Fact Sheet 12
Mosquito Spraying and West Nile Virus
Excerpted from No Spray Coalition Website
www.nospray.org
In 1999 and 2000, New Yorkers were exposed to massive amounts of toxic
pesticides by the Giuliani administration in a panicked overreaction to
the alleged threat of West Nile Virus (WNV - a disease that the
Department of Health´s own press releases admit is extremely hard to
become infected by and is very rarely fatal. We were repeatedly sprayed
by helicopters and trucks in our homes, in public parks, while shopping,
while playing in schoolyards, while eating in outdoor restaurants and
while traveling to and from work and school.
Now the possible spray area for mosquitoes said to be carrying West Nile
Virus has been extended to cities up and down the entire east coast, and
as far west as the Mississippi River, even though there have been no
human fatalities in the US from West Nile encephalitis apart from eight
people in New York in the last two years. Spraying has taken place in
almost every county in New York State, as well as in New Jersey, parts
of Connecticut (which used Scourge/Resmethrin), Maryland, Massachusetts
and along the entire eastern seaboard from Maine all the way to Florida.
Despite overwhelming evidence of the hazards of indiscriminate pesticide
use, plans are underway to extend the broadcast spraying for West
Nile-carrying mosquitoes to urban areas such as Cleveland, Ohio and
Detroit, Michigan. On the west coast, massive indiscriminate spraying of
urban areas is already underway for other insects.
New York City remains the epicenter, and what happens there will
dramatically affect what happens everywhere else. Public health experts,
mosquito control technicians, and scientists who specialize in studying
the effects of pesticide exposure warn that this unprecedented use of
chemicals on densely packed urban populations will not only be
ineffective for mosquito control but pose a far greater health risk than
West Nile Virus.
The main chemical used in 1999, Malathion (Fyfanon ULV), is described by
the NYC Mayor´s Chem-Bio Handbook - the City´s official guide to
handling chemical and biological emergencies which is distributed to
every police precinct, ambulance and fire truck - as a toxic nerve gas
directly related to those used in WWII. Anvil (Sumithrin + Piperonyl
Butoxide + Petroleum-related byproducts), the synthetic pyrethroid nerve
gas sprayed from trucks in 2000, is known to cause asthma, disruption of
sexual hormones and various other health disorders, and has been linked
to breast cancer in women and diminished sperm counts in men.
During 1999 and 2000, NY State Attorney General Elliot Spitzer
repeatedly warned the Mayor that it was illegal for any company to
describe these toxic pesticides as `safe.´ The AG admonished Mayor
Giuliani, as well as spokespeople for the Department of Health and other
officials, to stop making such false claims. Giuliani has repeatedly
ignored those reprovals. `There´s absolutely no danger to anyone from
this spraying... There are some people who are engaged in the business
of wanting to frighten people out of their minds,´ he said. (Newsday,
9/14/99) The Mayor continues to portray those of us concerned with the
dangers of indiscriminate pesticide spraying as `environmental
terrorists´ who `like to get you angry because it gets them on
television.´
In actuality, the City has disregarded virtually all the directions and
warnings included with these chemicals by their manufacturers. Contrary
to both the directions on the labels and existing environmental law the
sprayings were done directly on humans, over bodies of water, without
sufficient warning and more often than not at times when it is known to
be completely ineffective for killing mosquitoes. Many observers,
including some of the mosquito control experts directly involved in the
spraying, believed it was being done more for public relations than for
public health.
New York City´s indiscriminate spraying of malathion, resmethrin,
sumithrin, permethrin - along with their `inert´ ingredients and
synergists (piperonyl butoxide) - has put the public´s health and
natural environment in great danger. The precautions that were taken to
warn asthma sufferers, people with compromised immune systems, cancer
survivors, people with allergies, and those facing repeated exposure
(homeless people, subway workers, spraytruck drivers, etc.) - let alone
everyone else - have been virtually non-existent. Not even a hotline
was established by any NYC agency for people to call who were made sick
from the spray. (The WNV ³hotline² set up by the NYC Department of
Health was answered by non-unionized, ill-informed operators in
Pennsylvania, who had no idea what was going on and had no knowledge or
instructions concerning people calling in who had been exposed to
pesticides.) To top it off, pressures have been brought to bear on
scientists and health professionals to remain silent in public
concerning evidence of the dangers of pesticide spraying on densely
populated urban areas. As a direct effect of the pesticide exposure,
thousands of people suffered impaired respiratory and neurological
health, including many of the workers who were temporarily hired by the
City to do the actual spraying. Thousands more are expected to
experience long term health problems which may not manifest as symptoms
for many years including cancer, hormonal imbalances, neurological
damage and possible genetic mutations.
Though the environmental impact of WNV spray operations in the Tri-State
area over the past two years has yet to be fully tallied (and no
official Environmental Impact Statement has yet been issued), these
pesticides are known to severely impact many aquatic species and
nontarget insects. There is a pending lawsuit regarding the impact of
these pesticides on the widespread die-off of crabs and lobsters in Long
Island Sound.
Thousands of fish, lobsters, birds and beneficial insects like
butterflies and bees were killed by the spraying. Our waterways were
polluted. Even the Connecticut Sea Grant (Sea Grant is a Federal Agency
which sponsors regional projects on coastal marine problems usually tied
with industry)notes with alarm that pesticide spraying is implicated in
the lobster die-off. Repeated spraying has severely impacted vital
ecosystems, and the offspring of mosquitoes that survived the spray are
likely to now be growing increasingly resistant to the pesticides
applied.
For more information, contact:
NO SPRAY COALITION
PO Box 334
Peck Slip Station
New York, NY 10272-0334
Hotline: (718) 670-7110
Phone: (718) 670-7110
Listserve: sprayno@yahoogroups.com
Website: www.nospray.org
Media: (212) 343-2209
Email: mitchelcohen@mindspring.com |
