Malathion Gets the Microscope

Perhaps not a moment too soon, state health officials are set to begin what should be a timely and thorough examination of just what science knows and does not know about the effects of malathion spraying on Southern California residents. A panel of medical experts is being convened, and air and water monitoring is set to start this month. The goal of the panel as well as of the monitoring should be to determine, as quickly as possible, whether the spraying is safe, as a number of experts claim.

Many Los Angeles and Orange county residents are alarmed and angry over the way some officials previously brushed aside health concerns. Those who were already agitated about the aerial pesticide campaign to eradicate the Medfly had further cause for apprehension this week: An author of a 1980 state study that is repeatedly cited as a cornerstone in the argument that malathion spraying poses no health risk now says that state officials altered some of the report’s conclusions. This distressing charge comes from Marc A. Lappe, who worked as part of a state risk-assessment team in Santa Clara County. In reply, state officials admit that changes were made, but say they were scientifically trivial.

This is why the decision to form a health panel and begin monitoring was unavoidable and necessary. A perception of risk was bound to grow as long as the state shut its eyes to questions about malathion spraying. Now, within the next two weeks, the state will conduct water and air monitoring, the latter with the use of vacuum-type devices placed near hospitals, schools and other buildings in spray areas. And a panel of local, expert physicians and scientists is due to meet as soon as this week.

The state has what may be its last and best chance to restore full faith in the system. The first step in boosting credibility is in making sure that the panel represents independent and dissenting points of view. One other action would help: the governor’s explicit endorsement of both the monitoring program and the expert examination. It is true that Gov. George Deukmejian’s own appointees in the Department of Food and Agriculture and in the Department of Health Services--after some prodding--set the wheels in motion for monitoring. A spokesman said the governor “has always been willing to listen to and take into account” new technical evidence. But there would be no better way now to show that willingness than an enthusiastic Deukmejian public endorsement of the panel, the monitoring and special testing as needed. The worst thing would be to let this situation drift out of control.