SAN DIEGO RESIDENTS AND CONCERNED CITIZENS: Help us stop spraying of pesticides in neighborhoods in San Diego. Our homes, parks, schools, streets and churches are being sprayed by San Diego Vector Control. We need to come together to let them know we do not support this action. SD Vector Control would like to spray toxic pesticides with ingredients known to be carcinogenic and neurotoxic (references below) around our homes, where we walk our dogs, where our children play and learn, and on the local fruit and vegetables we grow and eat. This spray will get into our water supply and affect every aspect of our lives. Bees will die. Fish will die. Butterflies will die. SDVCD would like to do this to residents this 2016 season utilizing our own tax dollars to poison us. In sum, we are asking that you sign this petition to show support of alternative mosquito abatement processes. Some alternative solutions are: 1. Launch an aggressive and successful outreach program that will deliver the most important message, "check for and dump standing water" (the single most effective tool) 2. Work with cities to reduce the standing water as it relates to infrastructure (which spraying will never be able to address). 3. If needed, use non-toxic methods to eradicate mosquitoes. We would like to work together with SD Vector Control to come up with a plan that can garner the support of the community it serves. We support non-toxic solutions. Spraying will affect us for generations to come. It takes one second to sign this petition to prevent the beginning of spraying in San Diego County, CA but it can take years to stop it once it's started and DECADES to clean up our environment after its been done. Please "Like" us on our Facebook page “Non Toxic San Diego" https://www.facebook.com/groups/1786277901586719/ THANK YOU! PLEASE SIGN OUR PETITION - sign once and share twice! References: Pesticides are one of the five worst threats to children's health. The other four are lead, air pollution, environmental tobacco smoke, and drinking-water contamination. - Journal of Environmental Health, May 1998, vol.60, no.9, p.46 (2)-http://www.nrdc.org/health/kids/ocar/chap5.asp This article looks specifically at the impacts that toxins, such as pesticides, specifically organophosphates, carbamates, and pyrethroids can have on children."Organophosphates and carbamates are toxic to the nervous system, and some of the pyrethroids are believed to be toxic to the reproductive system and disruptive to endocrine function.” - Contemporary Pediatrics, February 2001, vol.18, issue 2, p.110 (11). pyrethroids, which are used in most insecticides, can persists in soil for weeks or months. -http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs/25677.pdf One of the *non-insecticide* ingredients in most aerial spray application products, Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO), is incredibly toxic, and has been linked to delayed mental development in children in two major studies at Columbia and Duke Universities. PBO also can persist for weeks before breaking down in the environment under certain conditions-http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/127/3/e699http://www.ewg.org/news/news-releases/2012/05/31/duke-study-confirms-toxicity-widely-used-pesticide-ingredientNeurotoxic pesticides blamed for the world's bee collapse are also harming butterflies, worms, fish and birds, said a scientific review that called for tighter regulation to curb their use.-http://phys.org/news/2014-06-pesticides-threaten-birds-bees-alike.html#jCp “The method of application can also change the risk of pesticide poisoning. Aerial applications have the highest potential risk for causing bee kills. Most bee kills occur when the pesticide drifts or moves from the target area into the apiary or onto crops attractive to the bees. The outcome of drift can be catastrophic.” - The University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences