Calls Express Fear About Aerial Spray for Medflies

The Mediterranean fruit fly hot line at Northridge Hospital Medical Center was ringing regularly Sunday as dozens of residents called to relay their fears about tonight’s aerial chemical spraying for the produce pest.

And an assistant at the state Department of Food and Agriculture’s pest detection branch, which is in charge of the malathion spraying, said her office had taken 400 calls since Friday.

Most callers to the hot line and the state office were confused; some were angry.

Northridge residents contacted by The Times were similarly divided. Northridge resident Eldon Heiser was among the furious. Elizabeth Ullman was among the curious.

Decision Too Hasty?

Heiser said he thought that the decision to spray from 9 p.m. to midnight Monday in Northridge and parts of Reseda and Chatsworth was made too hastily after Wednesday’s discovery of two Medflies near Cal State Northridge. He said the rush to react left no time for opponents to lobby for alternatives.

Ullman and her husband were busily pulling in patio furniture and children’s toys Sunday, but, she said, she was not really worried about side effects from the spraying.

“We don’t use pesticides normally, for anything at all, so I can’t imagine that that little bit of pesticide will make a difference,” she said.

Her only concern, in fact, was whether it would be safe to use her back-yard swimming pool the day after the spraying.

Armed with information supplied by the state and county and having manned information lines on toxic spills, Northridge Hospital nurse John Wilber was fielding similar questions on the Medfly hot line.

Most Callers Calmed

He said it was easy to calm most of the callers, who asked him things like whether they could leave cats outdoors during the spraying and what they should do before they eat back-yard fruit coated with the sticky substance being sprayed.

Pets and livestock used to living outside should not be affected by the pesticide, Wilber told them, and fruit should be thoroughly washed, “like you would something you buy at the store.”

Yes, swimming pools would be safe to swim in, he told others, but shallow fish ponds should be covered. He said cars ought to be covered to protect their paint, and asthmatics probably ought to stay inside with the windows shut.

But the people who agreed with Heiser, who wanted to know why the state and county rushed to drastic measures, were harder to pacify.

“A few irate people have demanded that we not spray,” Wilber said. “I start by telling them that we are only an information service, that we have nothing to do with the spraying itself. Then I tell them to call the various government offices.”

‘Everything’s a Chemical’

Those who were referred to the Department of Food and Agriculture on Sunday talked with office assistant Aileen Williams, who said she told angry callers: “Everything’s a chemical. . . . You can’t start your car without a chemical. Hair spray’s a chemical.”

In particular, callers asked her how a chemical that would harm their car’s finish could be safe to breathe. Williams told them that a protein base for the pesticide dulls paint but is not dangerous to animals.

“It’s a corn-base protein . . . like an egg or a bird dropping,” she said. “You can eat an egg; you can put egg on your face, but if you throw an egg at your car, it’s going to ruin the paint.”

Helicopters will spray the pesticide on an area bounded by Devonshire Street on the north, Sherman Way on the south, Wilbur Avenue on the west and Haskell Avenue on the east.