Concerned pet owner/ parent/ grandparent/ daughter/ aunty

Vector Control, Santa Clara County, is dispersing aerial pesticides tomorrow, July 11, 2013 on large areas of San Jose. Information can be found at Vector/ County's website. There is a legal injunction filed which prevents this from occurring while an Environmental Impact Report is being prepared. However, because Vector's managed to claim an exemption, it's suggested by many experts that people take extra precautions: bring laundry, shoes, organic produce, pets' & children's toys/ food & water bowls inside not just during the hours of dispersal, but until the area's received lots of water to clean it away. Yes, the pesticides will then run off into the storm drains & into our water supply, & yes, this appears to violate water safety laws...The pesticides are alleged to be dispersed in minimally hazardous amounts: toxic to a rat but not to an infant, pregnant woman, elderly person, people with allergies/ asthma, respiratory issues, or anyone with a compromised immune system. People have reported negative reactions to the pesticides: eye, nose & throat irritations; migraines; skin itching. But our County & Vector refuse to take reports on reactions to the pesticides: you would be medically-covered if you were seriously infected by a West Nile carrying mosquito (rare) & statistically you'd recover. But if you are a cat or dog or any of the above humans...you are out of luck. There is no way to treat exposure & negative reactions to pesticides. Pesticides in any amount are carcinogenic. Pesticides used to "fight" an infected mosquito have over 97% undisclosed ingredients.
People who've done research on these pesticides advise that you should exercise caution.
The reason an EIR was called for by residents & environmental groups, alike, is because the least toxic, most effective methods of combating W.N. mosquitoes...is not aerially or ground pesticides. Nature provided us with beneficial insects: dragonflies, hummingbirds, birds, ladybugs, frogs, and so on who LOVE mosquitoes! I'd rather invest in some hummingbird feeders & plants & not take the chance that tomorrow, the week after, or at some point in the future...someone I know will be diagnosed with cancer.
Pesticides like these have been shown to drift: they don't just hit the ground & stay there: they drift in the air; they drift if you drive or walk through them. And they drift into the open doors of hospitals, markets who stock at night, definitely into the windows of fast food restaurants & onto the food you've just ordered. Researchers state that sunlight will not disperse the toxins: only large applications of water. It's not the rainy season, so your windows, roofs, vehicle roofs, treetops, parks, soccer fields, etc. are not going to release all the trapped toxins.
Just hope your power doesn't go off & that everyone you know has a.c. so they can keep their windows & doors shut & that you've got lots of room inside for your pets to exercise.
If you try to phone, email your representative from our County's Board of Supervisors, to ask that that the EIR be respected, you will probably find that this is the time of year that they're on vacation: discouraging.
There are so many safer means of preventing a rare virus. The virus infects poorer areas, and ones where cattle and horses are prevalent. Haven't seen a horse going down my street for a long time, if ever.
Swimming pools are treated with bacteria; not aerial pesticides.
We are not in an emergency: no one is infected or even in the hospital with W.N. virus.
S.J. is a huge metropolitan area; it's majority population needs to be protected from the unsafe application of pesticides to the air we all must breathe; the ground & water we all must share. Our eco-system skews out of balance & produces angry monster pests when chemicals are applied, rather than relying on Mother Nature.
Like generations before us, we can also be sensible: wear light-colored long sleeved garments, less fruity heavily-scented fragrances if out at dusk & dawn when female mosquitoes are hungry. And let the hummingbirds have their meal!