Drive Launched to Counter Foes of Malathion

At the prodding of Gov. George Deukmejian, agricultural officials initiated a new effort Wednesday to counter growing public opposition to the application of pesticides over Southern California neighborhoods infested with the Mediterranean fruit fly.

Medfly project officials held the first of what they said would be a series of weekly press conferences to tell their side of the eradication effort. At the same time, a plan for a sophisticated advertising campaign is being circulated by Los Angeles County agriculture officials.

These efforts represent the beginning of a public relations counteroffensive, driven by a sense that opponents of malathion spraying have captured the ear of politicians and Southern Californians. A Times poll last week found overwhelming opposition to the spraying.

“Not only must we fight the fly,” Los Angeles County Agricultural Commissioner Leon Spaugy complained in a letter to county supervisors, “but we do it in spite of the misinformation that is turning a growing number of the public and the politicians against the eradication effort.”

Spaugy’s letter asked the supervisors for permission to solicit funds from the agricultural industry for a media blitz “to counteract the misinformation being presented about malathion, to stress the importance of containing this infestation . . . and to make the public aware of the consequences of failure.”

The “misinformation,” in the view of the Medfly eradicators, comes largely in the form of questions raised by environmental groups and others about the safety of malathion. It is not a new dilemma: In 1981, state official B. T. Collins went so far as to quaff a glass of the pesticide at a press conference in an attempt to persuade the public that it was safe.

In a private meeting last Thursday, Deukmejian told the state’s top agricultural officials, including Food and Agriculture Director Henry Voss, that they have “failed to get the word out that the malathion is safe,” said an official who attended. Voss could not be reached for comment.

“The governor felt that we were on the right track in dealing with the infestation from an entomological perspective,” said the official, who asked not to be identified, “but we have failed to get the word out to the public to counter the misinformation.”

The briefing Wednesday at county agriculture headquarters in El Monte was the first held by officials since early December. Regular press conferences were a staple of the extensive eradication effort in Northern California in the early 1980s, as state officials sought to persuade environmentally sensitive Northern Californians that aerial spraying was the only solution.

It was at the briefing last December that agriculture officials announced the spreading infestation had forced a call for multiple applications of malathion over a wide swath of residential neighborhoods in Los Angeles and Orange counties. Since then, public opposition has exploded. The Times poll in early February found that 57% of those surveyed favored a halt to the spraying until more studies are done to assess the health effects. On Wednesday, state Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) started a drive to qualify an initiative for the November ballot to halt the spraying.

Until last week’s meeting, Deukmejian had been said by aides to be keeping a hands-off approach to the Medfly eradication effort. His predecessor, Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., was hurt politically by his direct involvement in what was perceived as a bungled attack on the Medfly in 1981.

According to the official who was at the meeting, the governor expressed concern about the malathion protests that have become almost daily television fare in Southern California. Deukmejian last week attended a dinner in Century City featuring President Bush, where Republican fund-raisers were greeted by malathion protesters.

The official said the governor also asked the state’s top health officials to expedite the formation of a malathion health advisory panel. It is intended to advise the state on the possible health implications of the spraying, as well as educate the public on its findings.

A Deukmejian spokesman confirmed a meeting took place, but he described it only as a “routine briefing” and added that the governor did not specifically direct agricultural officials to intensify their public information efforts.

“There was a general consensus that the public would be best served if it was well informed,” said Bob Gore, the governor’s spokesman.

At a press conference Wednesday in Sacramento, Deukmejian defended the aerial spraying.

“I share the concern that people have of having helicopters flying overhead from time to time spraying in their areas,” he said. “But frankly, what we’re doing is very necessary . . . and it has been determined it is not harmful. . . . Along with introducing these sterile Medflies, it’s the only effective way of dealing with the problem.

“And if we don’t deal with it in this manner, then what it means is that farmers are going to have to use stronger pesticides directly applied to the ground and to the crops. . . . It could mean even having quarantines placed on California agriculture products . . . a loss of jobs and a tremendous loss to our economy. So it’s something that I just would hope people understand. I appreciate the annoyance.”

Spaugy, meanwhile, has drafted a letter he wants to send to agricultural industry officials, soliciting contributions for what he described as a “media blitz.” An advertising agency has agreed to donate its services for a $300,000 campaign on television, radio and billboards, Spaugy said.

He also has asked the Board of Supervisors for funds to hire a public relations firm.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Ed Edelman said he wants to make sure that any public information campaign is not geared to selling the public on the safety of malathion, but focuses instead on alerting people to the dangers of transporting fruit out of infested neighborhoods.

At the press conference Wednesday, agricultural officials were joined by physicians from the state departments of Food and Agricultural and Health Services, who sought to allay public fears about the safety of malathion.

Isi Siddiqui, assistant director of the state Department of Food and Agriculture, announced at the briefing that the state is on a crash program to convert a former tuna cannery in Hawaii into a second sterile-fly breeding facility. If the facility can be completed in May, aerial spraying can be phased out in some neighborhoods by late spring unless new flies are found, he said.

California already operates a facility in Hawaii, which produces 100 million sterile flies a week. But that--to the surprise of agricultural officials--was not enough to fight the current infestation.

Siddiqui said he had decided to hold the weekly press briefings about two weeks ago after a Los Angeles City Council hearing “where we took a lot of criticism.”

“I think we’re getting a lot of misinformation from opponents,” he said.

Agricultural officials, meanwhile, were busy Wednesday trying to persuade Mexican officials not to impose a threatened embargo on crops from several California counties, including Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and San Diego.

Siddiqui said the agricultural attache from the Mexican Embassy in Washington was in Los Angeles reviewing the Medfly eradication program.

Meanwhile, an 11-square-mile section of the San Gabriel Valley, encompassing parts of Diamond Bar, Pomona, San Dimas and Walnut, is scheduled to be sprayed for the first time tonight.

Times Sacramento bureau chief George Skelton contributed to this story.