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-Caveat Lector-
Top 10 Lies About West Nile Virus (written in 2000)
By Robert Lederman
1. THE ONLY SIDE-EFFECTS OF PESTICIDE EXPOSURE ARE COUGHING, STUFFY NOSE,
ITCHING AND WATERY EYES
Exactly like an allergic reaction to pollen, these responses to the toxic
ingredients of Anvil, Malathion etc. are an attempt by a person's immune
system to flush the substances from the body. Mucus nasal secretions, tears
and coughing to expel the irritant from the lungs are not the harmful
effects of exposure but are simply proof that the body recognizes Anvil as
something it wants to get rid of immediately.
The symptoms of a disease are not the effects of a disease. If you have
emphysema from cigarette smoking, you may feel tired and have difficulty
breathing. In response, you might use an inhaler and temporarily breath
better, but that would hardly mean you had recovered from the disease or
from permanent damage to your lung tissue.
The suspected, and in many cases already proven, long-term effects of
exposure to pyrethroid pesticides such as Anvil include immune-system and
liver damage, endocrine disruption, possible proliferation of breast-cancer
cells, possible lowered sperm counts and cognitive difficulties. The latest
science concerning this finds that at minimal exposures, serious health
effects and endocrine disruption have been observed. The real damage from
exposure to these chemicals won't be manifested until long after the
itching, runny nose or coughing have stopped. By then, few people will
remember or be able to prove the connection between exposure and their
illness.
2. WEST NILE VIRUS (WNV) IS A DEADLY DISEASE
The media keep referring to WNV as a deadly disease transmitted by killer
mosquitoes. Yet, they qualify these claims by saying that WNV is very hard
to become infected by and that most people who do get infected recover
without any treatment and without experiencing any symptoms. So which is
it - a deadly infectious disease, or very mild and hard to become infected
by? It can't be both.
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the largest-known WNV
epidemic in history occurred in Romania in 1996. Approximately 100,000
people allegedly became infected. About 400 of those people became ill with
symptoms of encephalitis. Only 15 of those people, all of whom were older
than 65, died. Considering the level of health care in that country and the
poor nutritional status and immune health of its senior citizens, these
statistics indicate that the virus is less dangerous than the common cold.
[See: www.naba.org/wnvirus.html]. In New York City, according to the
Department of Health's own study, of the four NYC residents alleged to have
died in 1999 from WNV, three were taking immunosuppresant cancer drugs and
the fourth was HIV-positive. This indicates that only people with severely
compromised immune systems die from WNV and that even in those cases, death
is rare. If you read the most recent accounts of people who are allegedly
infected or who died from WNV in 2002 all were recovering from surgery, or
were previously quite ill or had otherwise very weak immune systems. What is
the most common side-effect of pesticide exposure? A weakened immune system.
[See: New York City Department of Health, West Nile Virus: A Briefing, City
Health Information Vol. 19, No. 1 (May 2000) at
http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/doh/html/chi/chi.html]
3. SEVEN PEOPLE DIED LAST YEAR (written in 2000) FROM WNV
Every Giuliani press release and every news report prominently mentions that
seven people died in the general NYC area last year from WNV. Like the
Mayor's crime statistics or the Federal government's claims that the economy
has never been better, these statements are unverifiable. No name, blood
sample or tissue sample of any person who allegedly died from WNV has been
made available to independent scientists for confirmation and testing.
Every claim of an infected bird, mosquito or human is based on reports by
the NYC Department of Health or scientists that work for the CDC or receive
funding from them. These are also the same exact source of the spray policy,
creating a perfect loop of "proof" justifying their own decision to spray.
In science, an outside independent source verifying the conclusions and
reproducing experimental results is always necessary before any statement
can be taken as a fact. The same is generally true in law, in journalism and
in business.
4. THE PESTICIDE BEING USED, ANVIL, IS NATURAL
Anvil is a synthetic imitation of a naturally occurring substance found in
chrysanthemums. The natural version is far more expensive and is not being
used. This information is plainly stated in the mayor's press releases, yet
he stands up at press conferences directly contradicting it - a good
indication of his truthfulness on the entire WNV issue.
The other ingredients in Anvil are synthetic derivatives of petroleum-based
chemicals. These other ingredients are polyethylbenzene, piperonyl butoxide
and hydrotreated light paraffinic petroleum distillate. Piperonyl butoxide
is listed as a suspected carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency. The other ingredients are considered to be potential toxicants by
the EPA. They are about as far from natural as you can get.
5. ANVIL IS SAFE AND NON-TOXIC
It is illegal in New York state to describe any pesticide as safe. If you
examine the actual texts of the mayor's safety claims within his press
releases, you will find that each one is qualified by terms like "relatively
safe", "less toxic than" and "safe when used according to directions". The
EPA studies on which pesticide safety claims are based are done by the
pesticide manufacturers themselves, who have an obvious conflict of interest
in this regard.
The term "safe" as used in these studies is very misleading, as a reading of
the studies themselves makes clear. A determination of safe is reached by
feeding rats the chemical or exposing them to its vapors. When only 50% of
the rats die, the substance is classified as safe. Every study that
concludes that products like Anvil are safe includes reports of tumors in
rats, developmental problems in young rats, miscarriages and deformities to
name just a few health effects. As long as less than 50% of the rats get
these symptoms, the product is considered safe. Since human testing of this
kind is illegal, there is no way to tell, short of massively spraying a
population as is being done in New York, what the effects will be on humans.
[See: Cover Story, Kids At Risk 6/19/2000 US News and World Report at
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/000619/poison.htm. See also
http://www.nih.gov/].
6. ANVIL DISSIPATES BY THE NEXT MORNING
Mayor Giuliani claims, and the media dutifully repeats, that these
pesticides dissipate within two to four hours of being
sprayed. These claims are deliberately deceptive. As chemical compounds are
exposed to air and sunlight, they undergo numerous changes. Malathion, for
example, become maloxon a different substance that is more than 20 times as
toxic. It is true to say the malathion is gone - but what remains in its
place is far worse.
The claim of dissipation is based on ideal conditions - Anvil on a glass
slide in direct sunlight-that have little if anything to do with the actual
conditions in NYC. Much of the spraying was done on damp, even rainy days,
in direct violation of the manufacturer's instructions. Much of the chemical
is deposited in shady areas, on leaves, in cracks and crevices, in
air-conditioning filters, in heating vents and in countless other places
where there is no direct sunlight. Much of it is tracked or drifts into
people's homes, where it can persist for weeks, months or years waiting to
be inhaled, eaten or absorbed through the skin.
The idea that people can enter a public park, jog, picnic and lay on grass
that was massively sprayed just two hours before without receiving direct
exposure is absurd. Children playing in that grass and then putting their
hands in their mouths might just as well have been lined up and given a
sample of Anvil.
7. ANVIL KILLS MOST OF THE MOSQUITOES
The most ironic aspect of the spray policy is that, contrary to Mayor
Giuliani's claims, it does not kill most of the mosquitoes. If it did, the
Earth, which has endured billions of tons of pesticide exposure, would
already be mosquito-free. The opposite is true. Pesticide spraying,
according to the N.Y. State Department of Health and even the pesticide
manufacturers, directly results in new generations of pesticide-resistant
mosquitoes.
For those like Mayor Giuliani who missed the past 100 years of science, this
process is called natural selection. In insects, natural selection can occur
in a period of days, weeks or months because each generation only lives a
short time. Reproduction by even one pesticide-resistant mosquito can result
in hundreds of resistant offspring who then mate and create an entire
population with that same genetic quality.
Studies done in Florida, where there is a much more severe mosquito problem,
found a 1,500% increase in mosquitoes after spraying, virtually all of whom
were now pesticide-resistant. Even worse, many mosquito experts believe the
immune suppression pesticides cause in all living things makes mosquitoes,
birds and humans far more vulnerable to encephalitis infections. Apparently,
only mosquitoes exposed to pesticides can get and transmit the infection due
to damage to their stomach lining
Driving spray trucks past the fronts of rows of apartment houses to kill
mosquitoes breeding in the backyards is about as effective as shooting a gun
in the opposite direction of a target and hoping it will circumvent the
entire earth to strike the target from behind. It is however, an excellent
technique to guarantee an increase in mosquitoes, dead birds and
encephalitis infections, thereby justifying more and more spraying. [See
http://www.chem-tox.com/brevard/index.htm].
8. WE ARE SAVING LIVES BY SPRAYING - IF WE DIDN'T, MANY MORE PEOPLE WOULD
GET SICK
The CDC's own studies found that NYC's 1999 so-called WNV epidemic had
peaked and was declining more than a month before spraying began. [See
/www.cdc.gov/epo/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4841a3.htm]. An independent study
also found that incidences of dead birds were already declining when
spraying began in the summer of 1999. [See http://www.nixot.homepage.com].
9. THE SPRAYING IS BEING DONE BY QUALIFIED PROFESSIONALS
While the Clarke Mosquito Control Co. itself may have some qualified
pesticide applicators, an unknown amount of the spraying in NYC is being
done by temporary workers solicited through an ad in the New York Post.
These untrained and unqualified workers are being paid $10 an hour to damage
their own and everyone else's health.
In direct violation of OSHA rules and the warnings on the product labels,
none of the applicators are wearing protective clothing, respirators or
gloves. Because of the heat, most drive the trucks with the windows wide
open. The police escorts ordered to precede and follow the spray trucks are
likewise unprotected and deliberately uninformed about the risks. This is
not an oversight or an accident. If the applicators and the police escorts
were wearing the type of protective gear required by law, no one would
believe the Mayor's claims that the spray is safe.
10. THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO OPPOSE THE SPRAYING ARE ENVIRONMENTALISTS WHO CARE
MORE ABOUT BIRDS THAN PEOPLE AND ACTIVISTS WHO OPPOSE ANYTHING GIULIANI DOES
While the loudest voices in opposition to the spraying may include many
activists and environmentalists, there are thousands of medical
professionals in the NYC area that oppose the spraying. As an example, the
group Connecticut S.A.F.E. as collected a petition signed by 100 doctors and
scientists in the Stanford, Conn., area opposed to the spraying. The media
simply refuses to interview any of these people, preferring to use sound
bites from uninformed residents or Giuliani supporters who believe anything
the mayor says no matter how absurd.
Many scientists and health professionals are understandably fearful of
losing their jobs, grants from chemical/pharmaceutical companies and their
professional reputation if they speak out too loudly. Most medical
professionals work for institutions that are dependent on receiving money
from the government, from private institutions like Rockefeller University,
from the Centers for Disease Control and from corporations that are actually
behind the spray policy and the entire West Nile Virus panic. For them,
publicly opposing this policy could destroy their careers.
Robert Lederman is president of A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists' Response To Illegal
State Tactics) and on the board of directors of the No Spray Coalition. He
can be contacted at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
No Spray Coalition
Hotline (718) 670-7110 . www.nospray.org
P.O. Box 334, Peck Slip Station, New York, NY 10272
>From ABC News:
Useless Spraying?
West Nile Deterrent May Not Be Best Solution
By Erin Hayes
Aug. 8 - If you live in one of the 34 states where West Nile virus has been
discovered, should you draw comfort from the clouds of pesticides being
sprayed into the air to kill off mosquitoes?
Maybe not.
"The chemicals have not been adequately tested for their human health
effects," cautioned Dr. Sheldon Krimsky, a pesticide-risk expert at Tufts
University. "There is a lot of circumstantial evidence that they cause
cancer
in animal studies, that they are hormone disruptors. Remember, these are
neurotoxins," Krimsy said, adding that most studies done on the effects of
spraying focused on agricultural spraying - not spraying in populated areas.
"We simply don't know what effects it's going to have, the indiscriminate
spraying on human populations," he added.
So far this year, officials have reported 112 human cases of West Nile, more
than half in the past week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC). Most of these infections are in Louisiana. Mississippi and
Illinois also have reported human infections of the virus, which began
showing
up in the United States in New York three years ago.
Residents Protest Dangerous Pesticides
In Hays County, Texas, residents effectively stopped spraying in many of
their
neighborhoods. They protested, carrying posters decrying the "chemical
warfare" on their families. County commissioners agreed to severely limit
mosquito spraying near those homes.
In Jefferson County, Ala., health officials are trying to decide what to do.
Many cities, including Birmingham, have been spraying for weeks. County
officials, though, haven't started their own spraying efforts because they
aren't convinced spraying is all that effective against mosquitoes.
But after a case of West Nile infection was recently discovered in Alabama,
some residents began demanding that the county spray.
Brian Debrow, the environmental health program manager at the Jefferson
County
Health Department, says the county may start spraying in order to ease
anxiety. "The public likes seeing the trucks going down the road and
spraying
for mosquitoes," he said. "It gives them a sense of security they feel like
something is being done."
CDC: Least Effective Deterrent
Scientists at the CDC, which is leading the surveillance effort on West Nile
virus, do not take a position on whether local health departments should
spray
for mosquitoes. But they do point out that spraying is the least effective
method of slowing the spread of the insects.
Since adult mosquitoes only live for about two weeks at the most - whether
they're sprayed or not - the most effective way to limit mosquitoes is to
keep
them from breeding. And that means emptying out pools of water where they
lay
their eggs.
"These would include things like old tires, cans, flower pots and so forth,
just do an inspection and see what's out there that might serve as a
breeding
ground for the mosquitoes," points out Dr. Julie Gerberding, the director of
the CDC.
And that's exactly what Washington, D.C. health officials are doing. They've
decided that spraying pesticides into the air is too risky, especially since
the incidence of asthma in the city is already high.
Instead, they are targeting small amounts of pesticides directly into pools
of
standing water and ditches where mosquitoes are breeding. And they're going
door-to-door with pamphlets that explain to residents how best to avoid
mosquitoes altogether.
Even so, in the states where West Nile virus has been discovered, there is
pressure on health officials to appear to be fighting the virus on every
front
and many feel the most convincing approach is the most visible one -
spraying
chemicals out where everyone can see.
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