Steve Tvedten of Get Set, Inc.'s email to the California Department of Pesticide Regulation asking if it's illegal to wash your can.   No response received.

Questions have been asked of the California Department of Pesticide Control since Fontana Unified School District declined to consider a pesticide free IPM program because of the Department of Agriculture's opinion about only utilizing registered pesticides to eliminate pests.  The California Department of Pesticide Regulation has remained silent and not responded to these issues:

Subject:      "Common Sense Is Not Too Common"
    Date:      Thu, 30 Jul 1998 12:54:38 -0400
   From:     Rosalind Tvedten <stvedten@earthlink.net>
 Organization:     Get Set Inc.
         To:      Lyndon Hawkins <hawkins@empm.cdpr.ca.gov>
         CC:
             Linda Jensen-Pascarella <lindap@idea4u.com>, "Dr. Marion Moses" <pec@pesticides.org>,
             "Doris J. Rapp, M.D." <djrapp933@pol.net>, Jay Feldman <ncamp@igc.apc.org>,
             Will Snodgrass <lookusup@bigsky.net>, Sandy Schubert <sandy@checnet.org>,
             Norma Grier <info@pesticide.org>, bqview@radioamerica.org, wilkie_larry@saturn.fontana.k12.ca.us
 

7/30/98

Dear Lyndon:

Seeing as I still have not heard from you on any of my last 4 letters, I thought I'd write you again regarding Government "Regulations and Specifications" - The U. S. "standard" railroad gauge (the distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number.  Why was that very unusual gauge used?  Because that's the way they built them in England and the U. S. railroads were built by English expatriates.  Why did the English people build them like that?  Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the same gauge they used.  So why did "they" use that strange gauge then?  Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that exact wheel spacing.  Okay!  Why did the wagons use that odd wheel spacing?  Well, if they tried to use any other spacing the wagons would break on some of the old, long distance roads, because that's the same spacing of the old wheel ruts.  So who built these old rutted roads?  The first long distance roads in Europe where built by Imperial Rome for the benefit of their legions.  These roads have been used ever since.  And the ruts?  The initial ruts, which everyone else had to match exactly for fear of destroying their wagons, they were first made by Roman war chariots.  Since the war chariots were made for by Imperial Rome they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.  Thus we finally have the answer to the original question:  The United States "standard" railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman army war chariot.  Specs and Bureaucracies apparently live forever.  So, the next time you are handed a government "specification or regulation" and wonder what horse's posterior came up with it, you may be exactly right.  Because the old Imperial Roman chariots were made to be just wide enough to accommodate the rear-ends of two war horses = or 4 feet 8.5 inches!

I remember when I became the only pest control operator in the United States that was indicted for not using "enough" of the cancer-causing chemical chlordane.  Today it is very obvious (with the ban on chlordane) even to the governmental equine cloaca's that prosecuted me - that I was right to break/ignore their "regulation" that demanded the maximum labeled rate of that terrible "registered" termite poison/carcinogen be used in every single termite treatment/situation.

Lyndon, we have safely controlled all pests inside and outside in over 350 schools and have never used any "registered", volatile, synthetic pesticide poisons - do you really want to stop us from safely controlling pests and protecting the children of California?

Is it really illegal (in your opinion) to wash your can in California?

Respectfully,

Stephen L. Tvedten

copy:     L. Pascarella     NCAMP
             J. Mitchel          W. Snodgras
            L. Wilkie           CHEC
             M. Moses         NCAP
             D. Rapp            Others

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