Pesticides and Public Health

Re “Agriculture Chief Put on Probation,” Feb. 26.

Pesticides pose an enormous risk to communities located near agricultural settings. They poison the air we breathe and the water we drink. Our elected officials need to be continually vigilant to make sure they do all in their power to protect us from these serious health hazards.

It is great to see that the Ventura County Board of Supervisors is beginning to do just that. Their long-overdue review of county agricultural commissioner Earl McPhail marks the perfect opportunity to appoint somebody to that post who puts the health of our communities first.

An economy cannot be judged as successful if it sacrifices the health of children for the sake of exporting pesticide-laden produce around the country. By encouraging the many proven alternatives to the rampant spraying of toxic pesticides, we can strengthen agriculture and public health at the same time.

I hope the supervisors are willing to fill the important post of agricultural commissioner with someone who understands this basic fact.

BRAD HEAVNER, Santa Barbara

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Agricultural Commissioner Earl McPhail is way out of date, especially for someone who says he is supposed to educate the public.

The so-called safety standards for pesticides were set more than two decades ago. As almost everyone else knows, science and medicine have taken giant leaps since then.

Concerned parents need to check with up-to-date and highly respected sources such as the Pesticide Education Center in San Francisco. According to the president, Dr. Marion Moses, a physician board-certified in public health and preventive medicine, there are genuine concerns about this decrepit regulatory process. It does not take into account people at greater risk, including children, developing fetuses, people with asthma or immune problems, and survivors of cancer. It does not take into account the synergistic effect of a number of pesticides used together, which can be 1,000 times as dangerous as a pesticide used alone, according to Physicians for Social Responsibility, also based in San Francisco.

Parents should not be calling Mr. McPhail to ask whether it is safe to go to Rio Mesa school. He has said it is safe. But he also states that no applications are made while the school is occupied. As any parent who drives his or her student to school in the morning and observes the spraying going on knows, this is untrue. Mr. McPhail can’t prove that pesticides don’t drift onto campus if he refuses to do monitoring--and how can they not drift when the farms totally surround the school and come up to the fence line on three sides?

MARCIA CUMMINGS, President, Safe Air For Everyone (SAFE), Oxnard

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Well, looky here: The scare mongers at CalPIRG and their following of left-wing nuts are at it again. This time they’re trying to pressure those towers of strength at the Ventura County Board of Supervisors into firing Earl McPhail, long-standing county agricultural commissioner.

The supervisors should be investigating McPhail, all right, to determine how such an underpaid official is able to maintain such a degree of order in the increasingly urban Ventura County agricultural environment.

I would hope that the supervisors would have the intelligence to recognize the fact that the people going after Mr. McPhail are highly partisan. They have no concept of the requirements to be a successful commercial farmer in Ventura County today. All they know is that farming sometimes requires the use of some pesticides and, “Oh my God,” pesticides are toxic.

Yes, they are, but not as toxic as they were 20 years ago when Commissioner McPhail came to this county from Imperial County, where he learned the lessons of proper pesticide application around alfalfa and dairy production where pesticide drift control is most critical.

The board should realize that, except for the carping of these few zealots, McPhail’s operation has caused them very little grief and--to their shame--very little money. If these people aren’t complaining to supervisors or agricultural commissioners they are chaining themselves to redwood trees or sabotaging mink farms.

Thanks to Pamela J. Johnson and The Times for the heads-up article. Mr. McPhail doesn’t put out press releases when he’s under attack for doing his job.

JAMES R. HOHIMER, Newbury Park