How is this happening in America?

“Democracies do not spray their citizens with powerful untested, unwanted pesticides.” -David Dilworth, August 2007

As I type, the State of California is dumping pesticides from the aircraft (flying at 500 ft) on the city of Monterey and Seaside for the third night in a row. I hear the planes flying directly over my house with my children sleeping upstairs. This is done inspite of citizen protest and a unanimous vote of the city council to stop the spraying and use safer methods. The EPA has NOT tested this pesticide on humans!

The MSDS label for the Checkmate olr-f spray does list is as Slightly Toxic and causing “Corneal involvement or irritation”

How is this happening in America? Is this a precursor to the what we are in store for next time there is a viral outbreak?

What lobby group is pushing this and which politician is making money on such a crazy infringment on our constitutional right to safety?

From the ihope website:

The Monterey City Council voted unanimously Thursday evening to oppose the aerial spraying of chemicals for the LBA Moth. They also gave confidential direction to their attorney, and directed the Mayor to ask the California Secretary of Agriculture to postpone the spraying scheduled for next Wednesday, Sept 5th. Wednesday night at the special Monterey City Council meeting held at the Monterey Conference Center, the first 2 hours were entirely used up by the three agency staff defending the pesticide spraying. Some 250 people attended and many others watched on live TV as a parade of dozens of people – perhaps as many as 60 – spoke against the aerial chemical spraying of our community. Another half dozen testified against the spraying Thursday. To say their comments were eloquent and heartfelt would be so inadequate as to describe the sun as merely bright.”People are more important than strawberries.””Why didn’t [the moderator] read my question?” “It is totally unfair that we get only 3 minutes to rebut 2 hours of agency spin.” “Why didn’t [the moderator] read my question?” “The FAA closes the Monterey Tower at 9 in the evening. That means the spray planes will be flying less than 500 feet over our hilly town under the radar and with no tower watching.” and (the ever popular) – “Why didn’t [the moderator] read my question?” This is just a sampling. I urge you to review the DVD of the meeting, available at Monterey Library when ready. Steven Shimek was the one person to advocate for planes spraying chemicals on us – either day. Although claiming to represent Sea Otters, he apparently didn’t think about the pesticide toxicity to crabs that our endangered Sea Otters eat.

Here are some links to learn more about this story:
http://www.1hope.org/chkmate.htm
http://www.1hope.org/MTRYHALT.RTF
http://Here is my earlier post with the letter sent to all the local households/