Rethinking Malathion Spraying

State health officials have taken a significant step toward rethinking the use of the controversial pesticide malathion.

The state Department of Health Services, in a 500-page report, has recommended that the spraying of malathion over urban areas should be reconsidered and, at best, used only as a last resort. Given the department’s previous stalwart assurances about the safety of malathion, it’s good to see the experts acknowledge the “need to develop additional information . . . for evaluating exposures of urban populations to malathion.” A panel of doctors, scientists and public health officials agreed that among sensitive persons there may be risks of adverse effects such as rashes and allergic responses. Thus, the panel said, aerial application of malathion bait in urban areas should be “reconsidered.”

This time last year, neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties were being doused with malathion regularly. Nobody liked it, but the state Department of Food and Agriculture said the spraying was the only way to fight the Medfly.

Unfortunately, that’s what that department is still saying, in spite of the report of state health officials. And, since Gov. Pete Wilson continues to give the Food and Agriculture Department the power to determine when malathion spraying is necessary, the state could decide to spray malathion again. But at least the health report and its recommendation will make it tough in the future for the state to disregard legitimate health concerns about a broadly applied pesticide.