Mosquito Control wants to spend $1.2 million for a new poison spray plane

Wow! just catching up on this thread. I'm all for personal choice and exploring other solutions. We are intelligent, creative problem solvers that should continue to question our surroundings. I choose to purchase local and or organic food when it's available. I have also chosen to grow my own vegetables and am not particularly fond of the mosquito spraying. I certainly understand everyone's need to be comfortable while enjoying the great outdoors, though I'm of the opinion that just because something doesn't kill us or our fellow creatures in the short term, doesn't mean it can't have lasting, evolved implications.

So, I just wanted to point out (if it hasn't been mentioned already) that Susanne at For the Health of it, has done extensive research on this topic, as well as, she's approached Mosquito Control with alternatives. Unfortunately, I believe she's never had any backup support. From the looks of this thread, it sounds like that support may be growing.

Happy Mother's Day, and to Mother Earth as well. (a fitting acknowledgment on this thread.)

A Mom from Freeport said the squirrels in her back yard drag their hugely-swollen testicles on the ground behind them. She called them "tumorous". By the way, she also mentioned her son was sprayed in their back yard at the close of '06 spraying season. He was diagnosed with a tumor on his thyroid. He was in the peak of health prior to that time. She's convinced the incident was the cause.

A Mom from the Seaside/Seagrove area lost her six year old son to pesticides. Ask her how she feels about them.

A couple in Santa Rosa Beach area alarmed at their wetlands property. The frog and insect populations (bees, dragon flies, butterflies) are dwindling to nothing. Ask them why they think this has happened.

The stories go on and on. Stillbirths, low birth weight, cancers, new allergies in adults never having had a problem before, tremors, etc......... but, these things have no cause, right? Just mysteries of life? Or, maybe a gene we haven't discovered yet?"

To spray or not to spray, this is not the question. The question is :

"Doesn't this community care enough about the health and safety of living things-- insects, animals and other wildlife, children and adults, to do what other cities, counties and states have done--as a unified community, investigate and adopt healthier (safer) ways to solve their pest problems?"

____________________________________________________________
Neighbor #1: "Listen, Rover has fleas. I decided to gas him. Then, I figured, I'll just gas all the dogs in the area. But fleas are a big problem, so I decided I'll just gas the whole community with chemicals to control the fleas." :cool:

Neighbor #2: "I've seen my dogs scratch. You might as well spray the whole community. Fleas are disease carriers and they are bothersome!" 😱

Neighbor #3: "Wait, I don't own a dog. I don't want to be sprayed. How about instead of gassing the dogs or spraying the whole area, investigating the safest, most effective way to get rid of fleas? I've reasearched how harmful that gas is. Let's talk." :nono1:

Neighbor #1 and 2: "Oh, for heaven's sake. You're nuts!" :funn: :floor:
__________________________________________________________

Happy Mother's Day?

Case closed, cause and effect established. Thanks Mama Nature!:wave:

I have two things to post in regards to the aerial spraying. I have read over the fact sheet on Naled quickly and will pull an MSDS on it.

James Clauson responded to my inquiry. Here is his info:
James Clauson
Environmental Administrator
Bureau of Entomology and Pest Control
[SIZE=+0]DACS, State of Florida[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0]1203 Governors Square Blvd., Suite 300[/SIZE]
850-922-7011 ext.103
Fax 850-413-7044
[SIZE=+0]Tallahassee, Florida, 32301-2994[/SIZE]


Here is the bulk of the letter that Mr. Clausen wrote to me:

Having spent much of my life growing up and working in Santa Rosa Beach and South Walton County, I have seen the problem with the biting dog flies first hand. The flies originate in the many inland animal feedlots of North Florida, Southern Alabama and South Georgia and are carried by north winds to the beaches of the Panhandle. When I was growing up, you could not go to the beaches along South Walton County after the first cold front moved through due to the thousands of flies that amass in the local beach communities. This proved to be quite a disappointment to me and my friends who enjoyed going to the beaches during this time of year and I can recall the impact fly season had on the local economy.
The personnel in the Operational Support Section that provide this valuable service of aerial spraying along the beaches of the panhandle are very well trained in the application of the pesticide Naled. Naled is the chemical of choice because of its low application rate, 0.66 ounce/acre, its effectiveness in reducing the number of target species and its rapid degradation in the environment. Because of these characteristics, the EPA has recently re-registered Naled for use in treating these and other pests.
Efforts taken to control the flies are quite extensive and are in accordance with strict statutory requirements. First, the flies are sprayed only when they congregate on the beach. The local mosquito control districts work with Operational Support staff to verify the need for spraying by taking landing rate counts and only when sufficient number of flies are present (minimum of 5 per minute), the plane is dispatched. Additional care is taken to insure spray equipment is calibrated and the meteorological conditions are conducive to the application of the pesticide. The attached fact sheet offers additional information on Naled which you may find useful.
Please understand that this aerial spraying is being accomplished for the benefit of all of the residents, as well as the many visitors that frequent South Walton and the rest of the Florida Panhandle. It is important to reiterate that spray operations are conducted only when necessary, and in compliance with label directions to protect the residents and visitors to South Walton and Grayton Beach.
If I can be of any further assistance with your concerns, please do not hesitate to call me at 850-922-7011, or e-mail me at clausoj@doacs.state.fl.us. I?ve included a link to the latest information from the EPA on the chemical Naled.

Here's the msds of Naled/Dibrom & the safety labels.

OrganicMama: Thanks for the posting!

Re-read the Adobe pdf on the Dibrom Naled. Under hazards, it mentions acute cholinesterase depression......

Without the cholinesterase, our nerve impulses have no "shut off". In other words, the transmission is continual. Here's some info on Cholinesterase:

http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/facts-slides-self/facts/gen-posaf-chol.html
CHOLINESTERASE
Introduction
The transmission of nerve impulses across synapses and the junctions between nerve and an effector organ (gland, muscle, nerve) is accomplished by the release of a chemical agent, acetylcholine. If actions within the central nervous system and at peripheral nerve terminations are to be kept localized and capable of repetition, acetylcholine must be destroyed or inactivated at or near the site of its release, and with great speed. The destruction of acetylcholine at such sites is accomplished by an enzyme, acetylcholinesterase. Present at the neurosynaptic junctions, acetylcholinesterase breaks acetylcholine into acetyl and choline fragments. Acetylcholinesterase functions to increase the precision of nerve firing, enabling some nerve cells to fire as rapidly as 1,000 times per second without overlap of the of the neural impulses

Cholinesterase InhibitorsThe poisonous effects of organophosphorous and carbamate pesticides come about through the inhibition of cholinesterase, an enzyme produced in the liver. One form, acetylcholinesterase, can be found at the neurosynaptic junctions while another, butyryl cholinesterase, is primarily located in the plasma and pancreas, although small quantities of it exist in all tissues including our blood.

Organophosphate Insecticides
Organophosphorus compounds differ from one another in many important respects, although chemically, all can be considered to be derivatives of phosphoric or thiophosphoric acids. They differ widely in inherent toxicity and in their ability to penetrate the skin. However, mevinphos (Phosdrin) is extremely dangerous by both oral and dermal routes.

Some organophosphates act directly while others require activation by enzymes within the body. Some are destroyed and eliminated more rapidly than others. Also, they differ with respect to the manner of their reaction with the cholinesterase enzyme.

Organophosphate pesticides inhibit cholinesterase by forming covalent chemical bonds through a process called phosphorylation. Spontaneous enzymatic regeneration half-lifes may take days to months long. As with carbamates, the nature of the organophosphate involved, the dose received and the duration of exposure all affect the period for regeneration to occur. Because of the prolonged regeneration half-lives, (the time required for half of the cholinesterase to reactivate), organophosphate intoxication is usually considered more serious although some exposures to carbamates lead more rapidly to symptomatology and can be just as lethal. Organophosphates affect both red blood cells (RBC) and plasma cholinesterase activity whereas carbamates normally affect only the plasma fraction (Davies and Freed, 1981).

Carbamate Insecticides
Carbamate insecticides inhibit cholinesterase activity in reversible fashion and normally affect only the plasma fraction. Because they interact with cholinesterase by weak, ionic chemical bonding, the cholinesterase usually regenerates itself spontaneously. The half-life of this spontaneous regeneration is on the order of minutes to hours and is dependent on the nature of the specific carbamate involved, the dosage received and the length of exposure (Davies and Freed, 1981).

Like the organophosphorous pesticides, members of the carbamate group vary widely in inherent toxicity and other toxicological properties. Carbaryl (Sevin), for instance, is not highly toxic by the oral route and is not readily absorbed through the skin. Aldicarb (Temik), on the other hand, is extremely toxic by both oral and dermal routes.

Signs and Symptoms
The signs and symptoms are similar for carbamates and organophosphate poisonings. These pesticides combine with cholinesterase at nerve endings in the brain and in the tissues of the body, thereby permitting the accumulation of acetylcholine. The occurrence of symptoms is primarily dependent upon the rate of cholinesterase decline. Most differences are due to the fact that cholinesterase reactivation is much more rapid after carbamate exposure than it is after organophosphate exposure. After carbamate exposure, choli- nesterase recovery may take from several hours to several weeks, depending on the degree of exposure. Also, the dose necessary to produce incapacita- ting symptoms is generally far from the lethal dose for carbamates, while the two doses are often quite close for organophosphates. Symptoms include the following:

Muscarine Effects

nausea blurring of vision
vomiting pain in chest
involuntary defecation and urination salivation
diarrhea lacrimation
sweating excessive bronical secretions

Nicotinic Effects

weakness
fasciculations
flaccid paralysis
muscle twitching

Respiratory failure can also occur as a blockage of small bronchi may result.

No one can tell when symptoms first appear whether the poisoning will be mild or severe. In many instances involving skin contamination, symptoms progress from mild to severe due to continued absorption, even though an attempt has been made to wash the material away. Such progression can be rapid. At the first signs of poisoning, the victim should be transported to the nearest medical facility. For organophosphate poisoning, atropine and pralidoxime (2-PAM, Protopam) chloride may be administered by the physician. Atropine should be given intravenously, but if this is not possible, the intramuscular route will suffice. Pralidoxime provides an important adjunct to atropine when it is administered within 36 hours of the organophosphate poisoning contact. Atropine is the only antidote necessary for the management of cholinesterase depression resulting from carbamate exposure (Davies and Freed, 1981).

Cholinesterase surveillance
Workers occupationally exposed to organophosphate pesticides should be offered an initial pre-employment cholinesterase determination (base-line value) followed by subsequent cholinesterase testing on a regular basis (usually monthly). The laboratory method should be one that provides both red blood cell and plasma values. Red blood cell values are more infor- mative of exposure than are plasma and workers should be withdrawn from exposure when exhibiting greater than 50% inhibition (Davies and Freed, 1981).
_____________________________

http://www.medicaldictionaryweb.com/Naled-definition/:

An organophosphate cholinesterase inhibitor that is used as an insecticide and as an acaricide.
______________________________

There are many articles on the web concerning Organophosphate Pesticides and Parkinson's:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-09-17-parkinsons_x.htm

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=00096234-F220-1C67-B882809EC588ED9F

http://www.mercola.com/blog/2006/jun/16/pesticides_elevate_parkinsons_risks_in_males

http://www.beyondpesticides.org/news/daily_news_archive/2005/05_31_05.htm:
Study Links Pesticides to Parkinson?s Disease
(Beyond Pesticides, May 31, 2005) New study results from the University of Aberdeen, England Geoparkinson Project, reported in New Scientist Magazine (May 26, 2005 issue 2501), link pesticide exposure to an increased risk of developing Parkinson?s disease. The study followed the behaviors of nearly 3000 European volunteers with and without Parkinson?s disease from Scotland, Italy, Sweden, Romania and Malta from 2000 to 2005. The project, funded by the European Union, aimed to study the genetic, environmental and occupational risk factors for Parkinson's disease. The research project finds that overall the volunteers with Parkinson?s had more exposures to pesticides throughout their lives compared to volunteers without Parkinson?s. Low level pesticide users were 9% more likely to have Parkinson?s, whereas high level users, like farmers, were 43% more likely. People with Parkinson?s in their family face a 350 percent increase in risk.

Parkinson?s disease causes nerve cells to stop producing the correct levels of the neurological chemicals, dopamine and acetylcholine. The imbalance of these chemicals leads to problems in motor function, which results in tremors, tics, stiffness in muscles and joints, and/or difficulty moving. Other symptoms include depression, anxiety, dementia, constipation, urinary difficulties, and problems sleeping. Drug therapy exists to help patients cope, but currently there is no cure for this degenerative disease. This study concludes that genetics and having been knocked unconscious contribute to an increased risk of getting Parkinson?s disease. Mounting scientific evidence from this and other studies also suggests that environmental factors, specifically pesticide exposure, is a significant risk factor that contributes to this disease.

This study could not determine what specific pesticides were linked to Parkinsons?s since participants were not able to identify what they had used. However, other studies show that the pesticides permethrin , maneb, rotenone, and paraquat increase risk of developing Parkinson?s. Read more about the evidence for pesticide?s link to Parkinson?s in Beyond Pesticides Daily News archives.


For additional links: google - Pesticides and Parkinson's :yikes:

We can have facts without thinking but we cannot have thinking without facts. John Dewey
US educator, philosopher, & psychologist (1859 - 1952)

Mother Nature, thanks for the wealth of info, as usual. 😀