State Senator Carole Migden (D-San Francisco/North Bay) released the following statement in response to the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) study that was unable to find a link between aerial spraying for the Light Brown Apple Moth and 650 reports of adverse health affects after last fall’s spraying in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties:
“OEHHA says that it was unable to confirm a link between spraying and adverse health effects because most health complaints did not contain enough information to determine the cause of symptoms. Clearly, people should refrain from assuming that this means that no link exists. What residents must understand is that the spraying plan for the Bay Area will be much longer in duration than last fall’s and that no long-term studies have been done on the health affects of the spray that will be used—a spray that encapsulates the pesticide in tiny plastic spheres that people will inhale. How can that possibly be good for us?”