♦WHAT ARE WE BREATHING?!
WHAT ARE WE BREATHING?!!
This section was the idea of Bill Sturgeon, a Member that I greatly respect. He has been a supporter of this website from the beginning and has contributed regularly. In addition to his Aerial Photo Webpage, Bill also had the idea of adding the "Wanted +4 Sale" section and that is now a popular page of this site.
I am sure that this section will also be popular and useful as it has to do with our health. I was vaguely aware of the problem, but Bill has done recent research into the topic and rather than try to explain it myself, I am going to move on to sharing his findings.
Bill wants this to be an active page where Members can get information as well as share personal experiences about the air we breath. Please send your comments and if you have had a personal experience where our air may have caused or exacerbated health problems, please share by e-mailing me at: Miles@VetsOrg.org. Thank you for your interest.
~Miles Whitley, Website Owner.
Here are some of Bill's recent e-mails to me:
[Bill, 10/31/09:] Miles, This image is from Google Earth [below]. Notice the white line going from Domaine Chandon toxic waste water treatment pond to the nearest CVH residence Johnson Hall. The distance between them is a mere 0.20 miles!
I think my acute asthma that put me in the hospital for four days (over Labor Day weekend) and resulted in excess of $8,000.00 hospital bill, resulted from a combination of pollen, pesticide grape spray residue, and effluent from the ponds, did it to me.
I will be sending you more on this topic. This is for starters. Post this to your blog if you wish. Sincerely, Bill Sturgeon
[Bill, 10/31/09:] Miles, Here is a composite of several aerial images I made this morning. Bill
[Miles:] Bill, this is totally amazing! I look forward to getting more info from you.
[Bill, 10/31/09:] On the right [above] are the Domaine Chandon waste ponds while over on viewer's left is north end of our campus with section D clearly in view. Distances from pond to section D is 0.35 miles and pond to Holderman hospital is 0.70 miles. To drift toxic air from this source to our lungs takes only a gentle breeze from the north.
We have occult collateral damage going on here and currently we have no idea how widespread it is. I want to investigate this.
Ciao, Bill
++++++++++++++++++++
[Bill, 11/1/09:]
Miles,
I'm going in different directions as I learn. We live surrounded by over 10,000 acres of vineyards.
I spent half a day and $40 with the County agriculture commissioner for their office time and walked out with pesticide release data for vineyards to our north, vineyards on our south border, and the vintner's golf course. The records have date of release, pounds or gallons applied, what spray ID, etc. Period covered starting current year at Jan 1 to mid-July, basically all they had on releases for that period. I wanted to see most of a grow season.
Yesterday I flew my camera to 400 ft. next to Section J, big open field, and did some oblique imaging to bring the issue into focus, otherwise we have out of sight, out of mind thing. Hence the photos that dramatises the seperation that is only 0.20 miles from pollutant source to bedroom window but no one knows about it because there is a small hill separating them. We cannot see it or taste it and seldom smell what that pond releases but now I can detect it from what comes up from my lungs. I continue to be exposed to this poison and currently fend off my next asthma attack with steroid drugs and am deeply worried about how long I can continue with this unhealthy situation. (Rumor has it that some of us are shipped over to Barstow where they can breath again.)
Fourteen years ago Californians for Alternatives to Toxinspublished a 44 page book on Napa county pesticide releases bearing the title, Time for a change; pesticides and wine grapes. I now have data from then and for now. My first scan of the numbers shows little,if any, change in these agricultural methods over that 14 years.
A first fix on numbers:
There were sulfurreleases for 100 acres on our north is about 860 pounds in a series of about six applications And that is just one chemical. These things enter the lower atmosphere and some gets carried to our lungs both when initially applied then a second time from the picking agitation of harvest. I have more number crunching to do.
There is also ethanol in our lungs from these commercial operations. There are 6 or 7 different pesticide formulations on the list that are applied in ounces, pounds and gallons. The magnitude of this astounds me. I still, of course, must clear out my throat and the frequency of that is now my air quality gauge. Following a good rain I stop coughing and start feeling less depressed.
The good news i that the golf course is not a problem. Their releases are few and minimal compared to vineyard turf.
Miles, may I suggest you open a forum on air quality on your blurb. Lets open this to wide discussion and share notes
What do I want? First I want to inform people of what they breath and what it is doing to them. Then I want daily campus air quality monitored and the results posted on the internet so we know when to stay indoors and why. Then I want technology in the hospital capable of detecting the presence of sulfur in what we cough up. And how about the wine industry focusing more on cleaning up their operations?
Onward and upward!
Bill
The aerial photo below demonstrates some of the geographical areas referred to by Bill above.
[Miles, 11/1/09:] Bill, All of this is totally flabbergasting to me!!! I wish more of our fellow Members had computers, but I think that enough do in order to get the word out about this. I would not know what to do with this! Fortunately, you have more knowledge than I do and know how to proceed. Just keep me posted and I will keep the info posted. Also, please watch out for your health! As things progress, maybe we can get one of our doctors to comment on this if it is not deemed to be too "politically charged." Take care, ~Miles.
The following are documents which Bill acquired that outline the various chemicals used along with the quantity. These are PDF documents, so when you click on the icon it will take a minute or two to load, depending on the speed of your computer.
• Winery Info
• Golf Course Info
[Bill submits the following on 11/13/09. Thank you Bill for your time and effort in getting information from reliable sources to share with us. We look forward to seeing new information as your story develops. ~Miles]
Miles, today I mailed a report to the California EPA, pesticide department of a suspected link between pesticide releases and serious illness. I attached numerous enclosures and here is text of my cover letter. . . . for the record:
California EPA 11 Nov., 2009
Hazard Assessment Department
Dear Sir/Ms.
Herewith I send you documents to report a suspected serious health impact from commercial wine grape agriculture. Twice in the same week (around last Labor Day weekend), I was taken to the hospital by ambulance where I spent 4 days undergoing treatment for acute asthma. The hospital bill came to exceed $8,000.00.
My leading hypothesis is this was caused from breathing some combination of pesticide residue (including sulfur), ethanol vapor, and treatment pond effluent. Between cause and effect is close proximity in both time and space.
Napa County agricultural records indicate application of at least 16 different pesticide substances are routinely applied to this vineyard which borders on property occupied by 1,100 California war veterans and 900 state employees. Enclosed data reveals that the separation between the pond and the nearest bedroom window is a mere 1/5 of a mile. This fact is not well known because it is obscured by a small hill between these establishments.
Please feel free to contact me for additional information.
(signature)
Enclosures:
1) Confidential Report of Known or Suspected Pesticide Related Illness (OEH 700 9/2006)
2) Hospital report of 9/4/2009 4 pages
3) Hospital report of 9/8/2009 2 pages
4) Hospital report of 9/8/2009 3 pages
5) Hospital report of 9/10/2009 2 pages
6) Google Earth photograph showing close (1/5 mile) proximity between waste water treatment pond complex and apartment complex housing 1100 people, as shown by the connecting white line.
7) A more local aerial photo of the same area with explanatory text.
8) Article published in newspaper (Yountville Sun) describing the impact of the out of
compliance treatment pond on the surrounding community.
Thank you, Bill. We shall eagerly await your next submission. Take care of yourself!
Below, Bill submits another entry to his "fight" for better air quality for us. The letter submitted below is sent to the Napa Valley Register and is self-explanatory. Thank you again, Bill, for continuing your efforts and for keeping us posted. ~Miles, 11/17/09
Please let me know if anyone had comments they would like to post. For those who wish, I will honor your requests to post anonymously.
Hi Again Vets!
At the risk of becoming redundant, I want to share with you the following letter. It is my response to a piece published 14 November by the Napa Valley Register inadequately covering the impact of local air pollution outbreaks and how we are effected. Their article bears the title:,"Clearing the air in Yountville; Filtration pond wrinkled noses with the breeze."
* * * * *
16 Nov., 2009
Napa Valley Register
Editor, Your report on Yountville’s nose wrinkling pond (Nov 14 issue) is incomplete in several ways:
1) There is a community of some two thousand people, those who live and work at the veteran’s home, just across the tracks that are also impacted by these toxic ponds. You made no mention of them.
2) Unlike the typical tourist, who visits Yountville for a day or two and then leaves, and unlike the veteran home’s state workers who must breathe this air for eight hours on weekdays, then go home, our war veterans living here must breathe polluted air every second of every day, around the clock, continuously, with no respite.
3) Your readers should know that the straight line distance between the ponds in question and the closest veteran’s bedroom windows is only one fifth of a mile. From my own window, in a different building, the distance is a mere 0.37 miles as measured by Google Earth.
4) The impact of this dirty air (from both the treatment ponds, and the hundreds of pounds of pesticides applied repeatedly through the seasons), goes way beyond an olfactory inconvenience to a few tourists. Over last Labor Day weekend I was taken, by ambulance, to Queen of the Valley Hospital with a life-threatening case of acute asthma. I spent four days there undergoing testing and treatment for infected lungs and ran up a hospital bill that exceeds $8,000.00. There is no doubt in my mind as to the cause of this. How many veterans are under physiological stress from just breathing? We need to find out. We have here occult collateral health damage and we have no idea how widespread it is.
Is it too much to ask that those brave men and women veterans, who put their lives on the line for us all, be allowed to breathe air that does not make them sick?
Sincerely,
[Signed by Bill Sturgeon]
