This commentary concerns the ruling of the Board of Pesticide Control, reported by the Bangor Daily News on July 27.

Let me understand: The pesticide control board holds hearings, publicized in advance through newspapers and mass mailings to all stakeholders, and takes comments for an additional two-week period so that an informed decision can be made. Eighty-nine concerned parents and advocates for child-health protection testify to the need for notice every time spraying of toxic bug and weed killers is scheduled. Three extermination companies object (subtext: wouldn’t be prudent, wouldn’t want to scare folks) and board members are heard to complain that mailing costs would be burdensome for school administrators.

If only the administrators had made their opinions known – except for a trade group (Maine School Management Association), none bothered to comment, it seems. But anticipating how they might feel (“frustrated,” says board member Clyde Walton), the BPC denies the urgent plea from dozens of petitioners that warning be given, enabling those at risk to get out of harm’s way (subtext: If human targets of exterminators knew of impending danger, they might insist on nonlethal ways of addressing the problem, challenging the “experts,” the applicators with a heavily vested interest in maintaining their lucrative contracts).

Michael Dann, a forester, licensed pesticide applicator and board member, has the last word: “Those not interested [meaning, presumably, the average person, those inclined to trust experts] don’t need notification.” Arguably, however, it is precisely those not enlightened who most need to be notified, to give pause in the process of learning the hard questions to be asked.

For this and other reasons, I found cause for alarm at the BPC’s monthly meeting in Bangor last week. With one or two exceptions, the board members are overtly biased in favor of chemicalized agriculture. They routinely dismiss complaints about reckless extermination practices, and they minimize threats to public health with derision. “Cholinesterase inhibition [meaning poisoning] couldn’t possibly result from this incident,” speculates one staff member. “People are afraid of what they don’t know,” says Carol Eckert, a pediatrician on the board. “They worry about irritation, transient symptoms.” (Subtext: Pesticides serve the common good. Irrational fear generates mass hysteria. Anyway, if you do develop any of the symptoms of chemical poisoning mentioned on the Manufacturer’s Safety Data Sheet – especially damage known to result to the immune, respiratory, and nervous systems – the medical establishment will take care of you.)

Tragically, there are too many casualties, too many of us disabled from overexposure to hazardous substances, including a young child living in Hope three years ago whose neurological illness was brought to the attention of the board in a petition for a restricted-spray zone (a Critical Pesticide Control Area, put in place and subsequently nullified when the family moved.) So, despite the arrogant “management” strategies – indeed the improprieties – we are witnessing, the BPC is not unaware of the perils.

The next case to watch is the illegal aerial spraying of Guthion (a known neurotoxin) on an organic farm in Orland, owned by a family with 31/2-year-old twins. Your reporter neglected to mention the reason that this case is being referred to the Attorney General: the owner of the spray-contracting firm, Maine Helicopter, Inc. (fined many times, up to the maximum of $1,500, for violating the state law governing pesticide drift), is Andrew Berry, who serves on the Pesticide Control board.

Berry’s colleagues in Augusta make generous allowances for this blatant conflict of interest: his experience in the field makes him a valued member of the board. They even excuse his long record of toxic trespass: “The violations have been spread out … consistent with other [industry contractors],” states Tony Sprague, spokesman for the governor (reported in Kennebec Journal, July 26).

But we will not excuse it; fouling our nest and causing devastating long-term illness to expand the profit margins of a few blueberry growers and exterminators is profligate public policy. For information on task forces forming, call the Toxics Action Center: 871-1810.

Jody Spear is an environmental activist from Brooksville.