Pesticides in Lompoc Area

Re “Forget the Unattainable ‘Zero’ Level,” Commentary, March 29: More comforting words from yet another PhD who doesn’t live here: It is safe to inhale low levels of pesticides 24 hours a day. Lompoc has been at the epicenter of a growing controversy: Are pesticides drifting off farm fields, causing serious health problems among millions of Californians living near the ag-urban interface?

The Lompoc Inter-Agency Work Group has completed a first round of air monitoring. Toxicologist Robert Krieger, who has worked for a major law firm that lobbies for the pesticide industry, writes the levels are too low to be harmful. As an LIWG member who helped design the monitoring program, I strongly disagree. The air monitors spread around Lompoc document continuous and multiple pesticide exposures. Krieger bases his “no harm” guess on Environmental Protection Agency rodent tests--one chemical at a time on one small group of animals. The EPA does not even attempt to account for multiple chemical exposures. Common sense tells us these grand conclusions should not be drawn from such flimsy evidence.

Science must first prove these poisons safe before exposing our families to them. But science cannot do that. The pesticide industry is flying blind.

GEORGE RAUH, President

Volunteers for a Healthy Valley

Lompoc