Dear Mr. Helliker,

What is your state's position on fly swatters?  Are they considered a safe "alternative" to using deadly man-made poisonous chemical pesticides? Read the article below about connections between their use and Parkinson's disease (the disease Michael Fox suffers from) and then see if you find yourself reaching for a fly swatter instead of an aerosol can next time you see a bug. Since a fly swatter can be considered a "pesticide", do they have to be registered as a pesticide in the State of California to be sold there?  If  a fly swatter is considered a pesticide because it is used to kill pests, do people who use them have to be registered as pesticide applicators?  These are very simple questions to answer.

To: "Paul Helliker" <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov> 
Organization: Get Set, Inc. 
From: "Steve Tvedten" <steve@getipm.com>
Dear Mr. Helliker, I thought that you might like to read an article entitled: Fly Swatters Save Lives, (which is the third article on the web page) @  http://magazine.audubon.org/fieldnotes/fieldnotes0007.html 

The next time your trigger finger itches to spray a fly into oblivion or your aesthetic sense prompts you to give your lawn a chemical bath, consider a recent study at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Researchers there compared 496 newly diagnosed Parkinson's disease patients with 541 people who did not have the disease. Their main conclusion was that exposure to home and garden pesticides significantly increases the chance of contracting this debilitating and incurable neurological disease, which afflicts more than 500,000 Americans, including Muhammad Ali and Michael J. Fox.   According to the study, people exposed to insecticides in the home are 70 percent more likely to develop Parkinson's than those who have not been exposed; exposure to garden insecticides increases the risk of contracting the disease by 50 percent. Among herbicide users, the odds rise according to the number of days the products have been used. In the study, fungicides posed no hazard. "At this time, no specific guidelines regarding avoidance of pesticides can be given," says Dr. Lorene Nelson, a neuroepidemiologist and the leader of the research team. "But this is an area of public health importance that needs to be pursued with additional studies." --Sydney Horton  

Well Mr. Helliker, It is obvious that there are many (unregistered) alternatives that are safer than your "registered" POISONS and there are also many (unregistered) alternatives that are far more effective than your "registered" POISONS - when will it be "legal" (in your opinion) to use any of them?  

Respectfully, Stephen L. Tvedten   .

Help elect me as your public advocate.  I will continue to fight for the way life should be in New York City because I am the only candidate who knows and cares about how good it can be!

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