Malathion Spraying

What happened to all the malathion news? I was just about to ask, when right on my breakfast table landed The Times of March 28. Thank you for reporting the miserable record of accidents and violations of the helicopter company doing the spraying.

Not that it’s any pleasure or surprise to have this news. But it’s essential for people to know the full extent of the state’s carelessness regarding this repeated spraying of the Los Angeles Basin.

The horrible thought of an accident occurred to me in early January, and I phoned the 800 number about it. The man in charge said, “Oh, that’s not going to happen,” as if I was coming from somewhere out in left field.

Soon after, I read the state’s “Information About Malathion” to find that the health department back in the early ‘80s said the chance of an accident was “perhaps the greatest health risk” from spraying, and that emergency plans should be made ahead of time and the public should be informed of such plans. I’ve never to this day heard a word about emergency plans, have you?

Now comes the news of a number of previous malathion misadventures. How could the state have gotten so deep into public-health risks without someone stopping them out of sheer common sense? And what more must we do beyond demonstrations, letters, phone calls and signatures by the thousands? In a democracy, the government is responsive to its people, not with lies, evasions and delays, but with honesty and speed. I can’t believe spraying is still going on.

JEAN GERARD

Temple City