Chemtrails, the conspiracy theory that government airplanes are spraying substances to “geoengineer” the environment and unsuspecting people on the ground, was investigated by a paper published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health on Aug. 11.

Less than a month later, the journal retracted the study, partly because the “language of the paper is often not sufficiently scientifically objective.”

However, the author of the study told Laboratory Equipment in interviews that his study "let the cat out of the bag" - and is being unfairly targeted because it brought attention to the topic of chemtrails.

The complete withdrawal of the paper was first reported by the scientific watchdog site Retraction Watch.

The paper compared the chemtrail issue to the proliferation of pesticides and herbicides first documented in Rachel Carson’s famous Silent Spring in 1962. The paper contended that the U.S. government had altered weather patterns in the past, like during Operation Ranch Hand in the 1960s in Asia, which included spraying Agent Orange in Vietnam.

J. Marvin Herndon, a scientist from California, wrote that he started seeing the trails across the sky in the spring of 2014. He investigated the phenomenon, he writes, because they had not appeared over the San Diego area prior to that.

His testing of the rainwater after the trails appeared in the sky contained some suspicious chemicals, he writes.

“The author submits the following hypothesis: coal fly ash is most likely the aerosolized particulate sprayed in the troposphere by tanker jets for geoengineering, weather modification, and climate-modification purposes,” Herndon writes in the retracted paper. “Evidence indicates that tropospheric spraying of coal-fly ash has been taking place throughout the 21st century, on an international scale, and with significant ramping-up since about 2013.”

However, the academic editor of the paper and other reviewers after the fact found that Herndon had used an incorrect density level for coal fly ash. The work was “preliminary” – and too subjective, they said.

“The language of the paper is often not sufficiently scientifically objective for a research article. Consequently, we have decided to retract the article,” the editors wrote.

Herndon conceded in interviews with Laboratory Equipment that he had made a transcription error in one of his headings. But that warranted a correction, not a full retraction - since the substance of the paper is still correct. But the quick retraction is "good evidence I'm correct," Herndon added.

“This is a further instance of trying to deceive people,” Herndon said.

The Environmental Protection Agency has said the visible trails that follow a plane’s path in the sky are condensed masses of frozen water vapor. Herndon told Laboratory Equipment that he was aware of the contrails left by frozen vapor - and that chemtrails are different and distinct.

"The cat's out of the bag - and you can't get it back in again," Herndon added.