LIGHT BROWN APPLE MOTH STATEMENT

SECRETARY A.G. KAWAMURA ON OEHHA/DPR SCIENTIFIC REVIEW

SACRAMENTO – “We thank the Department of Pesticide Regulation along with the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment and the California Department of Public Health for conducting this analysis, which confirms the products tested are extremely low in toxicity. This study was important to reassure Californians that we always have public safety in mind, and it provides useful information that the California Department of Food and Agriculture will use as we move forward to develop an eradication program that uses the safest and most scientifically-based techniques.”
The Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) announced today that a scientific review of four chemical products -- including one used against the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) -- found a low likelihood of health problems from touching, breathing or ingesting any of the products.
 
In June, CDFA announced that the sterile moth technique had advanced sufficiently, and that it would be able to produce sterile moths to conduct an insect release program in 2009. This new alternative would eliminate the need for aerial spraying over urban areas. This approach involves the production and release of sterile male moths to cause population collapse. The use of aerial spraying of pheromone products would be reserved only for remote areas inaccessible by ground vehicles.
 
For more information on CDFA’s invasive species eradication program, please go to http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/invasives/  The LBAM deposition study can be found at http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/phpps/pdep/lbam/reports.html For all the latest reports and information on quarantines, maps and surveys as well as facts on Light Brown Apple Moth go to http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/lbam