Mosquito control or bio warfare?

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Environment

Health

Steve Tvedten has been campaigning to raise awareness on the dangers of using the "registered" POISONS - toxic pesitcides and chemical weedkillers - for years. Steve's site (thebestcontrol) advocates safe and far more effective - unregistered - alternatives to the government and corporate mandated "terminator" approach - biowarfare rather than an intelligent way of handling a problem.

If we complain about health problems but ignore our poisonous environment, we should rather take a second look.

Mosquito season sees a great increase in poison distribution, and golf courses seem not far behind with toxic weedkillers that leave the area (and possible water further downstream) dangerously polluted with arsenic. A selection of recent news sent by Steve gives us an idea of what is happening.

I especially appreciated an article titled "Study Shows Crustaceans Control Mosquitoes" published in Beyond Pesticides on September 3.

West Nile Virus & The Scourge of Pesticides

By Brenda Livingston

As more of the public becomes informed, it is becoming all too clear that there is no comparison between the number of human cases resulting from West Nile Virus and the vast human cost of spraying toxins into the air we breathe. In addition to the irreparable harm done to adults and children and the environment, spraying pesticides simply does not work.

As the West Nile virus was found in a few birds in Dallas and the first human cases of the virus has been identified in North Texas, the debate in about the effectiveness of pesticides and their toxic effects on humans and wildlife has begun once again...and more people are getting involved.

Dallas Public Health and environmental officials have sprayed pesticides in the Dallas area over the last couple of weeks after the discovery of 3 persons (all recovering) testing positive for the West Nile Virus.
Though limiting the ground spraying to affected areas this year, adequate warnings about the dangers associated with exposure to pesticides have not been shared with the public.

Officials in cities all over the country have approved ground spraying and even aerial spraying (with and without public knowledge or approval) of potentially dangerous chemicals into the environment in which we
live, work and play. Investigations are now underway to expose covert spraying operations and to organize opposition to these kinds of spraying efforts.

David Jefferson and others in the environmental management office for the Tarrant County (Fort Worth Texas) Public Health Department have vocalized concerns about the overuse of pesticides and has applied a far more effective approach to handling the mosquito population.

"Spraying toxins in the air upon the population with such low yield results...even with 1 case of human WNV identified in that county is not being recommended or applied in this county. Ground and aerial spraying only eliminates the adult insects in contact with the pesticide."

Along with many other health experts, Jefferson agrees that larval control and elimination of breeding grounds is a much more effective -- and safe -- approach to lowering risk (which is already minimal) of human contraction of West Nile Virus.

One thing is for sure--cancer, brain and neurological damage, behavioral and reproductive problems will result in a significant cross section of the population if we allow the continued and unwarranted use of pesticides in agriculture, our homes, our schools and most significantly that being sprayed in the air throughout our communities. Research now shows that even those pesticides with less toxic effects (such as Pyrethroids) will have devastating effects upon children and adults.

Excerpted From a Center For Disease Control FAQ:

"Q. If I live in an area where birds or mosquitoes with West Nile virus have been reported and a mosquito bites me, am I likely to get sick?

A. No. Even in areas where mosquitoes do carry the virus, very few mosquitoes-much less than 1%-are infected. If the mosquito is infected, less than 1% of people who get bitten and become infected will get
severely ill. The chances you will become severely ill from any one mosquito bite are extremely small.

The risk to contract West Nile Virus encephalitis is extremely small 1 in 300,000 people and affects only those with impaired immunity.

"Based upon experience, we know that typically less than one tenth of one percent of people bitten by infected mosquitoes develop any clinical signs of disease, and of those who do develop disease symptoms, most do not develop the serious encephalitis manifestations.." Michael Gochfeld, Professor of Environmental and Community Medicine, the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

WHY -- if there is such a small risk of humans getting infected from mosquitos that have such a small risk of contracting the West Nile Virus from infected birds-- are we allowing our officials to put us at such great risk of suffering from the horrible effects of pesticide exposure?

One has to wonder why the information about the harmful effects of pesticides are not more prominent in the news and why spraying is instituted without any calculation of the devastation that is caused by it. Risks and benefits must be weighed very carefully with an informed public at the helm.

Consider the Following:

PESTICIDES LOWER IMMUNE SYSTEMS THAT CAN FIGHT OFF WEST NILE & OTHER DISEASES

The UN report continues: "Ironically the very 'defense' against West Nile Virus is making birds and humans far more susceptible to this virus and other viruses and bacterial infections.

There are well known safe approaches that can be used to control mosquitoes and prevent West Nile Virus.Apart from such well known measures, the best protection against West NileVirus encephalitis is a healthy immune system. Exposure to pesticides is now recognized to be detrimental to human as well as animal health and all immune systems.

Spraying pesticides (aerially or on the ground) poses much more danger to public health, especially to children, than the extremely small health presented by West Nile Virus."

PESTICIDES CAUSE DELETIONS IN WHITE BLOOD CELL CHROMOSOME

A 1996 study found that in experiments of human white blood cells (white blood cells are the back-bone of our immune system) that malathion was causing "deletions" in one section of the chromosome.

The scientists stated, "This work provides the first evidence of an association between malathion exposure and specific mutations in human T lymphocytes."

...Your lymphoctes are a type of immune system cell which is extremely important in removing viruses and cancer cells from the body. ...The lesson to be learned from this is we do not want to expose ourselves to chemicals (such as malathion) that can accelerate gene loss in important cells which are protecting us from bacteria, viruses, etc.

Genetics Laboratory, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont CANCER RESEARCH, 56, 2393-2399, May 15, 1996

LINKS BETWEEN PESTICIDES AND SERIOUS DISEASE

We know, however, that chemical pesticides and other pollutants cause acute and especially delayed health consequences such as allergy, immunotoxicity, neurotoxicity, genetic damage, cancer, concentration and memory problems, loss of potency and libido, and many other health problems."

The National Research Council states that: "Infants and children, whose immature nervous systems are vulnerable, and newborns, whose metabolisms are less capable of detoxifying malathion, are more susceptible than adults to its toxic effects." [Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children. National Academy Press. Washington D.C.]

There is also a link between exposure to pesticides, and Parkinson's Disease, breast cancer, lymphoma and certain cases of Alzheimer's Disease.

CHILDREN'S EXPOSURE TO PESTICIDES INCREASE LYMPHOMA RISK

From "Child's Exposure to Pesticides Hikes Lymphoma Risk"
posted on CHEC FORUM November 10, 2001 (by Chive Mynde)

"Children who have been exposed to household insecticides and professional extermination methods within the home are three to seven times more likely to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) compared with children who have not been exposed to pesticides. ..."

"Pesticide Exposures in Children with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma," Jonathan D Buckley M.B.B.S., Ph.D., Anna T. Meadows, M.D., Marshall E. Kadin, M.D, Michelle M. Le Beau, Ph.D., Stuart Siegel, M.D., and Leslie L. Robison, Ph.D., CANCER 2000; 89:11.

PESTICIDES OPEN UP DEVASTING ILLNESS FOR THOSE GENETICALLY PRE-DISPOSED

Researchers at Southwestern Medical School (University of Texas Health Science Center) Robert Haley and Tom Kurt in Dallas, Texas have found that a substantial number of veterans exposed to sprayed pesticides (to control mosquitos and sandflies), DEET (as a repellent) and a substance used to lessen the effects of nerve poisoning in the Gulf War are suffering devastating effects.

The implications are staggering for the general population as a whole who are exposed to these substances.

The study states:

"The culprit gene is the one that controls production of type Q paraoxonase, or PON-Q, an enzyme that allows the body to fight off chemical toxins by destroying them. This particular enzyme is highly specific for the chemical nerve agents sarin and soman as well as for the common pesticide diazinon.

In some people, the gene causes the body to produce high levels of PON-Q, allowing their bodies to fight off toxins like nerve gas. But in others the gene directs the production of low levels of PON-Q, meaning a person cannot fight off even low levels of these toxic chemicals well."

Organophosphate pesticides have chemical structure similar to nerve agents and have the potential of becoming highly toxic for normal individuals if misused or mixed with other pesticides or chemicals.

All this to say that it seems clear that massive spraying for West Nile Fever or simply for mosquito control will harm children and adults who have this low enzyme level and stimulate this painful, debilitating and deadly disease in those with a genetic predisposition to it.

And, unless this West Nile outbreak becomes a full scale epidemic -- spraying will likely be the cause of great long-term suffering for thousands -- with no appreciable effects on the carriers of West Nile. Not only can massive spraying of pestici