GUEST EDITORIAL: Residents Should Be Told The Truth
When I first saw the acronym S.I.T. used for mosquito control I thought that had potential. Sterilizing males and females certainly works with cats and dogs although I must say the idea of having ‘spay day’ at mosquito control was hard to fathom.
Then I read that they haven’t yet figured out how to sterilize a mosquito by irradiation without killing it so they moved on to ‘messing with genetics.’
The purpose of sterilizing the Aedes aegypti mosquito is the prevention of Dengue, the mosquito driven virus that reared its ugly head after being absent in the Keys for 75 years. From 2009 to 2011 mosquito control went to war with the Aedes aegypti through door to door public outreach, increasing the number of inspectors and field employees, actively searching out breeding ground, using liquid larvicide to kill them before adulthood and educating the public about how not to breed mosquitos in their own back yard.
These aggressive tactics were so successful there has not been a case of Dengue since.
So why are we talking about the business of releasing genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes to combat Dengue? The potential threat still exists, even if it doesn’t come for another 75 years, but if the district was effective with the tools they used why are they moving into the land of speculative science, with us as the guinea pigs while we have no dengue fever?
The Weather Channel recently ran a program on GMO’s and farming. Over 60 countries have banned genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and in typical fashion, instead of following suit, the U.S. corporations hire teams of expert lawyers and lobbyists so that they don’t have to change ‘business as usual.’ These large corporations fought environmental and health controls in car and boat engines, leaded gasoline and cigarettes, fighting tooth and nail to resist any regulations.
A main issue in my campaign as candidate for the mosquito control board is that we are never told the negative effects of what they are spraying on us. How many times have you seen in the paper that they are going to spray and that it will kill your butterflies, dragonflies, bees, other pollinators and other beneficial insects? Did they mention that the toxin in these pesticides is suspected of being carcinogenic and the aerial spray Naled is banned in California for being so? Have they mentioned that aerial spraying is only to be used as the very last resort and is the least effective method of mosquito control according to the Center for Disease Control? Did they inform you that mosquito spray should not be getting into any body of water since it is poison to fish, crustaceans and other marine organisms?
How many times have you heard this? Never.
Not only should they be giving us at least a 2 day warning that they will be spraying, they need to be advising us to keep our children and pets inside, to have our windows secure, and get pregnant women and those with compromised health into a safe environment.
The pesticides used in the control of mosquitos are not benign and it is for that reason the EPA is putting stricter limits on their use. These pesticides have the ability to be more harmful to us than the threat of disease from a mosquito bite.
The mosquito control district is not the end-user of pesticides any more than that clerk at circle K that sells you that pack of cigarettes with a warning stamped on it or the pharmacist that makes you sign off when they are selling you drugs. We are the end user. And it is the job of mosquito control, as the middle person to pass that warning on to us about potential side effects.
We are not getting this information and we have the right to be told the truth. Will the information about GM mosquitoes be any more forthcoming?
Unfortunately our mosquito control is now going to allow the GM producer Oxitec to begin operations at mosquito control headquarters in Marathon before it is even approved by the FDA. And at what ultimate cost to taxpayers?
University of Florida Medical Entomologist and distinguished Professor Phil Lounibos said that the Oxitec operation that released 3.3 million GM mosquitos in the Cayman Islands was done “clandestinely”. According to the same article in Al Jazeera the “experiment was criticized by organizations worldwide for being conducted without public consultation and independent oversight.” And despite the uproar from environmental groups the British Corporation Oxitec continues to expand its operations.
GM mosquitos are being released in Brazil where they have millions of people affected by Dengue. “What works in Brazil won’t be the same in Florida,” according to University of California Professor Anthony James an advisor to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The question is raised again, why are they releasing them in the Keys?
This is not a good use of science and one of the problems I have with it is the touting of this experimental technology as a way to eliminate employees. It was the expertise and hard work of the employees that got rid of Dengue last time. Releasing GM mosquitoes will not only eliminate good jobs and good workers in the Keys, both of which are hard to come by, it will just shift payroll dollars to a private corporation, one that is clearly already in bed with the district and taking up residence.
I have not heard any of my “candidate colleagues” question the idea of GM mosquitoes. In fact you would think one of them was a company representative for Oxitec. Yet according to the Mosquito Control website the, “best way to eliminate this (Dengue) mosquito is to dump the water around your house and eliminate places for water to collect after a rain event.” Since “source reduction” is the most effective and safest method of eliminating the “Dengue” mosquito, again, why are we getting involved with releasing those that are genetically modified?
According to Michael Doyle, Director of our Mosquito Control District, “Residents are not doing enough on their own to protect against mosquito proliferation.”
I have not seen one presentation, flyer, advertisement or any form of education directed at the general public regarding “source reduction.” Have you? Meanwhile my friends and I go around our neighborhoods dumping kayaks, containers and buckets with standing water. Residents, many of whom come and go in the Florida Keys are not being warned that the disease carrying mosquitos like to breed in small pools of rain water around their house. And realtors and bankers need to be alerted to the possibility that the empty pool of the foreclosed or vacant home they manage might be breeding by the thousands. Where is the outreach?
And why are we moving so rapidly into this expensive and potentially dangerous technology with no long term studies? Why are we using a technology that needs our friends, neighbors and family as Residentsguinea pigs and threatens the natural balance of nature when we already know how to and have the tools to thwart the threat of Dengue?
We need to get back to basics and focus on safe and alternative methods of mosquito control. We need to start talking to residents again instead of focusing on toxic pesticides, drones, GM mosquitoes and questionable and costly technology in the management of mosquitoes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
REMINDER: Key West The Newspaper welcomes Guest Editorials and submissions from all local government officials and political candidates as well as all Florida Keys residents. Please email your submission to: [email protected]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
