NoSpray Lawsuit Moves Into High Gear / Funds Desperately Needed! 27mar01

Are You Ready To Be Sprayed Again in 2001?

SYNOPSIS: We are about to be sprayed again, this time by Malathion and Naled, as well as by Pyrethroids. The Lawsuit filed by the No Spray Coalition (as lead plaintiff) and other organizations and individuals (see bottom of page) is back in court. We have an admittedly outside shot at winning our appeal in mid-April to expand the lawsuit beyond the Clean Water Act, which has already been accepted by the Court. But we desperately need funds -- $14,000-$20,000 in the next few weeks!! Every five-dollar bill helps! We don't want to be remembered financially in your last will and testament -- we want you ALIVE, and we need the money NOW! Please make out checks (not tax-exempt) to the "No Spray Coalition" and mail them today to the address above. Thank you so very much -- and, as said in another context, "stay strong and pay close attention."

In 1999 and 2000 New Yorkers were exposed to massive amounts of toxic pesticides by the Giuliani administration in a panicked overreaction to the alleged threat of West Nile Virus -- a disease that the Department of Health's own press releases admit is extremely hard to become infected by and almost never fatal. We were repeatedly sprayed by helicopters and trucks in our homes, in public parks, while shopping, while playing in schoolyards, while eating in outdoor restaurants and while traveling to and from work and school.

Public health experts, mosquito control specialists and scientists who specialize in studying the effects of pesticide exposure are now increasingly warning that this unprecedented use of chemicals on a densely packed urban population would not only be ineffective for mosquito control but pose a far greater health risk than West Nile Virus.

The main chemical used in 1999, Malathion (Fyfanon ULV), is described by the NYC Mayor's Chem-Bio Handbook -- the City's official guide to handling chemical and biological emergencies which is distributed to every police precinct, ambulance and fire truck -- as a toxic nerve gas directly related to those used by the Nazis in WWII. Anvil (Sumithrin + Piperonyl Butoxide + Petroleum-related byproducts), the synthetic pyrethroid nerve gas sprayed from trucks in 2000, is known to cause asthma, disruption of sexual hormones and various other health disorders, and has been linked to breast cancer in women and diminished sperm counts in men.

Spraying has now taken place in almost every county in New York state, as well as in New Jersey, parts of Connecticut (which used Scourge/Resmethrin), Maryland, Massachusetts and indeed along the entire eastern seaboard from Maine all the way to Florida. Despite overwhelming evidence of the hazards of indiscriminate pesticide use, the government now plans now to extend the broadcast spraying for West Nile-carrying mosquitoes to urban areas as far west as Detroit, Michigan.

New York City remains the epicenter, and what happens there will dramatically affect what happens everywhere else. During 1999 and 2000 NY State Attorney General Elliot Spitzer repeatedly warned the Mayor that it was illegal for any company to describe these toxic pesticides as "safe." The AG admonished Mayor Giuliani, as well as spokespeople for the Department of Health and other officials, to stop making false claims about the "safety" of these toxic chemicals. But Giuliani has repeatedly ignored those reprovals. "There's absolutely no danger to anyone from this spraying... There are some people who are engaged in the business of wanting to frighten people out of their minds," he said. (Newsday, 9/14/99) The Mayor continues to portray those of us concerned with the dangers of indiscriminate pesticide spraying as "environmental terrorists" who "like to get you angry because it gets them on television."

In actuality the City has disregarded virtually all the directions and warnings included with these chemicals by their manufacturers. Contrary to both the directions on the labels and existing environmental law the sprayings were done directly on humans, over bodies of water, without sufficient warning and more often than not at times when it is known to be completely ineffective for killing mosquitoes. Many observers, including some of the mosquito control experts directly involved in the spraying, believed it was being done more for public relations than for public health.

New York City's indiscriminate spraying of malathion, resmethrin, sumithrin, permethrin -- along with their "inert" ingredients and synergists (piperonyl butoxide) -- has put the public's health and natural environment in great danger. The precautions that were taken to warn asthma sufferers, people with compromised immune systems, cancer survivors, people with allergies, and those facing repeated exposure (homeless people, subway workers, spraytruck drivers, etc.) -- let alone everyone else -- have been virtually non-existent. Not even a hotline was established by any NYC agency for people to call who were made sick from the spray. (The WNV “hotline” set up by the NYC Department of Health was answered by non-unionized, ill-informed operators in Pennsylvania, who had no idea what was going on and had no knowledge or instructions concerning people calling in who had been exposed to pesticides.) To top it off, pressures have been brought to bear on scientists and health professionals to basically "shut up" in public concerning evidence of the dangers of pesticide spraying on densely populated urban areas.

As a direct effect of the pesticide exposure thousands of people suffered impaired respiratory and neurological health, including many of the workers who were temporarily hired by the City to do the actual spraying. Thousands more are expected to experience long term health problems which may not manifest as symptoms for many years including cancer, hormonal imbalances, neurological damage and possible genetic mutations.

Though the environmental impact of WNV spray operations in the Tri-State area over the past two years has yet to be fully tallied (and no official Environmental Impact Statement has yet been issued!), these pesticides are known to severely impact many aquatic species and nontarget insects. There is a pending lawsuit regarding the impact of these pesticides on the widespread die-off of crabs and lobsters in Long Island Sound. Thousands of fish, lobsters, birds and beneficial insects like butterflies and bees were killed by the spraying. Our waterways were polluted. Even the Connecticut Sea Grant (Sea Grant is a Federal Agency which sponsors regional projects on coastal marine problems usually tied with industry) notes with alarm that pesticide spraying is implicated in the lobster die-off. Repeated spraying has severely impacted vital ecosystems, and the offspring of mosquitoes that survived the spray are likely to now be growing increasingly resistant to the pesticides applied.

Under enormous pressure from environmental activists led by the No Spray Coalition and concerned scientists, the Center for Disease Control and the NY State Department of Health recently admitted that the spraying was overdone [3/12/2001 Daily News]. Dramatic video footage submitted to the Court in our lawsuit (see below) and released to the news media documents the spraying of people on the street, vegetable stands, pregnant women, and children. The spraytruck drivers themselves, through a front page article in the NY Daily News by Juan Gonzalez, broke the story wide open this winter with their searing accounts of severe health problems, poor training, and lack of protective equipment; over and over again they answered a ton of lies by the contractor (Clarke Environmental) and the City government by constantly speaking of truth to power.

Presented with the evidence we'd gathered, protests outside their offices, and a constant barrage of complaints from the drivers sickened by the spray, the federal Environment Protection Agency has finally ordered the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation to conduct a full-scale investigation of our claims. Virtually every NYC Community Board passed resolutions last year stating that indiscriminant spraying must not continue. And people all over the country (indeed, all over the world) have been contacting us for advice on opposing the indiscriminate spraying of pesticides planned for THEIR areas. Californians are up in arms around similar indiscriminate spraying against the glassy-winged sharpshooter. The No Spray Coalition has played a crucial role in shaping what is quickly becoming a national debate.

What is Mayor Giuliani's response?

The City has already taken bids from companies to massively spray NYC in 2001 from helicopters, fixed wing aircraft and trucks using Malathion and other toxic pesticides. This year they plan to introduce Naled (DiBrom) to their spray arsenal. Tens of millions of dollars have been set aside for the purchase of pesticides. We can be certain that as soon as a single infected mosquito or bird is found the spraying will begin.

The use of pesticides is being planned again, without justification, and despite the fact that, historically, West Nile epidemics throughout the world have subsided and vanished on their own. Last year, we saw only a handful of cases, mostly centered in Staten Island in a city of more than 8 million people. Indications are that the public health “threat”, if there ever was one, is over.

In 1999 the Nospray Coalition filed a Federal lawsuit to stop the spraying, which we believe is a direct violation of environmental law. Representing the Coalition in the courts are the NY Environmental Law and Justice Project, and the Pace Environmental Law Clinic. A federal judge has enabled the lawsuit to go forward under the Clean Water Act, despite aggressive opposition by the City's attorneys. We also won a court decision requiring the City's Office of Emergency Management to release all documents pertaining to the spraying of New York -- an order the City has refused to abide by, and is now appealing.

Although we are moving forward under the Clean Water Act, we have appealed the judge's denial of the restraining order we sought (he denied it solely on legalistic grounds concerning whether citizens have a right to sue under other laws we'd cited, not on the substance of our emvironmental and health claims). That appeal is to be heard in a few weeks. The main lawsuit has now progressed through the courts to the point where we are ready to take final depositions from numerous people who were involved in the spraying, including City and State officials, helicopter pilots, people who were directly sprayed and witnesses who observed the many violations of the labeling instructions and environmental law.

What can you do to help?

The financial support offered in the past by yourself and other concerned individuals has been essential in getting us this far. But we need to ask you for more money -- $14,000-$20,000 is needed quickly, just in the next four weeks. Although we've managed to run things on a shoestring, funds are needed to pay for subpoenaing the many witnesses and for the cost of the depositions which will begin to be taken in April of 2001.

The members of the NoSpray Coalition are all unpaid volunteers. The attorneys representing us are not charging any fee. All funds contributed will be used for legal expenses such as filing fees, depositions, subpoenas, expert witnesses, and for organizing needs such as leaflets, maintenance of the hotline, videotapes, linking up with other groups across the country, development and distribution of information on alternatives to spraying (as well as on how individuals can best protect themselves from the spray), and other essentials.

The only thing standing between all of us and the continuing pesticide assault is this lawsuit and our public protests. Should our case prevail in court, it will be a boon to all of those who are fighting to protect the environment and the health and safety of people across the country; and it will send shock waves through the chemical manufacturing industry and their benefactors in government. Your dollars go a very long way. Anything you can contribute to this effort is much needed and greatly appreciated.

Please send your check today! Make it out to:

NO SPRAY COALITION P.O. Box 334 Peck Slip Station New York, NY 10272-0334

Follow this link to a coupon you can print out and mail in to us.

Hotline: (718) 670-7110 / pdolack@gis.net 
Listserve: sprayno@yahoogroups.com 
Website: www.nospray.org 
Media: (212) 343-2209
Email: mitchelcohen@mindspring.com

We've compiled extensive research on the chemicals sprayed on us, and on other aspects of this insanity To freely access this information, please turn to the No Spray Coalition website, at: http://www.nospray.org

The lawsuit to stop the indiscriminate spraying of toxic pesticides is being brought against Mayor Giuliani, et al., by the following plaintiffs:

1. No Spray Coalition (Lead Plaintiff)
2. Disabled in Action
3. Save Organic Standards -- NY, by its president, Howard Brandstein
4. National Coalition Against Misuse of Pesticides
5. Robert Lederman
6. Eva Yaa Asantewaa
7. Valerie Sheppard
8. Mitchel Cohen

The No Spray Coalition, Inc.: PO Box 334, Peck Slip Station, NYC 10272-0334 hotline: (718) 670-7110, www.nospray.org, is made up of the following Board of Directors: Mitchel Cohen*, Afrime Derti*, Valerie Sheppard*, Pete Dolack*, Jennifer Jager*, Robert Lederman, Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Maris Abelson, Curtis Cost (*Member of Executive Committee of Bd of Directors)

The following organizations have affiliated with the No Spray Coalition and have representatives working with the Board of Directors:

Save Organic Standards-NY, Wetlands Action Group, International Preparedness Network, Disabled in Action, Greens/Green Party USA, Manhattan Greens/GPNY, Brooklyn Greens/GPNY, Flushing Greens/GPNY, Active Resistance to Malathion Madness, Rosendale Greens/GPNY, Orange County "Radical, Fanatical" Greens/GPNY, Central Nassau Greens/GPNY, East New York-Cypress Hills Greens/GPNY, Roosevelt Island Greens/GPNY, Staten Island Greens/GPNY, Southern Brooklyn Greens/GPNY, Green Party of New Jersey * GPNY is the Green Party of NY. NOTE: The Green Party of NY itself is NOT a member of the Board of the No Spray Coalition nor party to this lawsuit. If your group would like to join the No Spray Coalition, please drop us a line. We'd love to have ya aboard!