Regardless of what the vector control districts (who partially bear the responsibility of any cancer outbreaks following aerial spraying exposure to pesticides) say, there are human health risks from exposure to pesticides that may appear several years after the cumulative exposures. At what community meeting will the vector control district PR rep be promising safety next while we witness our friends & relatives suffer through chemotherapy in a few years??
Repeated spraying of delta wetland habitats over time decreases the populations of beneficial predator insects (dragonflies), birds, frogs, etc.. and enables the pest species (mosquitos) targeted to evolve resistance to the particular brand of pesticide toxin, thus outbreeding the predator insects. Beneficial predators tend to have longer life cycles than pest (aka prey) species, thus evolving a resistance to the toxic pesticide slower than the pest species..
Safer options than aerial spraying;
http://www.beyondpesticides.org/mosquito/index.htm The dragonfly population may drop below effective potential the following year (larvae predation), resulting in increased mosquito population as predators could not recover to the toxin as quickly. Beneficial predator species are the time tested method of mosquito population reduction..
"Swallows and Flycatchers eat hundreds of mosquitoes daily, and are beneficial to keep the insect population down."
page on Contra Costa delta region;
http://www.nearthefastwater.com/bird_watching.htm Taking the beneficial species out of the equation may be depending on the corporate profits from pesticide manufacture alone for community health. The outbreak in mosquito population from decrease in predator populations then results in trap counts being high enough to enable the vector control district to contract with pesticide manufacturer for another variety of pesticide (several different pyrethroid/PBO combos), the largest batch possible to spray from airplane over village/city/region. The continued dependency on petrochemical pesticides is only a benefit to the pesticide manufacturers, the local townspeople deal with cancer rates increasing, sick/toxic riparian ecosystem, and inadvertantly supprt their own addiction via tax dollars to the vector control district..
Attract beneficial insects to your garden space @;
http://www.grinningplanet.com/2005/04-26/beneficial-insect-natural-pest-control-article.htm What choices to people have in Davis, Woodland, Sacramento, Martinez, Pittsburg, etc.. about whether or not our houses and communities, not to mention nearby ecological resources are sprayed with a toxic pesticide that can result in cancer and loss of beneficial biodiversity? The precautionary principle needs to be applied when vector control districts assume authority and circumvent democratic processes when making decisions based on overinflated threats and ineffective yet expensive and risky solutions like aerial pesticide spraying..
This from an interview with Katie Silberman (Science and Environmental Health Network) from MOMS (Making Our Milk Safe) website;
"Q: What do you think is the most pressing environmental issue in your community?
A: I find the skyrocketing incidence rates of childhood diseases linked to environmental exposures - childhood cancer, asthma, learning and behavioral disorders, autism - to be absolutely unconscionable. What bothers me most is that much of what kids are exposed to these days could be eliminated quite easily -- these are just cost/benefit decisions made by industry and government that continuing to pollute our air, water and food is economically "worth it." There are a few factors that make that untrue: first, we understand much more now about children's special vulnerability to toxic chemicals in their bodies; second, many old manufacturing processes have safer alternatives - industries just don't want to spend the money to switch; and third, it is becoming clear that we can't keep pumping out pollution indefinitely and expect our bodies and our planet to keep absorbing it. There are biological limits to what we can handle, and we are rapidly bumping up against them. So to make children suffer for the foolishness of adults is just unacceptable to me."
entire interview @;
http://www.safemilk.org/news/newsletter/001/0806/mway_0806.html For those effected in any way by the aerial pesticide spraying, there is an incident report at links below that could result in greater class action lawsuits over time. The greater Sacto/San Joaquin Valley has had enough of exposure to toxic pesticides and increased cancer risks..
http://www.stopwestnilesprayingnow.org/IncidentReport.html http://www.stopwestnilesprayingnow.org/Articles.htm http://www.stopwestnilesprayingnow.org/ Origin of West Nile outbreak, across the bay from infamous (or not) bioweapons research center Plum Island, NY;
"Some observers have noted that Plum Island is just across the bay from the area where the encephalitis outbreak began in New York.
At first the virus was thought to be of a "St. Louis" strain that is rare in the Northeast but somewhat more common in Florida and other states in the South and Southwest. Now the virus has been re-identified as an Upper Nile strain--the names are based on where a virus is first identified--which had not been seen before in North America.
Such a rare occurrence near a facility that studies rare pathogens might be just a coincidence. Plum Island officials have made no comment about the outbreak."
more on bioweapons and virus @;
http://www.newsmakingnews.com/plumislandnews.htm Ironically enough, the toxins in the PBOs can carry molecules (ideally pyrethroids) across the blood-brain barrier in mosquitos, though this same trait may enable the encephalitis viral strain to also cross the blood-brain barrier in humans, thus ensuring West Nile virus becomes a enough of a plague in human terms "worth" spraying for..
This from the St. Louis Greens;
"Dr. Dennis Goode, of the Biology Department at the University of Maryland, believes that the pesticides currently being used could also make it more likely that WNV would be transformed from a mild flu to a serious encephalitis. For encephalitis to occur, the virus must cross the blood-brain barrier. Pyrethroids are among the agents that impair the blood-brain barrier. Pyrethroids are the basis of the pesticides being used in 2002. Additionally, piperonyl butoxide (PBO), which is a synergist added to increase the killing power of the pesticide, works to prevent pyrethroids from breaking down, lengthening the period of time the pesticide works to weaken the blood-brain barrier."
article cont's @;
http://www.greens.org/s-r/31/31-16.html What people need is a return to ecological sanity and removing our communities from this toxic depndency on petroleum derived pesticides, both in mosquito management and agricultural systems. Beneficial insects/birds/bats/frogs etc.. will be safer for the health of our communities, both human and ecological. How we treat our homes is mirrored to the effects on our bodies, let's be good to ourselves and speak out against involuntary pesticide spraying..