1hope.org/Checkmate

1hope.org/nonspray.htm

Sandre Swanson

^{Lynberg collected and compiled report on unusual symptoms occurring during and right after aerial pesticide spraying.}

^{LA Times editorial opposing secret ingredients in pesticides enkindled Governor Schwarzenegger to release a cursory list only two days later.}

^{NRDC uses an astounding amount of weasel words. Does not say "Halt Spraying" or "Must use safe alternatives."}

^{Shimek, speaking for the Sea Otter Project, remains the only representative of a non-profit to publicly advocate for aerial crop dusting of our cities, our children and our wildlife with untested pesticides.}

^{Suttera, the pesticide manufacturer (who donated more than $140,000 to the Governor's Election campaign) sued several newspapers (Santa Cruz Sentinel, M. C. Weekly, and LA Times) to prevent disclosing pesticide ingredients. The newspapers defended and won the right to publish ingredients, but they never obtained a complete list.}

HOPE's efforts were the first to actually stop aerial pesticide spraying of our cities (October 10, 2007) although it was only for 2 weeks. Seven months later we won again when a Judge ordered a stop to aerial spraying of untested pesticides over Monterey until an Environmental Impact report is certified.

HOPE is not merely effective, we have conducted hundreds of hours of expert science and legal research and are experts on this aerial spraying issue for legal matters, and the science of the several dozen facets of the entire issue, and HOPE shares its expertise with the many groups, government agencies and passionate individuals working to stop the aerial spraying of untested secret pesticides on cities, public areas and wildlife habitats,

HOPE also provides expertise on feasible, more effective non-spraying non-toxic alternatives, so we created a viable, more effective, safe non-spraying solution - the Targeted use of pheromone-baited sticky traps which has now been partially adopted by CDFA,

HOPE serves as a credible source of information on the issue, because we carefully verify all information we provide. We have spent hundreds of hours informing the public, government officials and the media, and have provided dozens of media interviews and been quoted in the LA Times, NPR, Associated Press and the SF Bay Guardian,

HOPE publicly identified that there is no public health agency collecting, analyzing or reporting on the health impacts on the humans subject to the aerial spraying, and then we created the only spray monitoring plan,

HOPE researched and wrote a comprehensive litigation strategy in September 2007, including the use of our Constitutional Right to Obtain Safety and the use of common law including trespass and nuisance,

HOPE organized dozens of people for dozens of meetings; distilled the complex issues into powerful sound bytes, prepared numerous Powerpoint presentations for public education, participated in meetings where we successfully persuaded the first government agencies to officially oppose the aerial spraying; the cities of Monterey and Pacific Grove; cities which do not normally oppose anything environmentally harmful,

HOPE analyzed and prepared six ideas for state legislation (including Informed Consent) which were officially endorsed by the Santa Cruz Council,

HOPE prepared this chart showing who is protecting us from the pesticide spraying - and who isn't, and continually identifies the most important elected officials and agencies to persuade, and 

HOPE keeps all interested parties, especially activists, public officials and the media, updated with accurate, verified information to provide a reliable source of information for this issue.