Subject: Insecticides Debate Buzzes--- To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov> Dear Mr. Helliker,
I thought you might like to read an article >From USA TODAY, dated
10/06/00, entitled: Insecticides debate buzzes By Dennis Blank, Special for USA
TODAY. When you see flight attendants spraying a plane's cabin
shortly before landing in a foreign country, it's a safe bet they're not using
air freshener. Try insecticide. Spraying airplanes for bugs -- while passengers are aboard
-- is required by six countries and allowed by at least six others as a way to
kill unwanted species of insects that could harm plants or animals. On-board pesticide spraying -- a controversial practice for
years -- is under debate again because of two recent lawsuits by flight
attendant groups and an outcry from citizen groups. Opponents say some sprays
contain carcinogens and that exposure can cause nausea, fatigue and numbness in
humans. "Our contention is they should not use these products
in all airplanes," says Linda Laurent, a Houston lawyer who has filed a
class-action lawsuit in Louisiana and another one on behalf of 350 flight
attendants in Los Angeles. "Repeated chronic doses are not safe." Don't expect airlines to warn you what flights will be
sprayed, though. A year ago, the Department of Transportation (DOT) dropped a
proposal to require airlines and travel agents to inform customers when they buy
their tickets if their destination requires spraying. The DOT said at the time
the rule wasn't needed because 20 countries had discontinued the required
spraying of all arriving flights and only two still mandated spraying when
passengers were aboard. But the DOT's Web site indicates the practice is more widespread. As of Dec. 1, the site says, Grenada, India, Kiribati, Trinidad and Tobago, Madagascar and Uruguay required spraying of inbound flights with aerosol sprays while passengers are on board. Six other countries -- Australia, Barbados, Fiji, Jamaica, New Zealand and Panama -- require spraying of all inbound flights but allow airlines to choose among three methods. Airlines can use an aerosol while passengers are on board or not, or apply a long-lasting insecticide in unoccupied cabins. If they use the third method, a residue remains on seats and other surfaces. Airline industry officials say there's nothing to worry
about. "We don't think there is any danger to passengers who
get on an airplane," says United Airlines spokesman Joe Hopkins. The Air Transport Association, the airlines' trade group,
continues to oppose any government mandate to tell passengers about countries'
spraying rules, ATA lawyer David Berg says. Most airlines will disclose the
practice if asked. According to the DOT Web site, the World Health
Organization has said that aircraft "disinsection" does not present a
risk to human health "if performed appropriately." However, the report
also noted that some people may experience temporary discomfort associated with
aerosol insecticides. Michael Miller of Los Angeles did. He says he suffered
partial numbness in his fingers and toes and slight speech impairment up to a
month after a flight to New Zealand that was sprayed. Tests revealed he had high
amounts of a carcinogenic substance traced to a product sprayed in the cabin. One of the most commonly used products is made by Airosol
of Neodesha, Kan., one of six companies named in a lawsuit by flight attendants.
One of the flight attendants' lawsuits contends that attendants have been
"exposed to hazardous levels of these insecticides" made by Airosol,
as well as those manufactured by Sumitomo Chemical America, McLaughlin Gormley
King , Glaxo Wellcome, Burroughs Wellcome Foundation and Hoechst and Schering.
Lawyers for Airosol and Sumitomo have denied allegations in formal responses to
the lawsuit but did not return telephone calls from USA TODAY. Gary Ordog, a physician and toxicologist in Valencia,
Calif., said he is treating 10 United flight attendants who suffer from symptoms
including chronic fatigue, headaches, rashes and memory loss. One is permanently
disabled. Spraying is also an issue in the USA, although U.S.
airlines stopped spraying airliner cabins with passengers on board in the late
1970s. So-called residual spraying of unoccupied cabins and cargo areas is
common. More than 1,000 jets a month in the USA are being treated with
insecticides during overnight maintenance stops. Terminex said it treats 1,000 to 1,500 aircraft a month in
Atlanta, San Francisco and Chicago. It has contracts with several airlines:
Delta, United, American, Hawaii Air, American Trans Air, Continental, Southwest
and AirTran. More than a dozen products approved by the EPA for use on airlines
are identified as being harmful to humans. http://www.usatoday.org/life/travel/business/1999/t0316bt4.htm
"If having endured much, we at last asserted our
'right to know' and if, knowing, we have concluded that we are being asked to
take senseless and frightening risks, then we should no longer accept the
counsel of those who tell us that we must fill our world with poisonous
chemicals, we should look around and see what other course is open to us."
Rachel Carson Well Mr. Helliker, When will you look around and see
what other course is open for us? |
