Medfly [Under]Irradiation/ Outbreak in CA/ Jerry Brown -Hoisted on His Petard

[RADPROJECT@aol.com]

 In a message dated 98-08-18 20:46:08 EDT,  Mike Malaxos writes:
 
 << Hullo all,
  	My query relates to a fruit fly eradication program by sterilisation of
  the pupae.
  
  Can any of the group provide information concerning the relationship
  between age of pupae when irradiated, dose received, level of sterilisation
  versus rate of mutation for different dose rates. >>
 
I am reposting most of my 8/20 response to the above, with a new title since
it is likely my earlier post was not reviewed by many since its title was not
very descriptive of its more general subject. However I feel the information
presented earlier is of enough interest to warrant it being reposted in part.

Slightly modified original post of 8/20:

 "I don't have any information on the specific point of mutation rate for
 different radiation dose rates but do have an interesting, and generally
 unknown, bit of history on a botched medfly irradication effort related to
the
 Medfly crisis in California in the early 1980s and how too little radiation
exposure, rather than too much, proved to be more of a problem to then
Governor of CA, Jerry Brown. 

The general issue of interest about Medflies and California relates to the
widely
reported "outbreak" of Medflies in California in 1981. The outbreak occured
because the State was releasing what was supposed to be radiation sterilized
males [and of course an equal number of sterile females, since the sexes are
not, and need not be,  separated prior to irradiation] to drive the population
of Medflies down, a technique that has been demonstrated as highly effective
on countless occassions all over the
world for many types of insect pests with great economic impact [ie:
screwworms with cattle, and others]. However, in the California case, among
the millions of Medflies released in the control program in 1981, a goodly
fraction of the released males and female flies were not sterile, for reasons
explained below.

Accordingly, the Medfly population  in California in 1981 did not decline but
increased wherever the flies were released. The Medfly population quickly got
out of
control as the population of Medflies grew. This led to the USDA embargoing
all agricultural produce from California around mid-1981, an event which was
greatly damaged Gov. Jerry Brown's term in office and his furture political
aspirations.

I was involved in a consulting project at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant
the day the USDA medfly related produce embargo was announced. I was working
as Project Manager on the first fully functional computer based Emergency
Assessment and Response System installed after the TMI accident. An Attorney
for the State of
California and key aide to Gov. Brown was summoned by Governor Brown from a
briefing I was delivering on site Emergency capabilities during a final site
walkdown by the NRC and State prior to license approval by the NRC because of
the Medfly crisis had led to the USDA embargo. This USDA embargo had the
effect of suddenly stopping the sale of billions of dollars of produce from
California and would have been a major financial blow to the State of
California if it continued for more than a short time. Gov. Brown had to turn
his attention away from opposing the final license approval of Diablo Canyon
at this critical point to deal with the Medfly outbreak and the resulting
damage to his administration.

What is truly ironic about this happening/case study regarding Medflies that
so
damaged Gov. Brown's career, and California agriculture for a period of time
is that the non-sterile fruit flies released in California were due to the
Medflies being
released having received too little radiation exposure!! This was finally
found to
have been due to poor quality control at the Mexican sterilization plant
producing the Medflies for use in California, which had resulted in less than
the dose required to ensure 100% sterilization. 

Governor Brown was a major force in opposing nuclear power in California due
to his stated concerns about low-level radiation exposure from plant
operations on people and the environment. He actively opposed the licensing of
Diablo Canyon over a period of many years.

Thus while Jerry Brown had made a mission of trying to raise public concerns
about the risks of  too much ionizing radiation exposure, his political
stature, and his political aspirations were undone and the State of
California's economy was damaged by too little ionizing radiation exposure
having been given to some countless millions of fruit flies.

As Paul Harvey always says in his radio commentaries: "And now you know the
rest of the story".


Stewart Farber, MS Public Health
Public Health Sciences
19 Stuart St.
Pawtucket, RI 02860

Phone/FAX: (401) 727-4947    E-mail: radproject@usa.net


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