Aerial Spraying in Orange County

My friend had mentioned to me the importance of attending a vector control meeting on last Thursday, August 18, 2016, due to a threat of imminent aerial spraying of chemicals to deter the mosquitoes for West Nile virus. Since I personally did not think this could be a good idea, I decided to attend.

I arrived at the meetings a few minutes after 2 pm and the meeting was well underway. There was an outer room filled mainly with women and children wearing stickers stating “0.003%” The children were playing while the parents were listening and waiting for their turn to speak to this committee. I was able to slide into the main area where I could listen more clearly.

I was surprised to find out how many members this committee contained. There were 4 rows of tables with approximately 7 chairs on each side with people having their nameplates and microphones in front of them. Also, I saw the “head” table, which had about 10 people, with names & titles. The room contained many soon to be speakers with their children who were playing quietly while the Vector business continued. They were all waiting for “their” chance to convey their thoughts and research to this committee. The business aspect of the Vector meeting soon ended. The participants who had filled out a form to address the committee were given 1 ½ minutes to contain their speech instead of the usual 3 minutes due to the multitude of people present to show their concerns.

There were many speakers from various backgrounds coming together at this time to share their concerns, research and offer assistance. Many stated concerns about respiratory issues due to the spraying. Many mentioned their organic gardens would be destroyed since these chemical remain in the air and on the ground much longer than the directions would lead you to believe. Many mothers discussed various health issues, stating these chemicals would be extremely harmful to the children. Many stated that they had worked hard to make educated choices to protect their children. The aerial spraying was something that would be out of their hands. Many voiced concerns about not being able to leave the area when a potential spraying would occur. The pesticides have been shown to be harmful to pregnant women, unborn children, people with compromised immune systems, chemically sensitive people, developing young children, and children with respiratory problems, such as asthma & allergies. Even the children were speaking about this toxic environment which is killing our bees and butterflies, requesting, “Please don’t spray.”

A gentleman who had worked in NASA and the Michael J Fox Foundation stated that they injected pesticides into rats when they wanted to create Parkinson’s disease. A neuroscientist stated that when she worked with pesticides, she had to suit up with gloves and masks to work with these chemicals. She resigned since it was not safe. One speaker brought out the reason for the 0.003% stickers, which was the chance of contracting the West Nile Virus versus a 25% increase in autism and developmental disorders among children exposed to aerial spraying for mosquitoes.

Other speakers noted –

• CDC states that spraying adulticides, pesticides intended to kill adult mosquitoes, is the least efficient mosquito control technique.

• Harvard School of Public Health’s study found that aerosol plumes fail to contact the target mosquitoes.

• David Pimentel, Ph.D., an entomologist at Cornell University, showed that close to 99.9 % of sprayed chemicals go off into the environment where they can have detrimental effects on public health & ecosystems, leaving 0.10% to actually hit the target pest.

All speakers questioned the safety and efficacy of using these neurotoxins. There were many speakers stating that they are willing to “mobilize the forces” to educate and help. (I thought to myself, these are mama bears protecting their cubs). After all were allowed to speak, the head of Vector Control took some time to announce that there was not any intent to spray at this time. However, he could not guarantee what the future would hold. He stated that they had learned a lot. However, there are two sides and both sides feel the impact of whatever decision they make.

I was disheartened to see Scott Voigts, our Lake Forest City Council representative, leave before any of these concerned voters spoke. This decision will affect our city and needs our city’s input. Additionally, anyone contacting our representative would assume that he had heard this information, which he did not. Click here to learn more.

I know that I personally learned a lot more than when I had walked into the meeting. I hope we can educate not only our legislators, but our neighbors, associations and anyone who crosses our paths about the dangers of these pesticides and share freely the environmentally safe ways to combat these pests of all sizes. We might learn from Irvine, who have become Non-Toxic Irvine, after educating their legislatures about the dangers of these pesticides

Rita Bradley, R.N.