CENTER VIEW: LEAD STORY IN SUPPORT OF
CENTER DDT INITIATIVE:
http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20020816-93667508.htm
DDT for West Nile?
Editorial opinion by Steven Milloy
West Nile virus has killed seven people in Louisiana this year, two in
Mississippi and at least 145 people in six states have been infected. A 12-year
old Wisconsin boy died last week of mosquito-borne encephalitis.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says West Nile virus is in
the U.S. to stay. The virus may now be found in 37 states, including every state
from Texas to the Atlantic.
CDC Director Julie Geberding called West Nile virus an "emerging,
infectious disease epidemic" that could be spread all the way to the Pacific
Coast by birds and mosquitoes.
Louisiana has been monitoring the virus since 2000 and has one of the most
active mosquito-control programs in the country — and yet is the state with the
highest death toll.
It's time to bring back the insecticide DDT.
Currently used pesticides, such as malathion, resmethrin and sumithrin, can
be effective in killing mosquitoes but are significantly limited since they
don't persist in the environment after spraying.
DDT does. DDT lingers longer and so is more effective in mosquito control.
DDT's persistence, in fact, is often used as an argument against the
insecticide. Though the Environmental Protection Agency banned DDT in 1972,
three decades later residue of its byproducts may still be found in our bodies
and the environment.
So what? No harm, no foul.
There's never been any credible evidence that the low levels of DDT residue
in our bodies and the environment have caused any harm.
Even if concern exists over DDT residue persisting in the environment,
limiting DDT use solely to mosquito control would ensure that any such build-up
would be dramatically lower than in the past.
At the time the EPA banned DDT, approximately 12 million pounds of the
insecticide were used annually. But almost 99 percent of that amount was used
agriculturally to protect cotton, soybean and peanut crops. Only about 159,000
pounds — a little more than one percent of the 12 million pounds — was used for
other reasons, including insect control.
So much less DDT would be used today — if that is something you're worried
about compared to potentially fatal mosquito bites.
Claims that mosquitoes eventually would develop resistance to DDT are
off-base. While some mosquitoes may over time develop physiological mechanisms
of resistance to DDT's lethal effects, it still provokes strong avoidance
behavior so mosquitoes spend less time in areas where DDT has been applied. This
still reduces mosquito-human contact.
DDT is also less toxic to humans than the alternative chemicals. That
should be a boon to those who believe they are sickened by the spraying of the
alternatives.
No doubt antichemical and environmental activists would wage war on any
effort to bring DDT back. Rachel Carson's attack on DDT in her 1962 book "Silent
Spring," after all, was the springboard of success for modern environmentalism.
But the activists don't like any of the chemicals used currently either.
Tufts University anti-chemical activist-researcher Dr. Sheldon Krimsky said
on ABC's "World News Tonight," for example: "The chemicals have not been
adequately tested for their human health effects. There's a lot of
circumstantial evidence that they cause cancer in animal studies. They are
hormone disrupters."
It's a lot of balderdash, but more to the point, what alternatives do the
enviros offer?
A group called the Safer Pest Control Project is calling on municipalities
to abandon insecticides in favor of so-called "ecological methods."
The SPCP wants to monitor mosquito populations by using traps and by
checking ponds and sources of water for signs of mosquito larvae.
No problem. Just let me know which mud puddle is my responsibility.
The SPCP wants to eliminate breeding areas by draining areas of stagnant
water and aerating ponds.
Perhaps the SPCP has missed the last 30 years of enviro-mania that has
succeeded in labeling virtually every standing body of water a "wetland" subject
to onerous federal permitting and regulation. By the time needed permits were
obtained, mosquito season would be over.
My favorite SPCP recommendation for mosquito control is stocking ornamental
ponds with mosquito larvae-eating fish — but we need to make sure they don't
"threaten the ecology of natural areas by competing with native species for
food."
The SPCP is ambivalent about vegetable-based horticultural oils which are
"effective in killing larvae in water and sinking egg rafts on the surface [but]
can kill beneficial organisms, including some mosquito predators."
"Ecological methods," it seems, is merely a euphemism for saying "Shoo."
Judicious use of DDT won't harm people or the environment. It will,
however, kill mosquitoes — which is better than them killing us.
Steven Milloy is the publisher of JunkScience.com, an adjunct scholar
at the Cato Institute and the author of the upcoming book "Junk Science Judo:
Self-defense Against Health Scares and Scams" (Cato Institute, 2001).
West Nile Update: Audubon Society Says Protect
Birds, Not Humans
Editorial opinion by Alan Caruba
Earlier this month I was on the Fox News Channel to debate an ornithologist who
preferred protecting birds against pesticide use, rather than protecting people,
some of whom have already died after being infected by West Nile Fever. While
she kept saying she was for spraying in one breath, in the next she kept citing
a Centers for Disease Control report in the next, suggesting that spraying would
not be effective against the threat. For the record, the CDC is publicly calling
for more spraying.
Five people in Louisiana had died from WNF at that point and the score is up to seven as this is being written. A second death has been reported in Mississippi. Simply stated, WNF is a full-scale epidemic that is likely to reach California within another year or so. It has been found in 37 States to date.
Most people think of the Audubon Society as just a bunch of bird lovers who publish lovely calendars and books. Wrong! The Audubon Society has been one of the leading opponents of the use of pesticides to protect the health of human beings.
In the September/October edition of Audubon Magazine, there's an article by Ted Williams titled "Out of Control." Williams, the conservation editor of Fly Rod & Reel magazine, repeats all the usual Green arguments against the use of pesticides while ignoring the real threat of disease and death. "The least safe and effective measure is spraying poisons; 'adulticiding' as mosquito-control bureaucracies call it." This is false.
As entomologist Joe Conlon of the American Mosquito Control Association points out, "The extremely small droplet aerosols utilized in adult mosquito control are designed to impact primarily on adult mosquitoes that are on the wing at the time of application. Degradation of these small droplets is rapid, leaving little or no residue in the target area at ground level." In plain English, the mosquitoes die, but humans and other animal species don't.
Williams' solution for dealing with millions of adult mosquitoes is to apply a repellent. As for West Nile Fever, Williams says, "occasionally, it kills people" but most people recover from it. Well isn't that reassuring? Typically, the Greens response to people needlessly dying from WNF or Malaria is that it's just too bad, but making sure that they don't have the pesticides to protect them is more important.
Conlon points out that, "well over 2,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies in various national and international refereed journals since 1980 have documented the safety and efficacy of these public health insecticides at label rates in addition to their application techniques. Despite intense pressures to eliminate the use of public health insecticides, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization and other public health organizations agree that it is essential that these products remain available for disease prevention…"
Among those applying "intense pressures" to eliminate the use of pesticides is the Audubon Society. The truth means nothing to these people because, between 1941 and 1961, their own bird counts had shown an increase in bird populations. In 1963, Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring", was published and became a bestseller with the claim that bird populations were endangered and called for a ban on DDT. This pesticide, universally recognized as the best defense against the mosquito population that spreads Malaria, Yellow Fever and other diseases, had been in use in the US since 1945! In 1972 it was banned by the Environmental Protection Agency despite 9,000 pages of testimony stating it posed no health threat.
Here's where the news turns really grim. The other most effective way to kill mosquitoes is the use of larvicides, i.e., killing the mosquitoes before they emerge from ponds, wetlands, and puddles to become adults. Now there is an effort to require permits for any mosquito control program using larvicides. This will force most mosquito control programs to stop using them as the cost will be prohibitive. The reason is that the water monitoring equipment required, along with the man-hours, will put the use of larvicides beyond the budgets of virtually every Mosquito District program in the US.
The result of this anti-pesticide effort will be more dead people. Worldwide, an estimated two million people die from Malaria every year, most of them pregnant women and children under the age of five. This is nothing less than Green genocide masquerading behind attacks on pesticides.
Alan Caruba is the founder of The National Anxiety Center, an adjunct scholar at the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise and the author of an upcoming book (Merril Press, 2003).
Four human West Nile cases found in St. Louis area
FRI
08.16.2002 2.37 PT
Kansas City Star
Four
St. Louis area residents have tested positive for West Nile virus, according to
preliminary reports from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
The four cases involve two men, ages 42 and 61, and two women, both 36. Their
conditions were not immediately known.
State reports 3 new human West Nile cases
FRI
08.16.2002 2.34 PT
Chicago Tribune
Three more people in Illinois have contracted the West Nile virus and more cases
are certain to be found, the director of the state Department of Public Health
said Thursday.
The cases, all in the Chicago metropolitan area, bring the state's total to five
human victims of the mosquito-borne disease.
Reaction mixed to West Nile virus spread in Michigan
FRI
08.16.2002 2.29 PT
MLive.com
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) -- Jim and Cathy Welsh lounged in their pine-shrouded
campsite at Traverse City State Park on Thursday afternoon, the brilliant
blue-green waters of Grand Traverse Bay just a short hike away.
The vacationing Albany, N.Y., couple shrugged off concerns about West Nile
virus, the potentially dangerous, mosquito-borne illness that health department
officials say has spread to Grand Traverse County.
"We haven't seen a mosquito yet," Cathy Welsh said.
West Nile virus hits Colorado
FRI
08.16.2002 2.27 PT
Rocky Mountain News
LITTLETON - State health officials confirmed Wednesday that West Nile virus has
been found in northern Colorado, but said further tests were being conducted by
federal scientists.
One chicken and two horses in Weld County tested positive for the mosquito-borne
virus, said Jane Norton, executive director of the state Department of Public
Health and Environment.
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