Crop Poisonings Halted; Thousands Saved!
A recent study by Cornell University estimates that 30,000 deaths a year in the United States are associated with exposure to chemicals. Indeed, the weeklong ban on crop-dusting almost certainly prolonged lives and was one of the few reasons for joy in a bleak month.
Subject: Crop Poisonings Halted; Thousands Saved!
Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2001 10:15:07 -0400
From: Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of
California, Department of Pesticide Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
Dear Mr. Helliker, I thought you might like to read an article from the print edition of Alex Cockubrn and Jeff St. Clair's newsletter @ http://www.counterpunch.org - Crop Poisonings Halted; Thousands Saved!
Bio-terror became the media frenzy of the week, a scenario pushed by attorney general John Ashcroft in an attempt to scare up support for his Anti-Terrorism Act, a wholesale assault on the bill of rights that would go beyond even the strictures enacted by Clinton in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing. People have been told to stock up on gas masks, which may be difficult to purchase since many metropolitan areas made them contraband in the wake of the Seattle WTO protests. Others have rushed to get inoculated against anthrax, despite the association between this vaccine and certain strains of Gulf War syndrome.
Tommy Thompson, secretary of Health and Human Services, told CNN that he was confident that in a worst case scenario, where 100 million people were doused with the lethal toxins, they would be able to save at least 15 million. In gliding over the prospect of 85 million dead, Thompson sounded like Edward Teller, or one of the other wizards of Armageddon, boasting about survivability ratios after all-out nuclear warfare.
But biological and chemical weapons don't really pose much of a threat to the United States, except to those people who have the misfortune to live near one of the arsenals that store the Army's disintegrating stockpiles of sarin and VX gas. Even if a terrorist outfit was able to brew up a batch of anthrax bio-toxin or sarin gas, turning it into a weapon of mass destruction is a challenge of an entirely different order. An useful story in the Wall Street Journal illustrated the enormous technical problems associated with deploying these weapons. Indeed, the only real attempt to use sarin gas as a terror weapon was a clumsy attempt in a Tokyo subway station by the Aum cult of Japan, which left eleven dead and hundreds ill. Compare this with the US Army's vile record of experimentation with bio and chemical weapons on unsuspecting US citizens, a legacy that stretches back to World War II and continues to this day. Of course, chemical warfare is a daily fact of life in much of rural America. US agriculture is the most chemically-dependent in the world, relying on the fumigation of fields and vineyards, aerial spraying, and other applications of toxic cocktails cooked up by Monsanto and DuPont. A recent study by Cornell University estimates that 30,000 deaths a year in the United States are associated with exposure to chemicals. Indeed, the weeklong ban on crop-dusting almost certainly prolonged lives and was one of the few reasons for joy in a bleak month.
Instead of worrying about bin Laden, it might be better to shun the ChemLawn man and slam the door on the man from Orkin the next time he comes knocking.
Well Mr. Helliker, As you are well aware, organophosphates like sarin and all of your other "registered" OP POISONS are dangerous neuro-toxins. Doubt this? Read the MSDS! More and more people are becoming aware of this simple fact. When I compare the needless death of 30,000 innocent people in the USA each year to the 9/11/01 terrorist attack, it makes me pause and consider alternatives - how about you?
Respectfully, Stephen L. Tvedten
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