Hartford Courant 4/7/02 Back

Point (Op-Ed Piece)

In the midst of the collective state-budget whining from every social service group, every public employee labor union, every municipality and every other special interest with a reserved parking spot at the State Capitol, there comes a plaintive revelation from the public health boys that the state's monitoring and fussing and,

LAURENCE D. COHEN

in theory, exterminating of mosquitoes has been budgeted at about zero. The bloodsucking hordes are at the gates -- and we are defenseless.

At one level, this might be the cause for at least 30 seconds of outrage toward a state government that has tens of millions of dollars to spend on nonsense, but can't find a few hundred thousand bucks for a legitimate public health function: protection against the potentially fatal West Nile virus, carried by the mosquitoes with which we have signed a unilateral disarmament pact.

On the other hand, to say that we are underfunding the war against mosquitoes is like saying that Connecticut is underfunding the prison staff in charge of carrying out the death penalty.

We have amoral, sinister folks on death row, but we stubbornly, proudly, aggressively refuse to ever kill any of them. We have large population concentrations of mosquitoes throughout Connecticut; we have the carcasses of dead animals felled by the West Nile virus; we have human illness and the occasional death from the virus. But Connecticut won't spray them, won't kill them.

When the mosquitoes are at their peak, when the infected birds are falling dead from the sky, when human cases begin to, be reported, the public health folks in Connecticut advise us to wear long-sleeve shirts and stay indoors. Connecticut's Agricultural Experiment Station, filled with smart scientists, is very good at counting the mosquitoes, at monitoring the mosquitoes, at having seminars about the mosquitoes. But when it comes time to actually kill the mosquitoes, they are intimidated by the scare-mongering environmentalists who are willing to sacrifice a few humans for the sake of a makebelieve threat from the new generation of relatively safe bug sprays.

The bug police probably would get a more sympathetic reception to requests for money to count and trap and monitor mosquitoes if they would actually kill some ofthem. As it is, they are somewhat akin to medical researchers who ask for a big budget to diagnose a disease that they are not inclined to cure.

In the United States last year, the preliminary numbers showed 37 human cases of West Nile virus, including five in Connecticut. Almost 6,000 birds were infected with the virus, 159 horses and 736 mosquito pools in 15 states. There were only a handful of human deaths from the virus last year, but that is as much the luck of the draw as anything else. The West Nile virus is spreading tar beyond its northeastern roots. The presence in mosquito, bird and livestock populations is growing. At least in Connecticut, the response is to yell at us for taking walks outside at dusk or dawn, when the mosquitoes are hungry.

Almost every public utterance from the Connecticut government folks in charge of mosquito "control" sounds weirder than the one before. It was almost exactly one year ago, in the early days of spring, when Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Art Rocque announced that his guys would be spending more on mosquito "surveillance," but less on mosquito spraying. In other words, we're going to work much harder counting them, buthave nofear, we won't do very much about it when we find them.

Before the scientists get one more dime to count and fondle mosquitoes, they owe the citizens ofthe state two cogent, coherent pieces of information: First, a statement in public that they are only willing to make in private - that the "risk" to humans from mosquito spraying is infinitesimal. And second, an unambiguous plan that explains in some detail exactly how many birds, horses and humans will have to be infected or die from the West Nile virus before we will actually kill the mosquitoes.

Counterpoint (Letters to the Editor)

Hartford Courant 4/12/02

Laurence D. Cohen's April 7 Other Opinion column "Give Pesticides A Chance" is disturbing.

Mr. Cohen ignores that the risk of spraying pesticides to kill mosquitoes is greater than the risk of illnesses caused by those insects.

LAWRENCE A. PLUMLEE, M.D. Bethesda, Md.

Contrary to Mr. Cohen's statements, pesticides are not "relatively safe bug sprays," nor are we "scare-mongering environmentalists."

Every human life is indeed valuable. Although West Nile virus can be fatal in rare circumstances, less than one percent of those infected with the virus develop severe illness.

In the summer of 2000, ninety reputable medical practitioners from Fairfield County signed a petition stating that the risks of the pesticides were greater than the risk of the West Nile virus.

I think Mr. Cohen is a scare-mongering journalist who is fomenting fear about a mosquito-borne disease that can better and more safely be fought with self-protection and common-sense measures.

Spraying is inefficient, counterproductive and not proved effective. Many scientists recognize that spraying via truck or air does not appear to be an effective or safe way to prevent death or illness associated with the virus.

Spraying is ineffective because of the biology and very short life cycle of the mosquito population. By destroying their natural predators, spraying may actually increase the number of mosquitoes. Mosquitoes that survive the spraying may become resistant, longer-lived, more aggressive and may have an increased prevalence of the virus within their bodies.

RIVKA LIEBER Stamford

We are not defenseless against these "bloodsucking hordes." For most people, a healthy immune system is an adequate defense. The vast majority of people in Queens, N.Y., who were bitten by infected mosquitoes not only lived, but have now acquired immunity to West Nile Virus.

STACY K. PRINCE Westport

Thanks to Bill Powers for sending me these.

Posted by Anthony Benoit abenoit@trcc.commnet.edu
Environmental Engineering Technology at Three Rivers