The Right Not To Be Sprayed & Attention Drawn To The Effect Of Toxins
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In The News: The Right Not To Be Sprayed & Attention Drawn To The Effect Of
Toxins
Date:
Fri, 27 Sep 2002 09:50:25 -0400
From:
Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of California, Department of Pesticide
Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
Monday, September 23, 2002; National Post; The right not to be sprayed by pesticides by Brad Evenson.
Imagine if government officials decided that every man, woman and child in Ontario, Quebec or Manitoba should be forcibly vaccinated against the flu. In fact, cats, squirrels, raccoons and that annoying chihuahua down the street would get jabs, too. No exceptions. There are excellent reasons for doing this, the provinces would point out. Across Canada, close to 25,000 people get the flu each year and 2,000 people die from it. Even worse, people who have the flu can spread it to other people. Such a measure would save the health system a fortune.
Does this scenario sound ridiculous?
It should. And yet, this is what the people who want to spray pesticides to kill West Nile-bearing mosquitoes are advocating. Anyone can decide not to be vaccinated. People sometimes have good reasons for declining. Parents have gone to court to fight for their rights not to inject their children with proteins that convey immunity against measles, mumps and rubella. Some people just value their freedom to choose.
But when a tanker truck rolls through your neighbourhood sending plumes of synthetic poison into the air, your right to not be exposed is extinguished.
Spraying advocates argue pesticides are not very harmful to people, noting that, under safety standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a child could stand in a shower of malathion -- the larvicide used to kill mosquitoes -- for 20 minutes without suffering any harm. Leaving aside the unscientific nature of this claim (Has it ever been tested? Whose child? Not mine, thanks.), it ignores the central premise in public health that nothing is completely safe. After countless studies, the evidence of harm from 2-4D and DDT and many other pesticides is thin.
Does that mean they are safe? Not even close.
In public health, interventions are made only when the benefits are greater than the risks. The flu vaccine can have negative side effects. In rare cases, it causes death. But the lifesaving benefits of the vaccine for many people, especially the elderly, are a thousand-fold greater than its risks. Obversely, many communities across Canada have prohibited the use of pesticides for cosmetic purposes. This is because the risk of dandelions is a thousand times smaller than the small chance a child or creature could be harmed by these chemicals.
As a wise environmentalist once put it, "Why are we spraying these poisons in the suburbs, when the only crop we're trying to raise is children?"
Which brings matters to West Nile virus.
The number of deaths associated with the virus sounds alarming. Individually, each death is a tragedy. But West Nile is not the only pathogen that causes encephalitis, the fatal swelling of the brain. There are plenty, including La Crosse, Northway, Main Drain, and Lokern viruses, as well as Western equine encephalitis. Good old Missouri may not sound as exotic or frightening as the West Nile, but St. Louis encephalitis hits about 160 North Americans a year, killing about 20% of them. Last year, scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on the first case of California encephalitis in 50 years in a 65-year-old man who had the bad luck to live near a brackish marsh in Marin County, near San Francisco Bay. West Nile has become a darling of the media, in large measure because it struck first in New York City. If its first victims had resided in, say, Yellowknife, it would not be the object of documentaries on CNN.
Public health officials must determine whether the benefits of spraying with malathion and other pesticides outweighs the risk of West Nile. In some places, it may. Mosquitoes die in northern climates in winter, reducing the risk for much of the year. But in Louisiana, Texas, Florida and tropical climates, they can infect people year-round, and the relative benefits of spraying may be greater there. For the same reason, it makes sense to spray DDT in parts of Africa and Asia where malaria is endemic. As many as 500 million cases occur each year, killing up to 3 million people, 90% of them children in poor countries.
But West Nile disease is a far cry from malaria.
Furthermore, nobody has proved spraying pesticides will stop West Nile in its tracks. It might. What if it doesn't? How can you judge the risks if the benefits are unclear?
What the public needs is a treatment. With the stunning pace of advancement in biotechnology, it should be easy to find a way to kill one uncomplicated virus. There is already a preventive vaccine for horses. But of course, before a West Nile vaccine could be injected into humans, scientists would have to prove any adverse side effects would be less dangerous than West Nile disease. Even if they could, governments could not force citizens to take mandatory jabs.
So why are so many people so willing to lie down and be sprayed?
Brad Evenson is a medical reporter for the National Post.
© Copyright 2002 National Post
http://www.nationalpost.com/utilities/story.html?id={EB4DD6DA-3CE5-46E8-BCA6-BC760BADAA71}
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Monday, September 23, 2002. St. Louis Post-Dispatch - Green Party activists draw attention to effect of toxins in mosquito spraying By Phil Sutin Of The Post-Dispatch.
Activists allied with the Green Party have objected to St. Louis County's spraying a pesticide to kill mosquitoes. They raised the issue last week at a public forum conducted by St. Louis County Councilman Kurt Odenwald, R-Shrewsbury, in Webster Groves.
Because some female mosquitoes carry the West Nile virus that can kill people, the county's mosquito-control efforts have become more important. Robin Barrett of St. Louis, a Green Party activist, said the spray included one of many toxins that give her health problems.
"I have multichemical sensitivity," she said. "I need to be careful where I go."
The county should concentrate its efforts on eliminating mosquito larvae, she added. "Use less toxins," she said. "Help solve the problem."
Joan Bradford, who is in charge of efforts to control mosquitoes and rats for the county, discussed at length the county's efforts to kill larvae.
Her staff checks 6,000 sites in the county for mosquito larvae and puts out charcoal cubes with Altostat, the trade name for a bacteria that disrupts the digestive system of mosquitoes but does not affect other animals. Her agency also urges the public to remove standing water, the breeding grounds for mosquitoes, such as rainwater in the bottom of open garbage cans or in clogged gutters. Despite these efforts, spraying with the pesticide permethrin is necessary because many larvae become adult mosquitoes, she said.
She said federal officials considered permethrin safe. The county, she noted, used a very small amount in its spray.
Odenwald said he supported the county's mosquito-control efforts. He invited the activists to explain their concerns to his office and to provide more information. "The county uses spraying as a last resort," he said.
On Friday, Odenwald said he had asked health officials to put the county's mosquito spraying schedule on its Web site so people concerned about the spraying's effect on them could react in time.
After the meeting, the activists circulated a Green Party handbill opposing spraying. "The massive use of pesticides may become a classic case of a cure being worse than the disease," it said.
Terri Zeman of Brentwood is the Green Party's candidate for county executive in the election on Nov. 5. Chad Parmenter of Maplewood is the Green Party's candidate running against Odenwald and Daniel "Tim" Reardon, a Democrat from Grantwood Village, for the 5th District seat on the County Council.
Don Fitz of University City, the Green spokesman on toxin issues, said the party did not want to confront Odenwald politically at the forum. "We want to work with him," he said.
Fitz urged the county to conduct a forum where officials can hear from experts and others favoring and opposing spraying and then set its policy.
Odenwald said he hoped the council's Justice and Health Committee, which he heads, could hold a meeting to discuss the spraying issue.
Reporter Phil Sutin: Phone: 314-863-2812
Published in West Post on Monday, September 23, 2002.
Well Mr. Helliker, I just returned from Orlando, Florida; and would like to note that Disney sprays your "registered" pesticide POISONS every night to "control" mosquitoes. As we walked in Fort Wilderness for a short walk; my Grandchildren and I were literally covered with many mosquito bites. Where I have my lake and where I have my ponds, there are no mosquitoes because I do not spray anything. Nature takes care of the problem.
Respectfully, Stephen L. Tvedten
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