Health warning dropped from report

Associated Press

TAMPA -- A draft report by the state Department of Health warned that Florida agriculture officials should stop spraying against the Mediterranean fruit fly, but the recommendation was dropped from the final version.

Memoranda, e-mail and other documents indicate the changes may have been made because of objections by the state Department of Agriculture, The Tampa Tribune reported Sunday.

The newspaper cited a memo written by Omar Shafey, the epidemiologist who wrote the report, in which he alluded to ''political realities'' behind the revisions.

The changes were based on ''the need to avoid'' making health recommendations that agriculture officials find ''problematic,'' Shafey wrote Jan. 4 to Brian Hughes, head of environmental epidemiology at the Department of Health.

Shafey wrote he could not ''in good conscience'' remove recommendations needed to prevent a recurrence of hundreds of health complaints received in 1998 and 1997, when fly fighters conducted a 10-week aerial malathion campaign in Hillsborough County.

Hughes said Friday he has ''no actual knowledge'' of political pressures to change the report.

The Medfly can damage more than 250 kinds of fruit and vegetables. Failure to defeat it risks severe economic impact because of restrictions on the state's produce.

The Health Department documented cases in which people became sick and were sometimes hospitalized after malathion bait spray was showered on four counties last year, the newspaper reported.

If the state Department of Agriculture continues spraying urban Florida, the state should be prepared to compensate people who are hurt and to provide public shelters outside spray zones for those who wish to leave their homes, according to the draft report dated Sept. 30.

But those recommendations -- and many more -- were stripped from the final report on malathion-related complaints in Miami-Dade, Lake, Manatee and Highlands counties.

The amended report, made public last week, instead calls for further studies, saying ''the findings ... do not allow an association between malathion/bait applications and reported adverse health effects to be established.''

The original draft, however, recommended an end to aerial spraying ''in light of documented adverse health affects attributable to 1998 Medfly Program operations.''

Of the 230 Medfly spray-related reports that health officials received between April 30 and Sept. 30, 123 were classified as probable or possible cases of acute pesticide-related illness.

That represents an average rate of about nine out of 10,000 residents in the spray zones. Most suffered respiratory problems or rashes and had pre-existing conditions such as asthma, lung disorders or chemical sensitivities.

Agriculture officials ''categorically reject'' suggestions that they applied pressure on the health agency to change the report, said department spokesman Terry McElroy.

''Our only role here was to provide our technical assistance,'' McElroy said Friday.

Health officials also denied the draft's drastic alterations resulted from outside pressures.

Sharon Heber, who leads the health department's environmental health division, said she and Hughes were primarily responsible for what was or was not included in the final report.

''We felt the science wasn't there to do anything at this time,'' Heber said.

But a senior medical officer for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who reviewed the original draft, wrote in an October memo to state health officials that Shafey's recommendations ''appear reasonable and appropriate.''

The CDC's Geoffrey Calvart said he has not seen the final report but stands by his opinion of the draft, which he called ''excellent and thorough.''

All case histories, which provided anonymous accounts of spray-related illness, were removed from the final report. Hughes said that was to protect confidentiality.