California judge rules out spraying to study hazards

A Superior Court judge said Monday there would be no aerial spraying of pesticides over towns in the populous Santa Clara Valley until he could determine if a health hazard existed. The helicopter spraying of malathion was to begin after midnight Monday. The state ordered an aerial attack on a Mediterranean fruit fly infestation after the federal government threatened to quarantine California's entire $14 billion food crop unless the chemical was dropped over the infested region south of San Francisco Bay.