Commercial Aircraft are sprayed with Pesticide INSIDE!

[Guest guest]

ARTICLES

BY LINDA AND BILL ON AIRCRAFT

 

PESTICIDE SPRAYING

(from

1993 to 2001)

 

"Moon- suited"

applicators apply

a residual pesticide to a United Airlines plane in Sydney. Flight

attendants are often forced to board aircraft (wearing no protective

attire),

before the planes have been ventilated effectively or the pesticide has

even dried.

 

(photos copyright 2001 by

Linda Bonvie).

 

 

http://www.kefir.net/spray/

 

In

1994 Linda and Bill broke the story about the exposure of passengers

and

crew on certain international airline flights to a hazardous pesticide

via a practice known as "disinsection." Their article was brought to

the

attention of former Transportation Secretary Federico Pena and the

Environmental

Protection Agency, resulting in actions by the DOT and the EPA that

have

led to most countries dropping the requirement for such spraying.

Australia and New Zealand, however, have continued to require the

disinsection

of incoming flights. Most airlines serving these countries, including

United, have now switched to a residual (long-lasting) spraying method.

But in-flight exposures to the pesticides used have been blamed for a

variety

of health problems, and are currently the subject of litigation filed

by

both flight attendants and passengers.

The

original article, “Flying in the Mist,” published in Buzzworm’s

Earth

Journal, was mentioned in both USA Today and The New York

Times.

Linda and Bill were also the first to report United Airlines’ switch to

a residual pesticide on flights to Australia and New Zealand, an

“invisible”

practice of which many passengers are unaware.

 

 

 

To see more

photos

and get a link to a video showing the residual pesticide spray being

applied

to a United Airlines plane in Australia, click

here. This video is currently only able to be viewed in Windows

Media Player. We will be adding other viewing formats shortly.

 

Read

column by Margie Boule of The Oregonian 4/22/01

 

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