Gypsy Moth Spraying
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[back] Pesticide attack
The Secretary for Food and Agriculture, Mr. Kawamura appeared at the Berkeley City Council meeting on February 21. He brought a panel of three other medical people with him, a medical doctor, a pesticide expert and a toxicologist. In that discussion that they had, presentation, questions and feedback from the City Council members, Mr. Kawamura announced that this Brown Moth had been in California for at least ten years; it had never been proven to be harmful to agriculture. The pesticide had had no affect in the two-year spraying program to eradicate the Brown Apple Moth in the Santa Cruz area. And, there have been no studies done on the health affects of this pesticide
. He also stated that they would begin spraying for at least five years in the entire bay area in August or 2008, and that the Environmental Impact statement would not be finished until the fall of 2008. When City Council members and public citizens making comments brought up many issues—they said that over 600 people had been made ill by the spaying over a two-year period in Santa Cruz. The absenteeism in schools went up 100% the day after the spaying because it made school children ill. Some people had to move out of Santa Cruz; they were too ill to stay there during this spraying program. And, Mr. Kawamura said well that was just information from the Internet and they were mentally ill or they had some kind of stress syndrome, or other issues, but it wasn’t the pesticide. They just have mental problems. One of the City Council members said well, hundreds of thousands of cats died from this spray during the spaying of Santa Cruz; were they mentally ill, too?