The "governator" is following the "Bush doctrine" of "preemptive war" by overspraying hundreds of thousands of Californians with a dangerous, expensive, experimental "cyborg" of a drug to keep a few thousand light brown apple moths (LBAMs) from mating. Though they have yet to cause a dollar’s worth of damage to the state’s apple crop, state officials guess the little LBAMs may someday cause a $100 million shortfall in apple crop revenues. Numerous clues are surfacing to suggest that it is not the mating habits of moths that are at issue here. The following article was lifted from Sofia Smallstorm’s website at www.911weknow.com as an appropriate and important continuation of the LBAM story we ran last month. The piece provides a vital link to proving that the government is not just interested in killing bugs. The "LBAM eradication program" is exemplary of government-sponsored poison programs all over the country and how easy it is to hire a few of our fellow sufferers to hold the nozzle, so to speak.

Sometimes bad dreams do come true. My bad dream was that the government announced a quarantine and forced everybody to be vaccinated for some fake disease. In my dream, I took my family and fled to the hills to avoid being vaccinated.

Now, nine months later, this dream has come true. In an emergency, I relinquished my rental contract and moved my pregnant partner and three-and-a-half-year-old daughter out of Santa Cruz, California, to avoid being exposed to potentially deadly chemicals.

The chemicals, known by their trade names as Checkmate OLR-F and Checkmate LBAM-F, have been sprayed via state-owned airplanes in September and October in Monterey County, California. These same aerial chemicals, despite their known health risks, were sprayed on two nights, Nov. 8 and 9, 2007, over the people of Santa Cruz County. The purpose of this spray is to "control the mating habits of the light brown apple moth (LBAM) due to the possibility of $100 million of damage" (this figure is not a fact, but based on a government guess).

The California Department of Food and Agriculture’s own doctor acknowledges, in court documents, that aerial application of this chemical has not been tested. This means chemicals are being sprayed on young children, nursing mothers, people with asthma, lung problems, heart problems, the elderly, the disabled, the homeless and the chemically sensitive—and this chemical formulation has NEVER been tested on even a piece of dirt, let alone humans.

The newly designed Faroes Statement, a consensus of over 200 scientists, calls for a precautionary approach with respect to exposure of fetuses and children to environmental toxins. The consensus is that exposure of fetuses or children to chemicals can cause increased susceptibility to disease and disability later in life. In addition, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has specific directives and codes that state they should not experiment with pesticides on pregnant women or infants. It is a fact, since this aerial pesticide has not been proven to control the moth’s mating habits and has not been proven safe to animals or humans, that this is an experiment.

In Monterey, approximately 100,000 residents were exposed to untested chemicals to control the mating habits of fewer than 750 moths. In Santa Cruz County, over 100,000 residents will be exposed to untested chemicals to control the mating habits of less than 9,000 moths. This is not a one-time application, but will continue monthly beginning again in February, for nine months and then repeated for up to a total of three years.

This program will only control the moth’s mating habits; it will not eliminate the moth. At worst, it will be ineffective, cost taxpayers millions of dollars, and cause permanent disability to residents and their pets, all over a moth that has yet to cause even $1 of damage in California.

Each aerial application of Checkmate OLR-F and Checkmate LBAM-F costs approximately $3.5 million, paid directly to the manufacturer, Suterra, LLC, of Bend, Oregon.

The projected expense of this eradication "attempt" will cost over $70 million dollars to spray Monterey and Santa Cruz counties the proposed nine times. The California Department of Food and Agriculture has created a map showing the spray area will grow and encompass various portions of the entire San Francisco Bay Area. (www.cdfa.ca.gov/phpps/PDEP/lbam/maps.html) .

The United States EPA has authorized an emergency permit that could allow the CDFA to aerially spray the state of California until the year 2010. This Light Brown Apple Moth "eradication" could cost Californians more than $500 million dollars, five times the projected amount of losses to the agricultural industry if the moth were actually to infest the state.

While this moth has not yet caused any damage to crops, the damage that Checkmate’s chemicals has caused to humans is enormous. In Monterey County, the first county in California to be sprayed, documented affidavits show that citizens got sick, ill or suffered life-threatening reactions to the toxic spray.

One infant in the City of Monterey nearly died from inhalation of the experimental biochemical and now has permanent lung damage. Dozens of women in cities throughout the Monterey Peninsula are reporting problems with their reproductive systems after exposure to the pesticide, including sudden, severe and irregular menstrual cycles, extreme cases of tender and swollen breasts and the recurrence of menopause symptoms in older women. Other side effects of both Checkmate OLR-F and Checkmate LBAM-F include asthma and sudden breathing difficulties, chest pain, vomiting, lethargy, fatigue and extreme mood swings. Some people have coughed up blood and have gotten bloody noses from Checkmate exposure.

It is not typical that such minute amounts of chemicals can cause such severe damage as described above. The explanation for the severe side effects is that the chemicals are in miniature balls of volatile plastic called "microcapsules"; thus chemicals can be introduced deeply into the body through swallowing or inhalation of the micro-sized particles. It is as if this "agricultural" product acts more like a drug on humans than as a pesticide on moths.

Thousands of residents, including myself, have undocumented pesticide damage. I lived 40 miles from the October Monterey spray zone and, on the last day of aerial spraying, my entire family became ill. My daughter vomited. I had severe intestinal distress and could not eat for several days. I felt nervous and anxious, as if I had the caffeine equivalent of 10 cups of coffee.

And for the first time in my life, I had yellow-red colored urine (I am now mostly recovered).

After talking to and hearing about how dozens of other Santa Cruz residents experienced the same or similar symptoms, on or near the same day, I realized it was a result of the spray.

Recently I learned that this exposure may not have been from pesticide drift, but from a rogue plane releasing chemicals. Other witnesses linked the red color to the Checkmate formulations, seeing small red droplets where the Checkmate has contacted metallic objects.

The questions I ask myself are: What type of chemical, in such small doses, causes such profound harm? Why does a chemical claimed to be harmless to humans by the EPA, the CDFA and Governor Schwarzenegger have a significant and severe effect on the female reproductive system?

The aerial application of Checkmate OLR-F and Checkmate LBAM-F is designed out of the concept of miniature plastic sphere-like particles, generally the same size as the width of a human hair. They are called "microcapsules." Each capsule is a biologically "loaded gun" due to its own chemical make-up and that of the pheromones held inside. Research indicates that the capsules are likely made out of a urea-formaldehyde polymer—the industry standard.

These "agricultural" microcapsules have never been tested safe for humans. Thus, the life of these microcapsules inside our bodies is unknown, as are the health risks of inhaling or swallowing them. Preliminary research on the microcapsules have revealed that they are made of a new technology, and that the large capsules are made up of a cluster of smaller 3-4 micronsize capsules—a size of capsule that can be deadly to humans over the long term.

Many of the chemicals used to make the Checkmate OLR-F and Checkmate LBAM-F products have been deemed harmful for human consumption, like butelated hydroxyl tolune (BHT). On the label for BHT it says (in big letters) "Do not inhale this product. Dangerous to respiratory health."

BHT is also known as DBPC, a dangerous pesticide known to cause sterility in men. Recently, Dole Food Company lost a lawsuit in which Nicaraguan banana farmers were exposed to DBPC.

Within these microcapsules is an endocrine disrupter which attaches itself to estrogen receptors and forces the activation and constant production of estrogen to occur in the human body. This happens for men, women and children. This chemical is called 2 hydroxy 4n octyloxybenzophenone.

Won’t even work.There is a great chance that Checkmate OLR-F and Checkmate LBAM-F will not even prove to be effective against the moth. The EPA’s own documents state that, "The studies show that only a small proportion of the microcapsules actually release any pheromone or only a portion of the total pheromone loaded into the capsule is capable of ever being released."

In light of such statements made, the technology cannot work.

Time release technology. In addition to the agriculture industry, microcapsules are used in medical and military technology. In medical technology, microcapsules are used to time-release drugs into the body. The medical capsules are made out of a bio-compatible material that the body can easily absorb. In military technology, they can be used for chemical shields, or for experimental "non-lethal" weapons (that means the weapon does not cause immediate death). These thoughts do not leave one with a pleasant taste about how these microcapsules are being used in our neighborhoods and communities.

Some Monterey county residents report asthma attacks increasing, others report coughing so hard and for such long durations that they cough up blood. One healthy adult male in the sprayed Salinas area who jogs five miles daily has developed asthma. For the first time in his life, he must use an inhaler to help him breathe. The local doctor he sees is out of inhaler samples; he’s given them all away.

These and other serious side effects associated with the aerial application of Checkmate OLR-F and Checkmate LBAM-F are being captured by citizen groups daily. Local doctors are refusing to document that their patients’ symptoms have any relation to the aerial spraying. One doctor even told his patient (who was very ill from the spraying) that he would have to consult with his lawyer before discussing the matter further.

An attorney representing the CDFA declared to a judge in Monterey County Superior Court during a hearing where a local environmental organization was suing the CDFA to stop the aerial spraying, that the CDFA has no intention of monitoring or following up on any of the health concerns or complaints that have been or will be filed in association with this aerial application.

I leave you with part of this press release by a strong opponent to the aerial spraying, California State Senator John Laird:

"Of greatest concern to me is the notion that speculative economic impacts may be outweighing the need to protect human health. In Monterey county there are reports of more than 200 health complaints associated with aerial spraying. Yet, to date there is no evidence that reports have been analyzed and a promised ‘white paper’ on the toxicological data on the pheromone product and the health complaints taken as a whole has not been released. In fact, in his October 26^th letter to me, CDFA Secretary Kawamura indicated there are no plans to either study long-term effects of the spraying or conduct an epidemiological analysis of the complaints CDFA has received.

"In light of the unresolved health complaints and unanswered scientific questions, the ‘precautionary principle’ should serve as a guide. It has been described as a political and moral principle that says if an action or policy could harm the public or the environment, the burden of proof falls on the proponent of the action—rather than on the public.

"It was determined in Superior Court that the County of Santa Cruz failed to meet the burden of proof required to obtain a temporary restraining order against the state. However, in the court of public opinion, the burden of proof ought to be on CDFA to prove LBAM-F and OLR-F are safe prior to spraying it on residential populations monthly for an open-ended period of time."

[Note: It seems apparent that the reproductive viability of humans, not moths, is being targeted by this program. It also seems apparent that the "governator" is willing to expose people to experimental toxic chemicals without their informed consent.

The world was appalled that the Nazis were using humans as test subjects for medical experimentation and sentenced those conducting such experiments to long prison terms and death at Nuremburg. Why should those Americans responsible for such experimentation today not be viewed as criminals, tried and sentenced accordingly?]