Steve Tvedten of Get Set, Inc.'s email to Lyndon Hawkins of the California Department of Pesticide Regulation.

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:         Something strange (poisons) is happening in California
Date:               Sun, 13 Jun 1999 15:54:41 -0400
From:           Rosalind Tvedten <stvedten@earthlink.net>
Organization:      Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To:             Lyndon Hawkins <hawkins@empm.cdpr.ca.gov>
 
 
 

Lyndon, on JUNE 12, 01:48 EDT _ The Associated Press Noted:

Intersex Mice Found at California. Refuge Baffle Scientists (Lyndon, are you baffled too?)
 

 LOS BANOS, Calif. (AP) — Something strange is happening to the rodents at a Northern California wildlife area where thousands of
birds were poisoned by toxic runoff from farms in the 1980s.

 Both male and female reproductive organs were found in one-third of the 87 field mice, house mice, harvest mice and California voles
trapped last year on land that once collected toxic runoff at the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge.

 Just 3 percent of rodents trapped there showed such characteristics in 1995.

 ``The number of intersex mammals was a surprising finding to everybody,'' said Michael Delamore, chief of the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation's drainage program in Fresno. ``We're not sure what it means, because it's new, and the phenomenon hasn't been widely
reported.''

 Technically, the rodents seem to be pseudo-hermaphroditic, according to biologist Gary Santolo, who led the investigation. They
appear to be males from the outside, and lack a vagina, but have a fully developed set of female organs internally.

 Some scientists say something in the environment is causing the outbreak.

 ``It's fair to say that if it happened in four species and happened suddenly, it's indicative of an environmental cause of some sort,'' said
Dr. Richard Auchus, an endocrinologist at the University of California at San Francisco.

 Animals in the area have been monitored yearly since an investigation in 1985 revealed that selenium, a byproduct of agricultural
runoff, was killing or deforming thousands of birds.

 Massive quantities of selenium, pesticides and other toxic chemicals were being deposited in the refuge in ponds that served as a sump
for farm runoff. The ponds have since been closed and filled in at a cost of $50 million. The refuge no longer encompasses the ponds.

 Selenium is not believed to be the cause of the hermaphroditic rodents. All of them had elevated levels of the element in their livers,
but studies of selenium's effect on lab mice have not induced similar deformities.

Lyndon, that basically leaves us looking at the "registered"  pesticide poisons - you insist Californians must use to "control" their pest problems; and back to my ongoing question.  Lyndon, when will it be "legal" (in your opinion) to wash your can in California?  Respectfully, Steve.