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California residents are about to get sprayed with pesticides. Literally.

As part of a program to eradicate the dreaded apple moth, several California counties will be getting dosed by pesticides beginning in June.

And according to some, it’s not even practical or necessary. Or safe! This is scary stuff.

In his article Agriculture chief accused of lying about spraying, Robert Lieber asserts that California Department of Food and Agriculture secretary A.G. Kawamura is relying on “blatant misrepresentations of the truth, fear-mongering and outright lies”, when promoting the spraying program.

Lieber also states that Kawamura’s stance on eradicating the apple moth is based on “no real science and no solid facts.”

In short, they’re unleashing a whole host of pesticides to correct something that isn’t even a problem!

Kawamura’s fear-mongering comment that, if left unchecked, the apple moth will destroy every green plant in the state and possibly the country is contradicted by facts. Even the California Department of Food and Agriculture says there has been no crop damage attributable to the apple moth in California.

Furthemore, Liebers relays the following facts:
* The state sprayed Monterey and Santa Cruz counties and at least 643 people reported they became sick.
* They reported their illnesses although the state made no infrastructure available.
* The state accepted health complaints only signed by a physician, but physicians were not trained to assess the toxic exposure associated with the spray.
* Anyone without insurance or access to a physician could not “officially” report health problems.

All of this is based on previous uses of the Checkmate. This pesticide is made up of three components that have either not been tested or are known to be dangerous.

If you live in California, no doubt you’ve heard about this already. I’m not in one of the directly-affected counties, but I feel obligated to press our state government to reconsider. Or to dump it altogether.

Here’s how you can tell the government that you don’t believe this spraying is necessary (courtesy of SFGate)

Read California Department of Food and Agriculture documents on the proposed pesticide-spraying program at links.sfgate.com/ZCLW.

Write: Until March 20, send written comments to: Jim Rains, staff environmental scientist, California Department of Food and Agriculture Plant Health and Pest Prevention Services, 1220 N St., Room A-316, Sacramento, CA 95814.