Letter to nagar parishad on the topic of spraying fumigation process in english
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To: Nolan Newton, Public Health Pest Management Section Chief, DENR
Robin Smith, Assistant Secretary, DENR
Leah Devlin, Acting State Health Director, DHHS
Richard Rogers, Director of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs, DENR
CC: Sarah Avery, News & Observer
From: Fawn Pattison, Executive Director, Agricultural Resources Center
RE: Division of Environmental Health Mosquito Spray Plan
Date: September 24, 2003
I noted in this mornings News & Observer the article announcing DENRs plans for mosquito spraying in Northeastern North Carolina. Isabel left large amounts of standing water in her wake, increasing the breeding grounds for mosquitoes. But DENRs plans to aerially spray the area this weekend with the organophosphate pesticide Naled is not an appropriate response. A raft of evidence shows that adulticiding (killing mosquitoes in their adult stage) is not effective for controlling mosquito populations, and that the risks to human health, wildlife and water quality posed by exposure to pesticides far outweigh the potential benefits of such a spray program.
Since the arrival of West Nile Virus in the state, public health officials have felt increased pressure to act decisively on mosquito control. There are three main reasons that adulticiding is not effective. First, mosquitoes are tiny, and spraying pesticides out of planes is an extremely inefficient way to kill them. According to Dr. David Pimentel, an entomologist at Cornell University, 0.1% of sprayed pesticides actually hit the target pest (Pimentel, D. 1995. Amounts of Pesticides Reaching Target Pests: Environmental Impacts and Ethics. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 8(1): 17-29). 99.9 % of the sprayed chemical is at best a waste of money, and at worst, a public health hazard.
Second, adulticiding programs target mosquitoes at the wrong stage. Such programs do not get at the mosquitoes until after they have matured and are biting, and do not restrict or control mosquitoes from continuing to breed. After Hurricane Andrew caused a surge in mosquito populations in Florida, state officials took bite counts before and after widespread aerial spraying, and found that mosquito populations surged back to pre-spray levels within three days of the treatment (News and Observer 1996.State alters mosquito plans.9/21/96).
Third, there is strong evidence that adult WNV-carrying mosquitoes are developing resistance to organophosphate insecticides like Naled (Weill, M., et al. 2003. "Insecticide Resistance in Mosquito Vectors." Nature 423: 136-137). Furthermore, a broad-spectrum insecticide like Naled will kill all flying insects it actually contacts, including mosquito predators such as dragonflies. Depending on the species, dragonflies take from several weeks up to a year to complete their life cycle, while mosquitoes take just a few weeks, leaving populations with fewer natural controls.
I would like to request that the Division of Environmental Health put the Agricultural Resources Center on its notice list. We would be very glad to participate in any discussions relating to North Carolinas public health mosquito management policy. Providing up-to-date, reliable information on pesticide issues and alternatives is why were here.
Sincerely,
Fawn Pattison
Executive Director