[lou_lou]

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CDFA has managed to scare the living daylights out of millions of Californians with their bizarre position that it’s safe to spray pesticides on babies, children and adults. Clearly, they’re operating in a different century than the rest of us. It’s the 21st century now - we learned in the last one that people who come into contact with pesticides get sick, get cancer, die slow, painful deaths from poisoning. So, while we’re trying to yank the ag department into modern times, let’s take a closer look at just one of the many toxic ingredients in Checkmate - the pesticide they intend to implant into the skin and lungs of 7 million of us come this summer.

BHT (Butylated hydroxytoluene) Quick Facts

Used in pharmaceuticals, jet fuels, rubber, petroleum products, embalming fluid
Banned in Sweden, Romania and Australia
Illegal to put in baby food in the USA
Carcinogenic (causes cancer)
Damages blood, liver, central nervous system
Prolonged exposure damages vital organs
A neurotoxin linked to learning disorders and violent, aggressive behaviors
Like you, I’m scared to death that CDFA is backward enough to claim it will be safe to spray this banned carcinogen on every bit of food babies will eat, on babies themselves and on all of us. But there’s something else that’s scaring me about this situation. Let’s take a closer look at that last point on the list.

5985 Violent Crimes in the City of San Francisco
In 2004, there were, yes, 5985 violent crimes in the City, 96 of which were murders. There are 50,000 registered guns in San Francisco - I can’t guess at how many unregistered weapons there are. Despite its reputation as a world-famous tourist destination, San Francisco is a city drowning in violence. 3 people were shot to death there just yesterday, according to the SF Chronicle. They’ve got a critically understaffed 9-1-1 system and I can’t think of a scarier job than being a police officer there - unless it’s being a police officer in Oakland, for which I couldn’t find any reliable crime data.

What do you think about pouring a chemical, a neurotoxin, known to cause strange and aggressive behavior, on San Francisco?

More to the point, what does the San Francisco Police Department think about someone drugging locals with a banned chemical that may make non-violent citizens become suddenly aggressive and may make violent criminals even more crazy?

If I were chief of the SFPD, I’d be standing at the front of the protest against CDFA’s loathsome chemical assault on California and I’d be on the horn to Arnold Schwarzenegger, yesterday, giving him an earful for inviting these people to test neurotoxins on my city.

And Then There Are the Pilots

As with everything else in this misbegotten ‘program’, CDFA has apparently failed to take it seriously that flying uninvited planes over the city may cause crazy people to…well…go crazy. I have been asking and asking this question and am getting no answer. To my extreme horror, I have seen people on Craigslist threatening to shoot down the spray planes. I have no idea if this is fear, bravado or truly criminal intent talking. It’s not really my job to discern that. It’s CDFA’s job, for the safety of their spray plane pilots, to give some thought to whether flying chemical-spewing airplanes over crime-ridden, gun-infested regions of the Bay Area will create lawless mayhem, will possibly lead to people actually shooting at the planes. It’s a picture so horrific, I can hardly put words to it, but here I am, putting words to this again, because I haven’t heard a single person associated with the spraying voice concerns about this. If I were those pilots, I’d be even more freaked out than the police.

Are the pilots armed? What if one of the planes crashes into downtown San Francisco or Oakland? What if citizens think a plane accidentally crashing into downtown San Francisco is intentional - as in a terr***st attack like the one our poor country is still trying to recover from psychologically? Are there ANY emergency measures in place to deal with the potential results of spraying neurotoxins on heavily-armed urban areas? These are real questions, being asked in a tone of bewildered exasperation, because, like everything else in this chaotic undertaking, CDFAs attitude of, “spray first, think about it later” is creating almost infinite potentials for disaster in every direction we look.

They aren’t acting like they get it that they’re intending to carry out an unwanted program, rife with socio-political opposition, in a region of the world that has more than its national-average-share of criminals and unfortunate lunatics. They’re acting as if it’s going to be a picnic, for them, for their pilots, for all of us. Why the obstinate blindness to everything but the goal of spraying? Why won’t they look at any of this, even if it potentially endangers their ‘own’ people?

I don’t want anyone to get hurt, including CDFA’s hired pesticide pilots. We’ve got to get them to call this off now. We’ve got to call off the ‘emergency’ before a real one gets created like none of us want to live to see. We can’t let this happen here. With 450 potential nights of spraying over the next decade, there are too many chances for the worst to happen. It is simply too dangerous, no matter how you look at it.

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