In 1980, faculty members in the Stanford University’s Department of Pharmacology publicly expressed their opposition to the proposed aerial spraying of the pesticide Malathion, over 120 square miles of Santa Clara County, to combat the Mediterranean fruit fly.

In a letter sent to the mayors of 14 affected cities, the scientists voiced serious reservations about the product, which they said kills by inhibiting an essential enzyme in the nervous system of all animals, not just insects.