On August 1st, 2008, the California Department of Food and Agriculture will begin spraying the San Francisco Bay Area by air with a pheromone pesticide called Checkmate OLF-R. The spraying will be continuous every 30 to 90 days for the next two to ten years.

The spray has never been independently tested. The spray has no environmental studies done. The spray is time-released microcapsules containing known carcinogens and endocrine disruptors. The label on the product states it is harmful if absorbed through the skin. Harmful if inhaled. Contamination requires rinsing with water and calling poison control.

The US Department of Agriculture announced emergency funding (where have we heard that before) to combat the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) infestation bypassing normal safety and environmental studies!

The Manufacturer is Dupont. Signs and symptoms effects of acute overexposure: High oral doses can cause apathy (lack of feeling or emotion). Spraying has led to major respiratory problems.

Whenever anything is an emergency and bypasses safety precautions it should be a flag that some individuals are pushing this through the normally slow governmental machinery of change.

This long term commitment of spraying is costing us great sums of money. It is endangering our health, especially that of our children.

These are the important questions:

• How much does it cost?
• Who is receiving the money?
• Is there any collusion taking place between the government and the contractors?
• Are alternatives that don't put us at risk being used as practiced in New Zealand? There the moth has been established for more than 100 years and controlled using sticky traps to monitor the LBAM.
• Is this an intelligence test of the Bay Area? If so, we have passed it because the multitude of studies and observations by citizens of Santa Cruz, California recently documented the dangers of spraying and for it to continue represents a heinous act by the government of the people without the people's consent. The spraying in the SF Bay Area is opposed.

So, to get the message out there to fellow citizens who work for the government- it is necessary to sign petitions, write letters and go to this website: http://www.lbamspray.com/index.htm