Schools and Homeowners Brace for Medfly Spraying : Camarillo: Officials field questions at Leisure Village about effects of malathion. Some residents complain the answers were too vague.

As state agriculture officials finalized plans Monday to spray the properties of 32,400 people in the eastern Camarillo area with malathion to stop a Medfly infestation, homeowners and health and school officials prepared to deal with the aftermath.

Elementary schools within the 16-square-mile spray zone were preparing to cover sandboxes and hose down blacktop and lunch tables before children arrive the morning after the first spraying, scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. Wednesday.

Convalescent homes were advised by public health officials to take similar precautions for outdoor eating areas. And residents were making arrangements to cover cars, fishponds and children’s outdoor toys.

“It’s regrettable that this is necessary,” said Dr. Gary Feldman, Ventura County health officer. “But given the economic consequences and the fact that the health risks are negligible, I do think this is the appropriate decision.”

Feldman was one of several state and local officials on a panel at Leisure Village on Monday afternoon, where about 400 people crowded into the retirement community’s recreation complex to voice concerns and hear comments from officials.

Questions focused on whether people on medications or those who were ill would be more susceptible to adverse effects.

But many people also wanted to know what they should do to protect their skylights and cars and whether the spraying would have any effect on birds or beneficial insects.

It will not affect birds but would kill beneficial insects as well as pests, officials said. Cars should be covered, and skylights hosed off.

As he left the meeting, 80-year-old Franco Filzi said the officials had not answered many of his concerns.

“They were very vague,” he said of official answers about health questions. “They don’t know probably themselves the answers. We are so confused.”

Marcia Edwards, 55, who lives in Camarillo Heights, agreed that officials’ answers were superficial.

“They tried to joke and kid,” she said.

But Rose Gassman, 77, said if the Medfly were allowed to spread, many workers would lose their jobs. “We’re all concerned about it,” she said of the spraying. “But it has to be done. After all, this is a big agriculture county.”

Sid Silversher, 78, said he trusted the authorities.

“They know what they’re doing. I approve of it because of the impacts to the agriculture. We live a lifestyle where everything is a trade-off.”

Ventura County Agriculture Commissioner Earl McPhail told residents that the three pesticide-carrying helicopters would reload three times during the three to four hours it will take them to cover the area, so residents might hear helicopters pass overhead more than once.

“But be assured you are not being treated three times,” he said.

Supervisor Maggie Kildee said she had pointed out to agriculture officials that Leisure Village was a retirement community where seniors may be sensitive to the spray. But she was told the area had to be included because of the number of trees and host fruits grown there.

“I support the decision to spray, not because I think it’s wonderful, but because I believe it’s necessary,” she said. “It’s a safe and effective method of eradicating the Medfly.”

Meanwhile, one local opposition group plotted strategies Monday on how best to inform the public of their point of view and persuade officials to cut short the 10 to 12 applications planned over the next six months.

Economics and politics drove the decision to spray the area without proper concerns for health effects, said Leonard Mehlmauer, a holistic practitioner with a degree in science and herbal and other types of medicine.

“We have politicians who are getting big stars for helping to get this going,” Mehlmauer said. “Chemical companies will make a lot of money, the agriculture people will get their crops sprayed and a lot of people will have health effects over this,” he said.

“Plain and simple, we’re being poisoned.”

Camarillo resident Bonnar Quint said he also is trying to make the public better informed of the health risks through a copy of a state report issued in 1991.

Officials are not paying attention to their constituents, he said.

“Why aren’t they asking our opinion?” he asked. “Our city leaders are rolling over and playing dead on this.”

Quint said officials should take recommendations from their own report, which called for alternatives to aerial spraying, including the use of sterile male flies that would mate with fertile females.

“Both the California Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture can and should conduct vigilant early pest detection programs and maintain abundant sterile insect production capacity, not just while this recent episode is fresh in everyone’s mind, but as long-term public policy so that repetitive aerial malathion-bait applications are not again needed,” the report states.

Public health officials have said the very young, the elderly and the sick could be vulnerable to skin or respiratory problems after the spraying. Otherwise, state and local officials said, health risks are negligible for most people.

Wednesday night will mark the first session of aerial spraying in the eradication zone. Three helicopters will cover the 16-square-mile area in three to four hours beginning at 9 p.m. unless winds are too high for them to be effective.

The helicopters will not fly if winds are stronger than 10 m.p.h. because the spray would spread too far outside the target area, said Carla Agar, spokeswoman for the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

A fourth helicopter will fly alongside to guide the three carrying the pesticide. The helicopters are equipped with navigation systems that help them pinpoint when to spray and when to hold back, officials said.

Agar said no new flies had been found within the mile core area over the weekend because inspectors are no longer checking the traps there daily.

“We know there are Medflies in the core area,” she said. Efforts are now being concentrated around the periphery of the St. John’s Seminary property. Of the total of 63 flies trapped, 62 of them, including two egg-carrying females, were trapped on the St. John’s property. A third female was trapped about a mile northeast of the site.

Agar said investigators have not come to any conclusions about the source of the infestation, but they were looking into whether visitors or seminarians at St. John’s may have brought in tainted fruit.

A delegation from Japan, which imports more than a third of the county’s $216-million lemon crop, were due to tour the county Wednesday and Thursday. Area growers and agriculture officials fear that the Japanese may decide to cut off imports from the entire county, not just the 86-square-mile quarantine area.

The 16-square-mile eradication zone is home to about 32,400 people, 2,700 of them under age 5, and 3,900 over age 70, said Steve Wood, senior county planner and demographics expert. Earlier estimates had placed the population at 29,000, but those figures were refined Monday.

There are eight schools within the area, including six elementary schools, two of which include grades seven and eight.

The elementary schools are Las Colinas, Sierra Linda, Dos Caminos, Los Nogales, El Rancho and Somis School. Los Altos Intermediate School and Camarillo High School are also within the eradication zone.

County Supt. of Schools Charles Weis on Monday sent out memos to all the schools advising educators to use caution to protect children and employees.

He suggested that schools wash drinking fountains, lunch tables and door handles with soap and water, that asphalt and concrete play areas be hosed off and that children be kept off grassy areas and allowed to stay inside before class, during recess and physical education.

“We don’t feel there is a risk, but if parents don’t want their children on the grassy areas, then we want to give them an option,” he said.

The Pleasant Valley School District, which includes six of the eight affected schools, planned to send memos home with students today in Spanish and English.

The district planned to cover sandboxes and asked parents to tell them if any students were especially sensitive because of allergy or skin problems. The district also planned to close the schools to community groups by 8 p.m.

Miller is a Times staff writer and Fields is a correspondent.

Aerial Spraying * WHERE: A 16-square-mile area of eastern Camarillo roughly bounded by California 118 to the north and the Ventura Freeway to the south.

* WHEN: Beginning at 9 p.m. Wednesday and continuing three to four hours, and recurring once every two weeks for about six months.

* WHAT: The pesticide malathion mixed with corn syrup to attract Medflies.

* PRECAUTIONS: Residents, especially the ill, very young and elderly, should stay out of the spray. Cover shallow ponds and wading pools. Wash lawn furniture and playground equipment before using. Cover vehicles to prevent paint damage.