Medfly Mania: Facts Might Help
Could it be that finally Southern Californians are going to get some solid information about the public-health effects of repeated malathion spraying? It’s almost too much to hope for, but this week scientific experts will get two important opportunities to clarify the health implications of the state’s extensive anti-Medfly pesticide program.
On Tuesday, the Assembly will hold an unusual meeting of the full house to take testimony from researchers and public-health specialists who have studied pesticides. The meeting will no doubt attract much newspaper, television and radio coverage; here is a chance for state legislators to put the media spotlight to more than just self-serving use. They must use the hearing to ensure that it answers all of the obvious questions: How complete and credible are the many previous studies that indicated malathion posed no significant risk to human health? What factors exist in Southern California’s current environment that might alter the conclusions of such studies? What about future preparedness? Is it realistic to suggest, as agricultural officials have, that by June the state and federal facilities can produce 400 million sterile flies per week so that long-term repeat spraying will never again be necessary? And beyond scientific questions, there is the obvious political one: Even if all studies show, beyond a reasonable doubt, that spraying has minimal risk, what can be done to restore the credibility of the state and county agricultural officials who have mismanaged the Medfly public-information campaign in almost textbook form?
Their public information blundering was the reason the state formed what is now called the Public Health Effects Advisory Committee, a group of more than 20 physicians, scientists and public-health advocates. The committee held its first organizational session recently in Orange County and will meet again Thursday in Los Angeles. Its meetings, which are scheduled to occur regularly for the next few months, need to be more highly publicized so that those interested can attend. The state has rightly included on the panel some experts who have raised serious questions about the malathion spraying campaign, including representatives of the Sierra Club and the city of Pasadena. If given the needed staff support and full authority to pursue all health issues it considers relevant, the committee can help inform an impatient and anxious community--one that is not only weary of being bombarded with malathion, but with conflicting versions of precisely what the controversial pesticide does.
