@cdfa.ca.gov

Governor Gray Davis Phone: 916-445-2841; Fax: 916-445-4633; email: governor@governor.ca.gov

Near the bottom of this message are Linda McElver's "post cards" for reformatting as postcards on card stock, or print them out as a letter and fax, mail or email them in.

We lost Julia Kendall in 1997 to her body's response of leukemia to an inadvertent spraying of Malathion for the medfly in Southern California around 1989. Julia had been riding in an open convertible. I've no idea how many others we've lost to this state's pesticiding practices before and after. Now the state is hot and heavy into the plans for spraying for another pest in urban and rural areas -- the Glassy Winged Sharpshooter (GWSS). BUT THERE ARE SAFER MEANS OF CONTROL.

County Ag Commissioners have promised to spray for the GWSS if/when the state tells them to spray. REGARDLESS OF AN INDIVIDUAL'S REQUEST NOT TO SPRAY PRIVATE PROPERTY.

Linda McElver is the champion with the information on the GWSS and it is her work that follows. Linda's website is Canaries NO ACCEPTABLE RISK Campaign at http://www.dontspraycalifornia.org/gwss/index.htm You can learn a little more about the GWSS on her page of Current Activities at http://www.noacceptablerisk.com/Current_Activities/current_activities.html

Another excellent site for info is No Spray Action Network -- with their Health and Ecological Effects of Pesticides Used to Combat the Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter in California, 2000 -- http://www.freestone.com/nospray/pesthealtheffects.html    Near the bottom of their frame, they give safer alternatives to pesticides, which will benefit beneficial bugs, human and pet health, health of fish and wildlife downstream, . . . But, it won't be as beneficial to the pesticide industry.

If you'd like another perspective on the subject of spraying, please visit East Bay Pesticide Alert at http://www.dontspraycalifornia.org/ and their page, which specifically covers the GWSS -- http://www.dontspraycalifornia.org/gwss/index.htm

Steve Tvedten -- Safe2Use -- writes, on his page, Citizens can make a difference -- http://www.safe2use.com/ca-ipm/01-04-01.htm

"This is our opportunity to give input on Alternatives to Pesticides and Bio-engineering and to ask for epidemiological studies. We need to know the extent of harmful effects of pesticides and reveal to each other, to CDFA and the general public how much information we have on viable alternatives.

"CEQA [The California Environmental Quality Act -- http://ceres.ca.gov/ceqa/] says that we must not damage human health or the environment, must stop toxic runoff into our lakes and rivers, stop further threat to pollinators, beneficial insects and microbes [upon which healthy, productive agriculture depends].We must cause no further degradation and even take steps to reverse any mess we might already have made. ..."

 

IF you live in California, please take a few minutes to visit the referenced websites and then write. Please feel free to use Linda's "post cards" below to make it easier for you.

If you live out of state, but know someone in California, please share with them. And everyone keep a "heads up" attitude, for who knows where the industry will take their spraying next . . . it could be in YOUR yard.

From the webpages of our governor and his wife, Sharon Davis (click out to it from California's home page http://www.governor.ca.gov/state/govsite/gov_homepage.jsp) --

"Sharon Davis focuses her attention on issues that affect children's health, safety and well being. Both Governor Davis and the First Lady share a commitment to the State's most precious resource, California's children."

 

"Governor Gray Davis has made improving public education his administration's number-one priority."

 

---------------

RE: Alameda County -- I've been told by our county Agricultural Commissioner that if they find a GWSS in my backyard, they could spray. Doesn't matter one iota that I live with chemical injury, that I've already suffered chemical poisonings from "safe" pyrethroids used in my former workplace. Nothing matters except following the dictates of the state. PLEASE get info on the Draft EIR for the GWSS, and respond by the deadline, May 17, 2002. Let Gov. Davis know that we do not believe that our lives can so easily be dismissed by the phrase, ACCEPTABLE RISK.

-- barb

---------------

Linda McElver's sample POSTCARDS --

Dear CDFA :
RE:Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) Pierce¼s Disease Control Program (PDCP) Comments

Stop this forced private residence pesticide spray program that violates the civil rights of organic gardeners. It is illegal to say the EPA guarantees NO Harm. Pesticide safety testing is junk science leaving out the larger, toxic, secret inert ingredients and therefore can¼t be guaranteed to be safe for anyone. New scientific evidence indicates that inhaled fine particle pollution can cause lung contraction and disease in healthy people and death in sick people.

Ca Dept. of Food and AG (CDFA) illegally discriminates, calling disabled sensitive persons (3% of the population) who have documented life-threatening incidents to legal levels of pesticides as insignificant and therefore disposable human beings, expecting even those bedridden and dying to flee with no mitigation or safe place to go. Their properties contaminated with pesticides against the advice of their doctor, forcing them to avoid their gardens for months, not hours, until residues are gone. Persons with lung, liver, cardiac, brain, immune system, endocrine and other diseases could also have life-threatening incidents. Synthetic Pesticides should never be used for any emergency on anyone¼s property without complete proof of safety.

This is a fabricated alcohol/agriculture emergency. Growers failed to test for PD and prune to save vines. The year of devastation Ground zero Temecula County had a bumper wine grape crop. CDFA deliberately misleads the public; many Pierce¼s Disease strains that affect food crops are not in CA. GWSS is not the only insect vector and can not be eradicated in Ca. Pierce¼s Disease has been here 100 years. At ground zero growers have solved their own problems by ripping out healthy nearby citrus trees, a favorite habitat of GWSS, planting less exotic disease resistant wine grape varieties, spraying their own pesticides and removing infected vines.

Signature ________________________________
Print Name ____________________________________
Address_____________________________________________
City ___________________________State ___Zip code_______
Card Prepared by Linda J. McElver, GWSS Environmental Task Force, and
president Canaries Foundation


______________________________________________________________


Dear Governor Davis,

PLEASE DON¼T SPRAY US FOR SOME OF US MAY DIE. Please do not declare any more emergencies for agriculture requiring the trespass of toxic pesticides on non-agriculture property. Pesticide science is JUNK science based primarily on the active ingredients, leaving out the larger, toxic, secret, pesticide inerts. Therefore it is impossible to guarantee the safety of anyone, especially vulnerable populations -- the 100 million Americans with chronic health diseases. New research indicates legal levels of fine particle pollution constrict healthy people¼s lungs and sick people die. EPA scientists say pesticide inerts are the probable cause of the life- threatening asthma attacks. Ca Dept. of Food and Ag ignored the GWSS Environmental Task recommendation of pesticide inert investigation in the EIR. The current Pierce¼s Disease (PD)Control Program is the result of a fabricated emergency that horribly discriminates against sick and dying disabled people forcing them to flee if you spray in their communities giving them no mitigation and no safe place to live.

We are outraged about the bumper wine grape crop, the year of devastation in ground zero Temecula County; the failure of the growers to test for PD and prune to save vines. GWSS is not the only insect vector of the 100 year-old disease and GWSS cannot be eradicated in CA. Ca Dept. of Food and Ag deliberately misleads the public; many Pierce¼s Disease strains that affect food crops are not in CA. Now growers protect their crop by ripping out healthy citrus trees (the favorite habitat of GWSS); planting less exotic disease resistant wine grape varieties; spraying their own pesticides; and removing infected vines. Stop burdening sick and dying people with proof of pesticide harm, when Ca legislature does not have the courage to demand full product and synergetic testing by industry. Stop this 39.2 million dollar wasteful program, the genetically engineered wine grapes are unwanted because Europe won¼t buy the wine. Protect agriculture and the people by allowing only sustainable agriculture solutions to every problem. Why not stop the foreign pests at the border, every 60 days a new foreign insect enters California. Please don¼t spray us.

Sincerely,
Signature_____________________________________
Print Name____________________________________
Address_________________________________________________
City_______________________ State _______Zip Code __________


________________
Card Prepared by Linda J. McElver, GWSS
Environmental Task Force, and president Canaries Foundation

===============================
Addresses:

For CDFA:

Susan Stratton
SR. Environmental Planner
Department of General Services
Real Estate Services Division
Professional Services Branch
PO Box 98952
West Sacramento, CA 95798-9057

email: pdcpinfo@cdfa.ca.gov

Governor Gray Davis
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814

Phone: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-445-4633
email: governor@governor.ca.gov

=======

Linda McElver writes:

Dear Groups, I received a couple of emails concerning my source for this forced spray information.

Your county plan or notification of protection due to pesticide sensitive registry is null and void without any approved alternatives. None have been approved in the EIR. Sneaky how they mislead the public. Any county plan not consistent with the State Plan after the EIR, will be changed. Our Own Richard Greek, AG comm. of SLO county promises to use pesticides if ordered to. Remember May 17 is dead line for the EIR responses, or forever hold your peace.

*

The glassy-winged sharpshooter Homalodisca coagulata is in the leaf-hopper family of insects (Cicadellidae) that are largely known to fly during the night and these insects are known from the diets of bats. Although I am unaware of any studies that specifically document this insect as a bat prey item, I would say that it is highly likely that bats eat them. Bats like many animals are opportunists and can and will make use of any food items that are abundant. A simple study of placing bats in an enclosure with a known number of these insects would conclusively demonstrate that they are eaten.

Even chemicals are not a cure all for insect pests and there are many instances where they do more harm than good either by removing predatory insects or by introducing poisons into our lives. The wise use of integrated insect control techniques is a concept that is more easily overcome [accomplished] through education.

I hope this helps.

Brian Keeley

Bat Conservation International http://www.batcon.org/

For more info on bats, see EHN's General Links, page B / Bats
http://ehnca.org/www/ehnlinx/b.htm#Bat

Now read: Hooked on Poison: Pesticide Use in California 1991-1998
This 2000 report by PANNA and Californians for Pesticide Reform reveals that in California use of carcinogenic pesticides has more than doubled during 1991 to 1998, and that total pesticide use in 1998 is at the highest level ever reported.
Available online as PDF files. -- barb
http://www.panna.org/resources/documents/hookedAvail.dv.html

Pesticide Reports from EWGä
http://www.ewg.org/issues/home.php?i=4

Steve Tvedten's CD, The Best Control
If you purchase Steve's CD through this link, you help EHN. -- barb
http://www.nice2people.com/ehn-order.htm