Is hot air "illegal" in California?

Well Lyndon, is the use of hot air to safely control California pests "illegal" in your opinion?
 

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Subject:      Is hot air "illegal" in California?
 Date:         Sat, 25 Dec 1999 10:31:52 -0500
From:         Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization:     Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)

To:     Lyndon Hawkins <hawkins@empm.cdpr.ca.gov>
          State of California, Department of Pesticide Regulation
          Integrated Pest Management

 
Lyndon, the Environmental News Service on December 24, 1999 - noted the following safe and effective alternative; HOT AIR DEBUGS ORANGES, SAVES OZONE LAYER.

WESLACO, Texas, December 24, 1999 (ENS) - Attractive navel oranges may remain standard fare in holiday gift packs after a new, chemical (POISON) free insect quarantine treatment is accepted as an alternative to fumigating citrus with methyl bromide, a pesticide ("registered" POISON) that depletes the ozone layer. Agricultural Research Service scientists at Weslaco developed the alternative, in which citrus fruit is exposed to forced hot air. The center of each fruit quickly reaches a temperature of 111 degrees Fahrenheit and remains at that temperature long enough to (safely) exterminate infesting fruit flies. Based upon this research, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) last year approved use of forced hot air treatments for grapefruit, tangerines and thin skinned Valencia oranges. This year navel oranges were added to the list. (Does APHIS approval extend into California?)

Now, an APHIS certified forced hot air chamber owned by a cooperative of growers in Mexico is being used to treat up to eight tons of navel oranges at a time. A U.S. produce grower and  distributor, Rio Queen Citrus, located in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, is importing heat treated oranges and tangerines from Mexico.  U.S. distributors exported about 1.18 million tons of citrus in fiscal year 1998, with the majority of fruit grown in areas where ('registered" POISON) treatments are required (by "law") to insure the fruit is free of fruit flies. Unlike methyl bromide, which may cause the fruit skin to develop a bronze color, the hot forced air treatment does not impair fruit quality. It has also been shown to help protect the citrus from green mold spoilage during transport and marketing. (Clearly, the hot air alternative works better than your "registered" POISONS, and it does not POISON people or the environment!)

Well Lyndon, is the use of hot air to safely control California pests "illegal" in your opinion?  For the record, I have found that you can use hot air to control a whole lot of pests, from head lice to cockroaches.  I sincerely hope and pray that you will allow the use of safe and effective alternatives to control pests in California after the year 2000.

Respectfully,  Stephen L. Tvedten