Aerial Spraying

As Camarillo residents pulled plastic tarps off cars and hosed down patios Thursday, officials said the second aerial spraying to combat a Medfly infestation went off as planned. The spraying, which began at 9 p.m. Wednesday, covered 16 square miles and ended just after 1 a.m. "Everything went fine. There were no complications at all," said Aurelio Posadas, a program supervisor with the state Department of Food and Agriculture.

HOUSTON -- Planes equipped to battle the West Nile outbreak in Texas have been grounded by rain, delaying the aerial application of pesticide targeting the deadly virus that has prompted a state of emergency in Dallas County, officials said. So far, Dallas County has reported 242 West Nile infections and 10 deaths, making it the epicenter of a statewide surge in infections. Texas has reported 552 cases and 21 deaths, by far the highest tally nationwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Aerial spraying of the pesticide malathion--a controversial staple of life for many Southern Californians since last summer when a stubborn Mediterranean fruit fly infestation was first detected--will be concluded in seven weeks, state officials announced Monday. Henry J. Voss, director of the state Department of Food and Agriculture, set a May 9 deadline for the end of spraying in sectors of Los Angeles and Orange counties already known to be infested.

HOUSTON -- In a move to stop a deadly outbreak of the West Nile virus carried by mosquitoes, aerial pesticide spraying was set to begin Thursday night over wide swaths of Dallas County, prompting debate among some residents about safety. The decision to arm small planes with a pesticide that officials said posed no health risks came as Texas grappled with 465 West Nile infections and 17 deaths. The outbreak led officials in Dallas city and county, the hardest hit region in the state, to recently declare a state of emergency.

Agriculture officials do not think additional aerial applications of pesticide are needed in the San Fernando Valley despite the new discovery of a Mediterranean fruit fly one-quarter mile outside the zone sprayed by helicopters Monday. Officials ordered ground spraying Tuesday afternoon in fruit trees in the Reseda neighborhood where a mature, unmated female--the fourth fly found in a week--was discovered late Monday in a trap set in a back yard peach tree.

Should saturation aerial spraying of any pesticide be permitted in densely populated communities, or even sparsely populated ones? Is it right or legal to expose more than 1 million men, women and children to toxic chemicals without their approval and against their will, as is the case in Los Angeles? Aerial spraying of pesticides on urban populations is a flagrant violation of human rights, common sense and scientific reasoning.

Despite the emergence of organic farming, aerial spraying of pesticides is on the rise in California. And with the frequency and scope of this airborne assault on bugs, it is inevitable that people, not just crops, are occasionally dusted with chemicals. Paul Gosselin, assistant director of the state Department of Pesticide Regulation, said problems are arising because homes are moving into farm belts and people are more aware of the risks of pesticide exposure.

In declaring a Medfly "state of emergency" in August, Gov. George Deukmejian gave the State Department of Food and Agriculture and county agriculture commissioners the power to spray malathion at will. Yet the goal of eradicating the pest is doomed, no matter how much of the pesticide is rained on Los Angeles and Orange counties. The would-be eradicators presume to know the exact locations of Medfly colonies. But they overlook an important behavioral trait of the pest: The fly is territorial.

Kathleen Doheny's column "Your Body: It's a Mean Season for Breathing" describes an increase in coughs and upper respiratory problems this summer. Apparently, no one has determined the cause of this increase. What environmental conditions are different this summer, as compared to previous summers? The first thing that comes to mind is the state's incessant aerial spraying of malathion and sugary bait. Although we were assured at one time that malathion would not hurt us, the state has so far exceeded its liberal standards for safety by continuing the sprayings beyond original deadlines.

Gwen Erickson of Ojai either is woefully misinformed or deliberately trying to mislead others in her letter on malathion of Dec. 20. Marc Lappe, Ph.D, who in 1979 headed the original state evaluation on the health risks of malathion aerial spraying has stated in a court declaration that aerial spraying is a "significant danger" to the elderly, infants and children, among others. If aerial spraying of malathion is so safe, as Erickson says, why did Japan ban it many years ago?

Cesar Lopez and his crew resemble human weed eaters, dispensing with 15 acres of illegal crops a day in the sweltering hills of north-central Colombia. Guarded by a cordon of 120 anti-narcotics police officers, the group uses metal rods to uproot bush after bush on the steep hillside. In a gully below stands a thatched-roof laboratory where farmers processed a kilogram of coca paste a week, worth about $1,000 each, before fleeing last month, police said.

Despite widespread spraying of defoliants financed by the U.S., total acreage of coca cultivated in Colombia rose 19% in 2006 compared with 2005, according to an annual survey by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. The report stresses that much of the gain may be attributed to an expansion of the area included in the survey, which is done by satellite, airplane and on the ground.

Julian, a peasant farmer in this mountainous region of Colombia, wants to stop growing coca but says leftist guerrillas won't let him. If they catch you pulling up any coca plants, he says, they give you 12 hours to leave your land or they kill you. Under Washington's multibillion-dollar "Plan Colombia," much of the drug-fighting money has gone to pay for the eradication of 1.8 million acres of coca, which is used in the production of cocaine.

Helicopters are scheduled to begin an aerial pesticide assault at 6:30 a.m. today to eradicate potential West Nile virus-carrying mosquitoes at Hansen Dam Recreation Area. The two to three hours of spraying by the Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District will cover about 100 acres.

Deferring to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the Bush administration has backed off its plans to use aerial spraying to destroy Afghanistan's poppy crop, at least for the time being, administration officials and lawmakers said.

Complaining of paramilitary extortion, tardy pension payments and the price of corn, Colombians took to the phones Saturday to relate their fears and needs to President Alvaro Uribe during a marathon, interactive Cabinet meeting. Broadcast live on television for 10 hours, the program featured rumpled ministers with unbuttoned collars, reports stacked in front of them, giving a rendering of accounts from Uribe's first year in office. For most, the balance was positive. "Mr.

Re: Malathion aerial spraying. The ongoing public hysteria over aerial spraying is nothing more than anti-Malathion activists crying "Wolf!" When I was a student at San Jose State in the 1970s, we had a fruit fly problem in Mountain View. The public were up in arms even before the first helicopter took off. Unknown to the public, and the helicopter crew, no Malathion was released due to clogged nozzles! The next morning, some of the public complained about the smell, headaches and nausea!

Re "Fighting Fire Ants in Orange County Could Cost Millions," Jan. 23: What do fire ants, killer bees and medflies all have in common? The Chicken Littles in the agriculture departments are using them as an excuse to spray pesticides on the populace. I'm more afraid of the pesticides than the insects. If there is anything the medfly spraying taught us, it was that aerial spraying is not effective and is not "perfectly safe" to humans and costs the taxpayers a fortune. RICHARD SIGLER Los Angeles

California crop-dusters, grounded for a third time because of terrorist fears, voiced concern Monday that prolonged delays in aerial spraying could damage the state's $29-billion-a-year agricultural industry. Although groundings so far have had little effect on crops, agricultural officials worried that future delays could allow pests, weeds and disease to establish a foothold in the state's fields and orchards, potentially devaluing crops or wiping some out altogether.

In 1989, the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council was accused of manipulating CBS's "60 Minutes" into hyping the dangers of Alar, a chemical sprayed on apples to regulate growth and enhance color. The immediate result of that broadcast: Supermarkets stripped produce aisles of McIntoshes and Winesaps; traditional student bribes vanished from teachers' desks and orchard owners got bruised, suffering losses in the millions.