From the December 2007 Idaho Observer:

California invents LBAM emergency to spray people with experimental pesticide

On September 9, 2007, several planes hired by the State of California Food and Agricultural Department (CDFA), flying at an altitude of approximately 500, feet sprayed the untested biochemical CheckMate®OLR-F on over 30,000 citizens in Monterey and other surrounding cities in California. This occurred without the permission of the citizens. The spraying continued for three nights from approximately 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. About 1,500 pounds of biochemical were dumped on the cities. Many citizens did not even know what was happening when the planes were buzzing overhead.

An 11-month-old child nearly died from breathing difficulties. A six-year-old child developed asthma as a result of the aerial spraying. Over one hundred people signed affidavits stating that they got sick from the spraying. Hundreds of people had symptoms like; shortness of breath, headaches, dizziness, burning lungs, nausea, and muscle aches.

The excuse for aerial spraying is not a deadly-disease carrying mosquito, but a moth—the light brown apple moth (LBAM)—whose larva may eat some leaves of some plants. The CDFA considers the moth an invasive species since it is from Australia. Yet, evidence suggests that the moth has been living peacefully in California for many years. In response to the moth, the CDFA set up relatively harmless sticky traps, which have captured nearly every Light Brown Apple Moth in the Northern California region.

Recently, in a series of rapid fire events, the CDFA declared a state of emergency relating to the LBAM claiming that the moths are about to destroy a huge portion of the state’s agricultural crops. The claim is that the LBAM will cause hundreds of millions of dollars of crop damage. Due to this supposed "emergency," the CDFA claimed it must immediately spray an untested biochemical to eliminate this threat as soon as possible despite the reported harms.

Governor Schwarzenegger is a strong supporter of the declared emergency though there is no evidence to suggest that an LBAM emergency exists. The desire to spray untested biochemicals on humans appears to be the morivating factor. The only emergency seems to be that the State of California, under Governor Schwarzenegger’s helm, has an urgent need to spray as many humans—men, women, children, pregnant women, people with allergies, the elderly and the sick—with chemicals.

This aerial spraying violates several state, federal and international laws. It violates the right to personal safety given by the California State Constitution, the very document that creates the California government. It violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, which protects people with chemical sensitivities and other disabilities from discrimination. It violates the Federal constitutional right to personal liberty. It violates the EPA’s laws against spraying pesticides on people. It violates human rights laws that say that human experimentation without consent is unethical and immoral. It violates criminal laws that claim it is a crime to poison children, or anyone else. It violates pollution laws to spray a toxic substance over plants, animals, and waterways. It violates laws against organized crime and it violates the very tenants of our democracy; a system of government designed to represent the people, not to poison the people to represent private agri-business interests.